On 09/05/2016 06:53 PM, Stephen D. Williams wrote:
Have you been to Burning Man? Do you understand it?
Yup. It was dead after the 3rd or 4th year like most events that occur annually. Mavericks surf contest did quite well for itself until it became a nationally known event. Now it's trash. The Rainbow Gathering was probably the longest standing before it became decrepit. It still happens every year. There's NO ADMISSION FEE, and it is truly Anarchic. I know mostly the younger set that attends Burning Man. Mostly affluent college students... They leave their anarchy and 'gifting' onsite. It DOES NOT become part of their day to day ethic at all.
On 9/5/16 6:27 PM, Razer wrote:
"Response to raid on White Ocean zone split with some describing it as an attempt to reclaim event from the ‘parasite class’"
The "hooligans" are lucky that the purveyors of the camp did employ an anarchistic response.
Why? was the other option for the techie hipsters to call in their GEO security teams with attack dogs? I wouldn't put it past them.
Parasite Class... A good description Marx would smile at of someone making 60K a year to write apis or network engineer the lip syncing of executive conference calls.
How is a developer or other engineer part of the 'parasite class'?
Not all. I named a couple of occupations that serve no useful purpose to humanity though. The Riseup birds aren't in that category, nor, in the larger sense than torproject, is ioerror and folks like him (Stewart Brand, not technically a coder but...). Not many left now, and the end result? Not much innovation. Just polishing apples that have been on the shelf for years. flashier graphics, miniaturization, speed, but that's kind of it. It all came to a screeching halt after streaming video blew the marketing end of the internet wide open in a latter day "Gold Rush" for marketers. It was inevitable. Just like TV went from information tool to an entertainment medium, so went the intertubz for 99% of it's users today. People interested in money create money no matter what industry they're in and the product is just the vehicle to do that. Money is a lousy sole driving force for development and innovation. If those guys were making the same wage as a bagboy at a grocery store do you suppose they'd be coding? Coders used to make supermarket worker wages, never complained, worked themselves to literal exhaustion and burned their eyes out on Green-Black/Yellow-Black dot matrix monitors, and they loved it. Because it was about the code (hardware, whatever). Not the money. Rr
And 60K/yr. is very low unless you are just out of college (or a few years into skipping college), depending on location.
Damien Gayle @damiengayle
Monday 5 September 2016 07.02 EDT
The organisers of an exclusive camp at Nevada’s Burning Man festival have denounced “hooligans” whom they accuse of raiding their camp, stealing items, gluing trailer doors shut and cutting the power.
Pershing County sheriff’s office was called to the festival to investigate after the night-time raid targeting the White Ocean camp as it hosted its “white party”, where ravers dress in white and dance all night to techno music.
Its organisers wrote on Facebook: “Guys, I think what happened last night should be known on social media … A band of hooligans raided our camp, stole from us, pulled and sliced all of our electrical lines leaving us with no refrigeration and wasting our food and glued our trailer doors shut, vandalised most of our camping infrastructure, dumped 200 gallons of potable water flooding our camp.” Dust to dust: mourning the dead at Burning Man Read more
The response from festival regulars has been split, with sympathy towards the camp tempered by many who say that the “prank” on White Ocean, a closed zone funded by tech entrepreneurs, was “taking burning man back from the parasite class”.
Some or all areas of a number of camps are effectively closed except to members.
In recent years, Burning Man has transformed from an anarcho-hippie fire ritual in San Francisco into a pricey end-of-summer romp in the Nevada desert for 65,000 people. But with growth has come controversy around the impact of big money.
All of those 65-70K people have been transformed? That's sloppy writing.
So get a job as a proofer or editor at the guardian... CopyNazi.
Participants at the three-decade old festival, which is based on an ethos of co-creation and mutual self-reliance, traditionally all pitch in to build the event. It is built around a radical “gifting” culture, where even strangers who wander into a camp are supposed to be served; in turn, they are expected to do the same for others.
Where strangers wander into a camp's public service area, when open, if they have one, and are often served as the camp is able and willing. They aren't 'supposed to be served'.
But as Burning Man has become more popular, it has become seen as an annual fixture for global elites who pay others to build them exclusive camps called “plug and plays”, which allow them to swoop in, turn on and drop out for a few days before returning to corporate life.
Controversial, but hard to see how it is a big deal. It has some benefits too.
More @Guardian UK: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/sep/05/luxury-camp-at-burning-man-f...
sdw