*waves* hi I am a scientist and while Burning Man isn't my thing, I knew at least two similarly-precarious scientists in grad school for whom it was, plus a number of their friends who were *checks notes* the same kind of nerdy hippie leftist twonks as me. There are lots of people who go in order to test things like "how good can we make a medic system?" or "can we build a functional city if we try X new thing?" or all manner of other things, because that's the kind of thing people do there. For fuck's sake, it's a huge anarchist crowd draw.
I am also a scientist who eyes the "eat the rich!!!" stuff and the related "scientists don't CARE about REAL people like ME, or CONSIDER the experiences of REAL people like ME, a QUEER/WOMAN/DISABLED PERSON/BIPOC/insert-group-here" anti-establishment vein that is quite popular on tumblr and flinches just a little.... because, yeah, what you're saying right there, Feather. Like, I'm over here working to stay in this fucky system because I want to use its power to shape it to work alongside known structural issues: I'm just one little fat queer autistic, me, but I spend a lot of time talking about how to make fields sit down and pay attention to viewpoints that don't always get the most airtime. and the thing is, I am not remotely alone: I work alongside whole networks of people who want to build a better world this way and are willing to sacrifice quite a lot, personally, to do it.
and that gets totally elided in these kneejerk desires for blood and vengeance, when we assume that "the rich" are the people in the neighborhood next door with a little more stability than we have, rather than the very few extremely wealthy people who... yeah, could buy Burning Man outright if they wanted. That's not say we shouldn't be angry and that this anger and desire for someone to pay isn't potentially productive, but you know the saying: friendly fire isn't [friendly]. It is critically important when we are stoking anger to be careful about exactly where that anger goes so that we can minimize spillover.
And I wonder: where do we draw the line on bloodshed? If you murder a king, the people who loved that king and what he represents turn him into a martyr and a hero. If you murder one of these wealthy oligarchs, some fraction of their people--their children, grandchildren, extended family, people who they've employed for years, people who imagine they could be that wealthy--those people will set their hands against you in their own vengeance. Should they be marched to the guillotine blades?
If you instead make them fear you so badly that they dare not lift a hand in response to their hearts filled with hatred and sorrow, does that build a better world? What stories will their children and yours hear about your terrible power? How tightly would you ferret out the secret, poisoned terror and grief and rage among the hearts of your people?
Wind time back. Return to the present. Consider: what if we fantasized not about murder, but seizure of property and redistribution? What if we simply think "we need to pick up these motherfuckers, shake out their vast heaps of wealth, and distribute it fairly so that everyone including those fuckers can access comfort and safety?"
Do their retainers harbor the same hatred for you? Oh, the money is gone, but everyone shares in the same comfort, even the screaming billionaire. (Vast wealth rots your brain: the billionaires are probably even more upset than they'd be in the timeline of the guillotines, and they are certainly around to enjoy their new humble circumstances, but when they are objectly also provided the freedom and enough resources to maintain the same comfortable lives as everyone else, it's hard for their families to be too resentful--especially when the children ask what happened, when those children are next born.)
Which world would you rather live in?
prguitarman
2087
vaporwave
stormborns
kianamaiart
yousharknotpass
