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.
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A. ~ Gordon Gekko
I could not resist putting that right at the top of the post.
The argument has “some” merit in it, because there are positives and negatives at both extremities of this line of argumentation.
Too little “greed” = lack of innovation
Too much “greed” = financial crisis
You will find brands at Burning Man, the tent in which someone lives was made by a corporation, the solar panel that is powering up parts of burning man was built by a corporation, the generator powering up many pieces of infrastructure was manufactured by a corporation, the art was built leveraging machines manufactured by corporations, the art assembly, maintenance and disassembly happens leveraging big machines manufactured by corporations.
At burning man we leverage but we do not promote.
At burning man we show but we do not promote.
At burning man we see but we do not promote.
At burning man we acknowledge but we do not promote.
It is the hintergrund of a conversation, it is not the focus of the conversation.
There is a fine line laid out in the argumentation above. Give it a think over.
I see a lot of people running around “giving” gifts ;-) screaming that they are living the spirit of the event by doing so and propagating the spirit. I have no problems in collecting shwag, hell, I really love some of the stuff coming out of the burn, makes for more decorations for my burn vehicle ;-), but PEOPLE, remember the notion of decommodification. At its core, it is about immaterialism and spiritualism. Sometimes the gift of time or the spoken word is the best gift you can offer someone.
Personal experience, I met this person at the burn having a problem with a bicycle tire, I offered to fix it for him and did so. His response was not a thank you, he said that he was in a state of bliss, because this is the beauty of the burn, he had a problem and the universe made me materialize to take care of it. The only thing he said was, “this is why I keep coming to burning man”. It is not about the some odd dollars tire repair, it was about the spirit and the energy behind the act. The materials needed to solve the problem was not what was of utmost importance, hell, even if I did not manage to fix the problem, I would have made a friend for life at that moment. He also got to meet a couple of cool people from the camp in the meanwhile and the circle of friends and good energy grew from this one random act of an offer to fix a punctured tire.
C’est la vie "decommodified" at burning man ;-)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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.
Remember the notion “Pay it Forward”, well, here is a community where you have the opportunity to live this value day in and day out.
Your time is the ultimate gift that you give to people.
People called Steve Jobs a hard ass and a difficult person to deal with, think of it from his perspective, his TIME was limited due to his failing health. Do you think he wanted to “waste” his time listening to “nonsense” or progress the discussion forward? Think about it! Now do you still think he was a hard ass and a “rude” person if he cut you short and moved on, because you were not making any sense to him.
At burning man you discover the true spirit behind gifting and most of the time the gifts are immaterial, a hug, a kiss, a little time and patience. That is all it takes.
Yes, it is always good to carry extra water and food for that idle wanderer who inevitably drifts into camp, not really looking for food or water, but it would be a nice ice breaker to offer some food and water and wine to this wanderer. They might gift you in turn with some, hopefully, enlightening company in return. You never know.
I hope this little post conveys the spirit behind this important principle.
And yes, this post in no ways intended to make people who explicitly make shwag to bring to the event from not brining material gifts. I love having a burning man pendant to hang around my neck, some of them are beautiful indeed.
My point is that to gifting does not always mean something material.
Remember…
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust", a phrase from the Anglican burial service, used sometimes to denote total finality. It is based on scriptural texts such as "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19), and "I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee" (Ezekiel 28:18).
Remember the notion “Pay it Forward”, well, here is a community where you have the opportunity to live this value day in and day out.
Your time is the ultimate gift that you give to people.
People called Steve Jobs a hard ass and a difficult person to deal with, think of it from his perspective, his TIME was limited due to his failing health. Do you think he wanted to “waste” his time listening to “nonsense” or progress the discussion forward? Think about it! Now do you still think he was a hard ass and a “rude” person if he cut you short and moved on, because you were not making any sense to him.
At burning man you discover the true spirit behind gifting and most of the time the gifts are immaterial, a hug, a kiss, a little time and patience. That is all it takes.
Yes, it is always good to carry extra water and food for that idle wanderer who inevitably drifts into camp, not really looking for food or water, but it would be a nice ice breaker to offer some food and water and wine to this wanderer. They might gift you in turn with some, hopefully, enlightening company in return. You never know.
I hope this little post conveys the spirit behind this important principle.
And yes, this post in no ways intended to make people who explicitly make shwag to bring to the event from not brining material gifts. I love having a burning man pendant to hang around my neck, some of them are beautiful indeed.
My point is that to gifting does not always mean something material.
Remember…
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust", a phrase from the Anglican burial service, used sometimes to denote total finality. It is based on scriptural texts such as "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19), and "I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee" (Ezekiel 28:18).
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