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Burning Man is a rave
What’s all this shit about Burning Man not being a rave?! It’s bullshit piled higher than the haystacks under the Man. Who the fuck decides what is or isn’t a rave? What, did somebody in the BM organization look in Webster’s? I did, and my 1958 edition says “rave” comes from the Old French raver, which is to be delirious, to revel. Holy fuck, if that’s not what Burning Man is all about, may every man’s testicles be tied together and the lot of us flung into outer space. Somebody in a position of “authority” at Burning Man obviously got scared and didn’t want to call BM a rave ’cause the “popular” media (popular with advertisers, that is) decided to make rave culture the latest bogeyman. Legislators, cops, family values jerks, and everybody else decided to pick on ravers ’cause the kids and kid-like adults are basically innocent, vulnerable, gentle spiritual seekers lost in the miasma of multiple states of orgiastic, druggy consciousness and they can’t fight back. They just wanna dance! See, here’s what raving is about: opening up, abandoning the ego, and attaining inner peace. Yes, folks, that’s what ravers want. That’s their agenda. For the time being, however, we ravers want only to catch the sound waves emanating across the playa of the Black Rock Desert. The DJ is priest and choir, the dancers are the congregation. We’re all on a cosmic voyage the pigs can’t understand. I use the ’60s term of derision for “police officers” with total cosmic awareness, understanding it revives memories of earlier oppressions. But it’s not truly the “pigs” who want to oppress ravers; it’s the parents, the ones who are afraid because they don’t understand kids who only seem happy when dressed weird, listening to their weird music, and tripping out to weird cosmic ideas. But, hey, wasn’t that just the way they were with rock n’ roll?! So lighten up, parents, okay? And puh-leeze, get over the idea that Burning Man isn’t a rave. It’s the rave by which all other raves are measured. |
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