"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."It is the sad case of our American culture that we have replaced having with doing as a description of our being. What we own, and spend our money entertaining ourselves upon become defining actions of our lives.
How is it that the same people who follow the Galilean Rebel whose kingdom is not of this world, whose attachment to rules of engagement with society were loose and unconcerned have not been forward thinkers in respect to revolting against the system of enslavement to pop culture and capitalistic entrapment? Burning Man leads us into a place of rethinking our attachments to this world, and hopefully loosens our grip on commodity based fulfillment.
The principle of decommodification separates us from the intravenous tube of the drug of pop culture. The question is NOT how well we will survive, it is how well we will identify and live in the values of this principle. Our participation in the second principle of gifting, in the sixth principle of communal effort, and in the ninth principle of participation will help determine how well we adapt to the playa.
Just remember to leave your brand name fashion statements at home. At Burning Man you'd be better off with nothing. Uhm, I mean owning nothing.
1 comment:
Post a Comment