An acquaintance of mine put this up as their motto and left me utterly confused. Which 11 principles? Of What? Why do they require no proof? A motto that represents who you are does you little good if you have to explain it. Then it occurred to me – principles never require proof.
To help you out – because it took me days for me to figure out – these are the eleven principles of Burning Man. But wait, Marcus, there are only ten principles! I’d reply, “Good for checking the link.” And when you said, “What link?” I’d answer, “Get out of here, you frickin’ hipster!” 🙂 The eleventh principle is “consent,” which I have to agree with, because if you don’t consent to the principles in the first place, none of the other ten mean a darn.
The reason the principles require no proof is because they’re principles. If they required proof, they’d be called theories or commandments. Principle means “something to aspire to,” because my definition, we haven’t achieved that principle yet. Burning Man is a voluntary gathering. Several thousand people head off into the desert for a week to live a life of peace, love, and understanding. Here is where the principles fall apart. Peace, love, and understanding is only possible because this is a vacation and you brought in enough beer and steaks to share in case your neighbor ran out. If we ran into week two or three, and you keep having to gift your neighbor the food they need, then doesn’t this run into violating radical self-reliance? Even the organizers had to create their own police force… we don’t call it that, but given enough people, a government is necessary. Because to paraphrase Jimmy Madison, “men aren’t angels.”
It’s good to have principles, it’s great if everyone shares them, but don’t expect them to always work. Always expect that someone will try to game the system and prepare to deal with or expel them from your company. Which is why having it as a motto rubs me the wrong way. You’re saying that you believe in these things, that it is a template for how we should all live, but by saying “they require no proof” is to say they are self-evident. “Certain inalienable rights” is a concept and I believe should be self-evident, but many warlords around the world today have no trouble taking your life, your liberty, and care nothing about your happiness, just your obedience.
Which is why I really prefer this page that explains the 11 principles, because it explains in its “pro tips” the problems with the principles. The writers wouldn’t phrase it that way, but in helping out new burners with radical self-reliance: “There will be no water, no food vendors, and no merch. The only amenity provided will be portapotties.“ It is self-evident that 50,000 people create a lot of waste and it has to go somewhere. So the money you pay to get into the event goes to supporting another principle, Leave No Trace. Think about that for a second: these principled people don’t expect people to bag their own poop. Why not? Because nothing in their lives has prepared for them for that experience. Having to go to that level of self-reliance might limit their ability to follow the rest.
TJ and the other writers of the Declaration of Independence can only crib Montesquieu and talk about self-evident rights in a time in which the basics of civilization are established. Same with these – no one thinks about where or how their toilet flushes; it just does. So although it’s good to have principles, it’s not good to forget that they are established on a weak foundation. So to quote another of the founding fathers…
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
John Adams
The mistake many people make is that because I sing, war shouldn’t exist. No – they build on top of each other. You can’t be free to study painting unless your country is not under threat of attack. We’ve had plenty of examples of that recently. So what is comes down to principles should never forget that they only exist because we live in safety, have laws, and can enforce them. That way you have the principles for those who choose to violate them.
Which is why my family’s motto is “Never Unprepared.” Yeah, it’s a little wordy. but I think it works better.
Albigensia Press 