Achtung, Hippie!
I’d never read a negative review of Burning Man, that hippie maelstrom in the middle of the Nevada desert. I’ve never been a fan (and I live in San Francisco, where a good portion of the burners come from). I hate hippies, and for good reason; their naive idealism causes more problems than it solves. They are a cult of tolerance and peace in the most facist of manners; like George W. Bush, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” This from the the review:
The burning of the man is 90 minutes of fire dancers and neo-pagan ritual, all centered on a god-like central figure, with his arms raised in triumph towards a frenzied, expectant crowd, clearly united in some dark purpose. This finale of Burning Man is a kind of hippie Nuremberg Rally.As the Burning Man burns, both his arms eventually fall to his side. Curiously, his left arm dropped first, leaving his right arm raised in a straight-armed Nazi salute. At that moment, a spontaneous cheer went up a thousand right arms were raised as one over the smoky playa. Heil hippie! No shit, I have it on film.
Burning Man has morphed from a cathartic event to a money making, hippie exploiting, sex crazed, heatstroke inducing waste of air. It will be nice to see it fade into obscurity.
September 24th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Bummer. I can remember neighbors of mine in the Western Addition going to Burning Man ‘back in the day’ and they sure as Hell weren’t hippies. In fact, I even thought of going at the time…things have certainly changed over the last decade plus.
Oh well. Time to move on to the next big, undiscovered party. This time, though, everyone please go old school: put up a velvet rope and don’t let the hippies in…even if they *do* have the cover charge.
September 25th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Well, I don’t think it started as a hippie-fest. In fact it started off as something kind of interesting. However, throw in lots of drugs, “free love” and “do what thou will shall be the whole of the law” and you’ve got a recipe for attracting hippies, even if it’s costs $300 for the entry fee.
August 19th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
[...] stupid congregation of new age hippies in the desert of Nevada. It’s turned into something distasteful. I’m sure I’ve said worse about it but to say I hate it is enough [...]