“This has me waking up at night terrified,” said Marian Goodell, a founding board member and spokeswoman for Black Rock City, the company that organizes Burning Man in the desert outside Gerlach, Nev. “It is the end of Burning Man if we don’t solve this.”

“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane –
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn –
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it’ll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right – right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o’clock – TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear – cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine…fine…

(It’s time I had some time alone)”

                                                                 [REM, It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)]

I could use some time alone.  Seems, maybe, we all could (including Maid–or is it Made?–Marian). Burning man just Burned itself.  It’s the End of the Burn (as we know it) because I believe, for the first time, a lot of people figured out that their vast efforts have been under-appreciated by the hosts.  It’s one thing to turn away riff-raff at your door.  Or to ask drunk fuckers to leave.  But to turn away your invited guests–of–honor? The folks who make the event rise up? That’s nuts.

Whatever solution the BMORG comes up with, it won’t, alas, put out the slam.  The continental drift divide is on.  You don’t un-shift, Tectonically speaking.  Big theme camps will get tickets, I’d bet my boots on it, but, even if accepted, the event just went into decline.  Because now, the Theme camps will be the us, and it’s an Us-v-Them world, and you just earned the opprobrium.   I’m not happy about it.  I’ve been to a number of consecutive Burns (a small double-digit number). I feel fine.

But the writing is on the walls, the lines in the sand are drawn.  Whatever the Org does, it should be RADICAL.  If they thought there was going to be a gentle shift over to the public benefit corporation, and a smooth transition…think again.

It’s going to be a rough ride.  The waters, such as they are, have got choppy.  You want to talk the Radical Talk?  It’s time to walk the Radical walk.  We may be asked to be Radically self-reliant when we get to the Playa, and by extension, to practice the Principles Millennium in and Decade out, but Burning Man, and Burners, need the BMORG to be gracious hosts. To say:

Yeah, we get it.  There’s a Core Group of 10 or 20 thousand Burners who really dedicate their lives and their loves to this, and we will honor them.  Tickets, early entry, hey, it’s the Frequent Burner Model.  United we Burn.

Divided, everyone goes off to the Country Club and does their own thang.  So, to Unite everyone, we are moving over. Be transparent.

It won’t happen.  They never got cashed out properly, and until they do, you won’t see a solution that appeases true Burners.

Renegade and steer clear!?

or…

Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn…

???