[andkon]

"Look at all the cool things we build and bring to Burning Man - no way we're ruining it!" is pretty much the exact same argument as "gentrification has resulted in far better brunch options in this area, no way we're ruining it!"

That being said, I thought this piece was super awesome for the insight into why tech folks go: it's a great way to show off and build something cool. Probably, folks are motivated by the same reasons my engineer friends back in Saskatchewan build progressively wackier campers to take to Craven Country Jamboree: a little to flex their hacker muscles, a little to blow off steam, a little to fly their freak flags and see who clicks with them. And that's nice. But it's worth noticing that so many pieces of Burner lore are now dependent on being subsidized by really rich folks. If we're being honest about how the economy of Burning Man works, it's becoming less an example of extreme self-reliance and more an example of of extreme patronage on behalf of the really rich.

And in itself, patronage isn't bad at all. It's great! But why doesn't this attitude extend to life back in the city? Why is Burning Man the one place that a rich person can help other folks out? Why is Mark Benioff the one dude who seems to give substantial amounts of money to people in the place he lives?