Alyssa, who I guess is a former PR person, weighed in on how BMorg are mishandling their PR crisis. Her advice is very sound, although an organisation that spends more than $100 million over ten years ought to have a professional PR team by now (clearly they don’t).

http://alyssaroyse.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/burning-the-man-burning-mans-ticket-pr-fiasco/

Anyway, there was a very interesting comment on her post from a guy called “Chicken John”. He sounds like a long term employee, maybe even a founder. And he sounds disgruntled, just like I hypothesized in Exploring the Other – Part III

Chicken John said

Ticket? I got a ton of people to buy for me. I am poised to make ten grand off this, at least. And who would begrudge me that money? My fingerprints are on so much of BM. Why can’t I enjoy the demand? Why is it OK for Larry to make millions who has never so much as loaded a truck when guys like me who built heaven and earth get less then nothing? Now I’m not asking for an paycheck here… but if they are STUPID enough to create an opportunity for me, why should I not help them to see how stupid they are? And why can’t it be at my option to control a bunch of tickets and give them away? Why is it always Larry that gets to say how things work? Why is scalping tickets bad? Are scalpers bad? Are the people who buy from scalpers bad? Where is the bad here? The bad here is with the LLC, who didn’t make this thing a membership organization with voting rights. Which is a conversation that I’ve been having since 1996.

Remember that most of the information you get is from the LLC. No one has ever seen a bigger spin machine. They have been saying things like “We are in stage 2 of our 3 stage plan to spill on a world stage…” since 1999. The leadership of this thing peaked, and won’t let go. Won’t let the next group take it to the next level. Give it away to a non-profit? Sure. A non-profit board that THEY select who serve one year terms. It’s crap. Just like everything else they do.

It’s called founders’ syndrome. Look it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder%27s_syndrome

And remember that no matter what happens, they don’t really care who is at the event. Whatever is easier for them. Watch them bend, spindle and
mutilate their words to accommodate whatever they want. They interpret (or ignore) their “principles” to defend whatever it is they do. And never back down. Ever. You don’t like it? Fuck off. There are thousands more waiting to take your place.

I’m so glad to see the end of their reign. They are just too old to defend themselves.

May the bloodbath begin.

(emphasis added).

Chicken John not only sounds disgruntled, he is ready for a bloodbath against the old timers. He is making a declaration of regime change. And in doing so, giving us an insight into the inner machinations and politics of the BMorg. Yes, politics. To Virgins, it’s all one big carnival, but the more involved you get, the closer you get to the politics. You think you can have a city of 60,000 people without politics? No fucking way. But you can definitely have it without democracy, or meritocracy, or even benevolent dictatorship. You can have “incompetent dictatorship” or “dysfunctional oligarchy”, doesn’t mean that it’s the best governing structure or a recipe for success, but it can function for a week or two at a time. No matter the structure, there will always be the politics…

I wonder if there are others who’ve been involved for a long time, who are closer to the workings of this lottery than the general public, who share some of Chicken John’s sentiments?

Then, he weighs in again on the comments with even more sanguinary insight:

Oh no you don’t… You can’t tell me to love it or leave it and get away with it here. I worked HARD to be here. I’ve been here a long time. You don’t get to say that BM isn’t for me because I don’t agree with the way it’s going. Radical Inclusion, remember? We are here complaining about the climate of fear that the current draconian organization instills in everyone. I need to be vocal, and very LOUD to even get heard. Beleive me, I’ve been saying the same things since Larry stole this thing in ’96. I was just too young and too green to be effective. I’m no longer young, and I’m peppered enough to know how to call attention to things while shooting my own feet so it can’t be misconstrued (by people like you) that this is a power grab. We need voting rights that are gaurenteed by a constitution. We need to be members of a civic organization. We need to not be open to the public. We need to stick together.

A great start would be to oust the current leadership and do something else. But tha’ts a lot harder then dancing or sewing costumes. It takes leadership and courage. And there is always at least one layer of the LLC between any of us. Which is why I am forced to exploit blogs like this. But even Alyssa can be corrupted. I don’t know Alyssa. She could be a social climbing twit. [Classic! LOL] She seems like she is super right on. But you find someone’s blog that people are paying attention to, and try to use it to get your message out. The LLC makes a few calls, and my comments are GONE. “He’s hard to work with.” That can still happen here. [come on over to Burners.Me John!]

But don’t take any of my disgust for anger. I’m totally hopeful. Mirthful. We just have to not shy away from this conflct, we have to meet it head on. We can’t pretend that the LLC is on our side anymore. They are playing a different game. We need to take care of ourselves, because they are taking care of them. Right now noone is taking care of us. You can choose to not beleive me, and that’s fine. But I’m not a kook. And you WILL agree with me, if you get a little closer. There is a struggle going on in the BM organization. And NOONE wants to lose their tactical position by just telling the truth. Because once you do that, your dipped in shit. Like me. Once you don’t care if your dipped in shit (like me), you are in a very powerful postion.

But in the spirit of this amazing article, can’t we just tell the truth. Put it on the table. And repect each other that we are all pretty smart and say what it is we want? Wouldn’t that be a ‘burner’ thing to do? We are an effective, amazing community. Possibly the the most amazing community the Earth has ever seen…

Don’t we deserve better?

regards, chicken

I agree 100% with Chicken John. I am not angry, or bitter, or disappointed. I have come to expect this type of bungling from bureaucracries in general. It’s time to break Humpty Dumpty and give birth to a whole new chicken. It’s the Burners that create this community, not the BMorg. They are just event planners, and apparently not even particularly good ones.

Let’s start with the truth. What the fuck is really going on within the Hallowed Halls of BMOrg, “the LLC”? Who is involved in this power struggle? What weapons and tactics are they employing?  We want to know, and I promise that insiders can post here with complete anonymity and confidence. If BMorg or anyone else contacts us to try to remove posts or comments, they can expect to be met with the politest possible “fuck off” that we can muster.