2006-09-01-1745Z


Another cold and lonely night, staying awake to stay warm and alive... a lot of things wrong with this "gifting" economy: you can feel like a beggar asking for beer at a bar; the announcer at the cafe tries to lay a guilt trip on the patrons, e.g. "These people are sacrificing their party time to serve you". Well, wtf are they sacrificing for? Haven't they at least read Ayn Rand? Obviously, this "economy" becomes unworkable the longer it goes on; though in a hunter-gatherer community it could be sustainable indefinitely. Here where there's nothing to hunt or gather, everything has to be brought in from the outside. It seems it requires a "taker" economy to drive this "gifting" system. Hardly a step towards workability.

I'm almost out of food and water; I cut it just a little too close. But I proved to myself I can survive on a fraction of what most people brought. A lot of people here just don't get it: plastic garbage left everywhere in Center Camp, in the porta-potties, all over. The ticket prices are going to keep going up if we keep getting these clueless college brats at Burning Man.

Back to blog or home page

last updated 2013-01-10 20:48:16. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com