more food for thought
Oct. 28th, 2003 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonJust pulling out the thought-provoking articles today!
This one is by John Perry Barlow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In Surreality TV: From Burning Man to Running Man, he discusses his observations from Burning Man and ponders why "bohemians" are not politically involved, and why that needs to change:
I've never been to Burning Man, so I can't say what "type" (if any) of person attends, and whether they are all as creative and freethinking as Barlow claims. I do know that from my own experience, it's far easier to retreat into my private world of books, art, and creative, insightful friends and pretend George II isn't on the throne than it is to get out there and try to make some small difference.
I do mail my representatives. I am often obnoxiously honest about my political opinions. I even attended the inaugural protests (but none since - I got a sinus infection at the protest that lasted for months).
But I often suspect I'm in alone in my (admittedly meager) efforts - it seems that most people are convinced that given enough time, the pendulum will swing the other way. Am I being hypervigilant in realizing that some of the more draconian laws (PATRIOT and PATRIOT II, various incarnations of the RAVE act, etc.) are harder to undo once they become law, and that it's better to prevent this now?
Update 10/29/2003 -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
patgreene, I'm sorry I accidentally deleted your comment - somehow this entry got posted twice and I managed to delete the one with comments (of course! :P) I do imagine that someone can have some profound insights at an event like Burning Man, but unless you try and are able to take that knowledge home with you, I question whether it's ultimately a useful experience.
This one is by John Perry Barlow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In Surreality TV: From Burning Man to Running Man, he discusses his observations from Burning Man and ponders why "bohemians" are not politically involved, and why that needs to change:
If someone like Karl Rove had wanted to neutralize the most creative, intelligent, and passionate members of his opposition, he'd have a hard time coming up with a better tool than Burning Man. Exile them to the wilderness, give them a culture in which alpha status requires months of focus and resource-consumptive preparation, provide them with metric tons of psychotropic confusicants, and then... ignore them. It's a pretty safe bet that they won't be out registering voters, or doing anything that might actually threaten electoral change, when they have an art car to build.
I've never been to Burning Man, so I can't say what "type" (if any) of person attends, and whether they are all as creative and freethinking as Barlow claims. I do know that from my own experience, it's far easier to retreat into my private world of books, art, and creative, insightful friends and pretend George II isn't on the throne than it is to get out there and try to make some small difference.
I do mail my representatives. I am often obnoxiously honest about my political opinions. I even attended the inaugural protests (but none since - I got a sinus infection at the protest that lasted for months).
But I often suspect I'm in alone in my (admittedly meager) efforts - it seems that most people are convinced that given enough time, the pendulum will swing the other way. Am I being hypervigilant in realizing that some of the more draconian laws (PATRIOT and PATRIOT II, various incarnations of the RAVE act, etc.) are harder to undo once they become law, and that it's better to prevent this now?
Update 10/29/2003 -
patgreene, I'm sorry I accidentally deleted your comment - somehow this entry got posted twice and I managed to delete the one with comments (of course! :P) I do imagine that someone can have some profound insights at an event like Burning Man, but unless you try and are able to take that knowledge home with you, I question whether it's ultimately a useful experience.
