Last night I was reading the final chapters of The Golden City last night and found it’s indictment of modern society particularly on target, to wit:
When people believe they have no real power, their only choice becomes what to consume. Our society’s constant emphasis on buying things has nothing to do with the loss of morality. We feel powerful when we buy something, so we are easily manipulated to buy more.
…
Freedom is the ability to think, act, and express our views. In a free society, our rights are respected as long as they don’t harm others. A political system that allows freedom has validity no matter how you view mankind.
– Gabriel Corrigan in The Golden City, a novel by John Twelve Hawks
Then it occurred to me that the freedom one experiences at Burning Man is precisely that non-consumer driven variety of real personal autonomy. Aaron Muszalski (a.k.a. sfslim) also speaks of the powerful agency that participants find on the playa in this PirateCatRadio podcast. I personally felt this freedom to be intoxicating, and I can easily imagine that others do as well.