We know that the Burning Man founders have been spending time in the corridors of power, and the party’s iconography is being incorporated in political advertising campaigns backed by the Koch brothers… but one has to wonder at this latest news: could we get any more mainstream? The Davos World Economic Forum, populated by many members of the secretive Bilderberg Group, has now been described as “Burning Man for Billionaire Bilderbergers” by respected alternative media site, Veterans Today:
What happens in Davos stays in Davos!
Davos is like Congress, the Factory, Scientology, the Mormon Tabernacle, the Bohemian Grove, the “best dinner party in the world,” the financial system, Facebook, Burning Man, boot camp, high school…. Davos is an onion, a layer cake, a Russian doll. Participants are NEVER out of the loop. They are the loop.
Best dinner party in the world? Better than Burning Man’s own Krug extravaganza, as covered in Town and Country magazine?
Layer Cake? That makes me think of Sienna Miller in sexy lingerie…
…but, let’s not make the argument right now about the timeless and invincible power of the pussy, vs the external power of an elite cabal of bankster oligarchs. Back to Davos and the Bilderbergers:
Forty-two years ago, a German academic named Klaus Schwab founded this cabal. Now, at seventy-five, he continues to nurture it, with dogged sincerity. Is he the most connected man on the planet?
Around the Congress Hall, they say no one walks faster than Klaus. The only question is… where does Klaus go for his marching orders? And that’s the big secret of Davos.
Some say there is another unseen level of leadership. Some say it’s the Bilderberg group. Whatever it is, it’s providing direction through influence to the worlds movers and shakers providing them a Burning Man-esque cultish experience to enjoy each and every year; a carnival to celebrate and perpetuate the global monetary economic system.
Cult? As in, Cargo Cult? No, not us! A carnival, of sorts…
We copped some flak last year when after Burning Man, we expressed the opinion that Burn Wall Street sucked, and “irony” was not a sufficient reason to have giant Bank of America logos on the Playa. As the flak from some Burners was counterbalanced from inside knowledge and tips from others, we heard that someone on the board of Directors of JP Morgan Chase had invested $100,000 in the Wall Street Project…presumably to remove JP Morgan while dissing the Chase. One wonders if said director is now present at said Davos Forum.
We’ve also heard rumors that David de Rothschild is a regular at First Camp. Certainly, there are many of the world’s billionaires who’ve been to Burning Man, including the Google Guys and ones you’ve probably never heard of. But now, Davos…and the Bilderbergers? Modelling themselves on Burning Man? Puh-leeeeeeezzze. What is it again that we’re all rebelling against out there in the desert? What are these economic elitists going to gift to the 7 billion people of the world?
In many ways, though, the closed door policy setting of BMOrg, their assumption that everything they do is for our own bloody good, and their weak attempts at community reach-around out, do have many things in common with Davos. Vox populi, anyone?
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There’s a bit of a logical jump here. The Davos organizers are not calling themselves some sort of Burning Man, someone else is. That’s a very different thing, and a far cry from Davos and the Bilderbergers “modeling themselves after Burning Man”. I’m not aware of Davos adopting the 10 Principles. Also, a lot of innuendo about who put money into the Burn Wall Street project, just hearsay, but interesting if true. And what does it matter who kicked in?
I think the co-opting of a formerly “counter-cultural” movement by the elites matters. Putting giant bank logos on the Playa, funded by Wall Street itself, is one example of that. We don’t know if anyone actually at Davos was comparing it to Burning Man, other than this reporter. The comparison seems a stretch to me. But we do know that the Burning Man meme is becoming increasingly mainstream; as this happens, BMOrg’s attempts to restrict use of the brand by the community due to the principle of “decommodification” look increasingly hypocritical. Burning Man is huge, it’s having a worldwide impact, so let’s not be ashamed of that.
Here’s where I see a disconnect. It wasn’t just bank logos, it was satire. It wasn’t Bank of America, but Bank of UnAmerica. And Goldman Sucks. This was not a pro-Wall street piece of art. Similarly, we’ve had Jiffy Lube, a Walmart spoof, a CostCo spoof, and wasn’t there a McSatan’s or something like that a long time ago. And the Seemen burned down It’s a Small World once too. I don’t see any of that as a co-opt.
I also don’t see any mention of anyone being “ashamed” of the spread of the BMan meme…did I miss that being mentioned?