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Burning Man is a rave
Whatās all this shit about Burning Man not being a rave?! Itās bullshit piled higher than the haystacks under the Man. Who the fuck decides what is or isnāt a rave? What, did somebody in the BM organization look in Websterās? I did, and my 1958 edition says ćraveä comes from the Old French raver, which is to be delirious, to revel. Holy fuck, if thatās not what Burning Man is all about, may every manās testicles be tied together and the lot of us flung into outer space. Somebody in a position of ćauthorityä at Burning Man obviously got scared and didnāt want to call BM a rave ācause the ćpopularä 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 ācause 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 canāt fight back. They just wanna dance! See, hereās what raving is about: opening up, abandoning the ego, and attaining inner peace. Yes, folks, thatās what ravers want. Thatās 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. Weāre all on a cosmic voyage the pigs canāt understand. I use the ā60s term of derision for ćpolice officersä with total cosmic awareness, understanding it revives memories of earlier oppressions. But itās not truly the ćpigsä who want to oppress ravers; itās the parents, the ones who are afraid because they donāt understand kids who only seem happy when dressed weird, listening to their weird music, and tripping out to weird cosmic ideas. But, hey, wasnāt that just the way they were with rock nā roll?! So lighten up, parents, okay? And puh-leeze, get over the idea that Burning Man isnāt a rave. Itās the rave by which all other raves are measured. |
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