Keeping up with the Jones … by Going to Burning Man
Trav writes a very thoughtful piece.
Wandering around the desert wearing nothing more than body paint, a jockstrap made from a $1 pair of used overalls, and a ceremonial staff covered with LEDs and driven by a microcontroller that you soldered together and programmed out of $15 worth of parts is the new conspicuous consumption: it takes $16 worth of materials, and 2,000 hours of time.
Yup. That’s how wer’re wired. Funny, i’n’t is? Go read the whole thing.
Darn, I see all kinds of interesting arguments I’d like to pick at. If only I could get my inbox below 400 unread emails. (yeah, I’m flaunting a little by saying that, but also it’s uncool of me to not reply to my friends’ emails :-o)