10 Principles to Live By
Burning Man starts in 5 days. I’ve never been to Burning Man but it’s definitely very high on my list. I’ve heard a wide range of opinions of the yearly gathering, ranging from ‘duuude, burning man restored my faith in humanity – most awesome thing evar!!’ to ‘meh. buncha dirty hippie druggies getting baked and running around naked in the desert and setting things on fire – ghey.’ It sounds like one of those “You ARE the experience” things, so yeah, I gotta go.
Here are the Ten Principles of Burning Man as listed on their website. How can this be anything but awesome?
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
See?!? I must go. You must go. If the list doesn’t peak your curiosity of what this event entails, the photos will.
So while I won’t be burning anything, Wes and I are headed to Seward tonight and will be fishing with Swelly tomorrow and hunting for Halibut in Nuka Bay. And I’m so happy to be anywhere but home and hanging out with Wes. He’s been gone so much this summer. I miss him.
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ha ha.
I borrowed from thee and Blogged!!
Btw, don’t forget thePublicSafetyCareer that crashed & burned in theVillage!!
people saw it for miles around!!
d:oP
luvs,
a Trishtian!!
oh…
you must “Shoot” w/Sam!!,
Rumpleminz & Jagermeister is yum,
and theBrain Hemmhorage is fun to make,
just simple layered shots, and because of some kickAss
BarTender Instructors,
us Newbs layered without a Bar spoon,
we just carefullyPoured and used a Cherry garnish,
funny thing, I can see a girl w/ 5″ nails doing that.
LOL
later tator!!