splinters

This weekend I had a guest in from out of town. I met her a few years ago, through one of my ex-punk buddies, didn't know her well.

After two and a half days of firsthand experience, it's crystal clear that she embodies everything we rebelled against in the late 70s and early 80s.

Which leads me, after a little non-linear wandering, to the fact that the original intent, the original philosophy and goals of any counterculture movement, these things tend to get lost pretty quickly. I was fortunate to experience the punk thing while it was still fresh and relatively uncorrupted, and in the pre-internet days it took more than 24 hours for the world to learn about out little rebellion. But soon enough it was diluted. Soon enough it turned into a dress-up party, and excuse to get drunk. Soon enough it wasn't about ideas any more. I probably stayed a few months too long, but that's about when a whole lot of us left.

It's harder today. The world learns of any new idea overnight, the corporate interests try to coopt or acquire anything with cachet (= marketing value).

A little more wnadering, and we come to Burning Man, which began a few years after my departure from punk (even that word "punk" no longer means anything, at least it bears no resemblance to what we were in 1978... it's mostly misunderstood, misapplied today... but that's another entry). Burning Man may once have been a TAZ (temporary autonomous zone), but not anymore. It's locked into the same place, the same time, every year. The law patrols it, three different jurisdictions at least. It's watched from a distance by the marketing types, and that only because it's too hot/cold/windy/dusty for most of the boys and girls in suits to handle, except of course the ones (like me) who go there to get away from the office, to forget it for a little while.

Instead, it's a bunch if mini-TAZs. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. because there's no predicting, no controlling what happens on any given few yards of ground. What was there this year may or may not be replaced by something else next year, and again the year after that. The anarchy and chaos layered over the structure is what saves it. Always, someone will do something unexpected, and then do something new in a different place the following year.

Always keep moving. Never stand still for long.