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by devindotcom
4325 days ago
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Well, you can't ruin something that's already ruined - that is to say, Burning Man hasn't been Burning Man for a long time. I don't mean that in a cynical or superior way, just in a realistic one - it's become a very different thing from what it was even ten years ago, let alone twenty. What was once anti-establishment has become established, and an iconoclastic anti-brand has become the most powerful brand of its kind. It's a triumph in a way; it means it struck a chord and, as Josh says, it's a net positive. But the changes have rewrought Burning Man into a Burning Man theme park. The lunatics have surrendered the asylum. It's okay to mourn that, but it's a bit late to be pointing fingers. If you don't like it, start something new. That's how things like Burning Man happen in the first place. |
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I've never even been to Burning Man, but this is a completely predictable result for anything that reaches any level of popularity.
No system made up of people can scale and maintain its original identity, whether it is a IRL event like Burning Man or a website like reddit or Hacker News. People who were there before some new group will always define an easily identifiable scapegoat group of those who are ruining the thing, but really it is just a numbers game. The more people you add, the less easily identifiable shared culture there can be, the more regulations have to be put into place and the more that community loses what the original members saw as its identity.
I believe this is an immutable, unsolvable problem short of (as devindotcom suggests) breaking off and starting a new new thing that replaces the old new thing (and obviously this is only a temporary solution that will have to be iterated again if the new new thing becomes popular).