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Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by the_af on Friday August 24, 2018 @09:36AM (#17834833)
A lot of "able bodied" people in many countries simply cannot afford to take time off to go to some party in the desert. They don't have the money, they have problems, their jobs can easily be lost, they have families (maybe spouses or kids who do NOT want to go to the desert).

Plenty of real-world reasons to be able-bodied and NOT being able to attend some desert party on a whim.

Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by c22 on Friday August 24, 2018 @10:00AM (#17834967)
Unfortunately the culture of Burning Man requires the excess resulting from thousands of people with the resources to over-prepare. Without this dynamic it's doubtful the event could exist with many of its core principals. There are people in our society that are stretched too thin to visit art museums, but this doesn't mean that art museums don't provide an immense benefit to the community as a whole.
Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by the_af on Friday August 24, 2018 @10:54AM (#17835279)
I'm not arguing against the existence of Burning Man -- it does seem silly to me, but like many things I consider silly, it has the right to exist and other people can enjoy them.

I'm arguing against the idea that "any able-bodied person" can attend Burning Man, or events like it. Lots of healthy people cannot afford to attend events like that, for multiple reasons.

Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by c22 on Friday August 24, 2018 @05:22PM (#17837961)
I think your argument misses the point because any able bodied person can attend Burning Man if they make doing so a priority in their life. No one is arguing that people who don't care too much about attending don't manage to go, and frankly, even with a bunch of disposable income if your trip to Burning Man was "easy" you're doing it wrong.
Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by the_af on Friday August 24, 2018 @05:55PM (#17838114)
I don't know how I can put it more simply: it's definitely not true that any able bodied person can attend Burning Man.
Re:The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man by c22 on Friday August 24, 2018 @10:14PM (#17839172)
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then because I've been a dozen times and I've met both able bodied and disabled people there from literally every walk of life, including self-described homeless, octogenarians on fixed incomes, people suffocating under medical bills for their cancer treatments, and folks from a dizzying array of far away countries.