Burning Man and Default World Thought
As we all prepare to reenter the default world, a small epiphany has graced my consciousness. I have always heard people make the reference to the” default world” and that choice of wording has always had a slightly peculiar ring to me. While on this flying machine from the turn of the century headed back to New York city, it occurred to me that the wording is perfect but sad. Perfect because it is a description that implies an every day state of affairs that is different to the state of living within the boundaries of the trash fences at BRC.
Life at BRC also has a default state. This state is one that is anchored on survival. However the survival of the individual is rooted in cooperation and communal prosperity, where actions such as gifting and unconditional aid to and love for thy neighbor not only help ensure your neighbors survival, but ensure that of yourself through reciprocation.
In the outside world, “the default world”, especially in areas founded as pillars of capitalism we survive fundamentally under an individual loan structure. Starting from central bank making a loan to a commercial bank which then subsequently trickles the loans out to individuals, a human state is created. This structure creates a situation in which a bank analyzes an individuals ability to take a loan and go out into the world with the assets and perform some activity in which he beats his competition out to return to the bank with the original loan plus some extra capital to repay interest.
This creates a form of competition founded on an antagonistic relationship. The individual must go out and beat his neighbor for limited resources and return home with his neighbors resources. This has become so normal and common ground that we have ceased to analyze its fundamental core principle of competition and simply assume that because of people like John Maynard Keynes that competition is a healthy form of human existence that breeds progress.
THIS HAS BECOME THE UNCHALLENGED DEFAULTS state, and it is not until we live under another default state for a period of time that we begin to notice the “MAGIC” THAT OTHER STATES seem to produce. It is no wonder that actions at Burning Man provide individuals with a sense of mystical, magical, and perfect synchronicity. We live under a state of cooperation and not competition.
IT IS TIME WE Reanalyze THE DEFAULT WE WANT TO LIVE UNDER AND MAKE IT THE UNIVERSAL DEFAULT, not just in or out of the playa!
Burning Man 2013 Rivitalize Photo Shoot - Images by Peter Ruprecht
