The Death of the Festival

Appears the writing is on the wall, as it were. Some years after Girard, Nassim Taleb riffed on a similar theme he called "suppressed volatility," where he started with risk being akin to a kind of energy that could not be created or destroyed, and the inevitable consequence of suppressing volatility was a kind of mean reversion or explosion on the other direction. I'd never consider Taleb as simpler or less wordy than anyone, but in this case, he seems more succinct than Girard on a similar topic.

Carnivals and festivals today are still role reversals, where some Burners described it to me as for a week in the desert, artists and working people become administrators and facilitators where in regular life they may have little formal authority in their own roles, but here they are the volunteer leaders and make the whole thing go, and then white collar people who spend their lives projecting an edgeless affect can walk around naked, anonymous, and high. No doubt it's more than that, but as something that puts the carnal in carnival, it was a useful description.

Personally, I think Girardian warnings of scapegoating rituals are late arriving words for a greater dynamic that appears to have been set in motion, as though if we've heard of his ideas and work, it's because we already needed to know them. The author's admonition that storm clouds are gathering is a pervasive sentiment in conversations I've had lately, but to extend the metaphor, everyone thinks they need to prepare for a storm, without considering that what they should be worried about is a flood and its aftermath.

I wish festivals could help relieve some of the tectonic social pressures of the last few years, but as he points out, whether they are sanctioned events with artists, or just riots and worse, they're going to happen one way or another.

It's a little bit too pat in its conclusions.

When watching livestreams of riots, it's really evident that the chaos they produce is rather like little bursts of action, and not so much a sustained pandemonium. These bursts are a thing that can actually take place anytime and don't gain special value because of the riot, they are just more common, more easily prompted. Everyone gets behind on their narrative of events in the process; though the observers'll say something is happening according to their beliefs, it's not literally the thing that is happening.

And that isn't so far removed from just an ordinary "wild party" that hurts people or gets stuff smashed. It's riotous specifically because of the context and political impact. There aren't "sides" in a party, unless there's a gang fight or something of that nature. But a riot always expresses some politics.

>Every human being knows, if only unconsciously, that we are not the roles and personae we occupy in the cultural drama of life.

Reminds me of Catcher in the Rye, only older and more cynical.

The author should reconsider "connection to a reality that is non-conventional": the physical activity he lists is only non-conventional to a select few, especially in the past. His evidence feels like an argument for festivals as a ward against idleness, not as a relief valve of simulated violence, which is poorly-justified.

Perhaps Girard put too much faith in what "genuine artists" sense out of something like a harvest festival, which is the leisure of hard-working laborers. The author might consider that daily labor could be more violent than playful festivals, and what Girard sensed may have been relief from that, not from a crisis averted.

As a fairly seasoned burner, I really had to shake my head at this article.

I found it really odd that the only mention of Burning Man is how the online version attempts last year didn't work so well. No mention of how Burning Man fits into this "death spiral" idea - or how Burning Man fails to fall into that spiral.

In particular, it makes this one comment stood out...

> A true festival is not a tame affair. It is a suspension of normal rules, mores, structures, and social distinctions. Girard explains:

OK yes, that sounds like Burning Man. But then it follows up with this part of Girard's explanation...

> As one might expect, this destruction of differences is often accompanied by violence and strife. Subordinates hurl insults at their superiors; various social factions exchange gibes and abuse. Disputes rage in the midst of disorder.

Violence and strife? Raging disputes? Hurled insults? (OK well there are those megaphone people.) Seriously, the author has never been to Burning Man. Or if they did go, it was a hugely different experience than what I and a lot of other people ever had.

Maybe Burning Man just isn't a festival. Or maybe burners just festival differently. Or maybe the author is talking about something else.

When all one has is a hammer (Girardian festival analogy) all of the world's problems begin looking like nails... (socially engineer-able solutions)

I can't really tell, but I think this article is arguing that the carbon crisis would be solved so long as the smelly privileged are allowed to have orgies in fields.

> We know the rules of society are arbitrary, set up so that the show can be played out to its conclusion.

This seems wrong to me. Most society rules have a reason to exist. Maybe, in the past century a few of that rules have become obsolete. But humanity is excellent at creating rules that makes things good enough to keep going.

There is nothing that makes a society change its rules like a change on the environment.

> We should not be surprised that Western societies are showing signs of mass psychosis.

The "everything is going to hell" theory. And, as often happens, without any proof or care to explain.

> More generally, locked in, locked down, and locked out, the population’s confinement within the highly controlled environment of the internet is driving them crazy.

*Them. I guess that the author is immune to this effect.

I love festivals, and they make for a great opportunity to meet people and create community. Also, festivals are an opportunity for a community to present respect to folklore heroes and their moral values, and to laugh at villain and their lack thereof. Festivals are not to for "blow off steam".

>The natural order is unraveling. Plagues, floods, droughts, political unrest, riots, and economic crises strike one upon the next

Interesting concept of "natural order". What "natural" means in this context? What about "order"? Would lets say genocide be considered a part of natural order aswell?

>Societies have faced such circumstances repeatedly throughout history, just as we face them today.

Fake news. Doesn't understand History.

He's on to something. The prose drops little passages easy to criticize, but the overall essay has good reasoning. I strongly agree the events one attends creating an alternative reality are more therapeutic and necessary than many are willing to admit.

It reminds me of the discussion of forest fires and whether to let the smaller fires burn to avoid the big, devastating fires. And then there is the question of intentionally starting fires to do the role of the smaller ones.

Given how that debate is not even agreed upon, it is hard to believe that one could come to much of an understanding of the Festival and its need with humans.

>None of the problems facing humanity today are technically difficult to solve.

What? None? So "plagues, floods, droughts, political unrest, riots, and economic crises" (which follow a highly-technical century as they 'strike one upon the next') are technically easy to solve?

The rest of this wild-haired rhetorical festival grows more sad and less relevant.

The article mentions festivals as a "suspension of normal rules, mores, structures, and social distinction" and riots having a festive dimension. I don't know Girard's work enough to comment, but wonder if there is a connection between Girard and Temporary Autonomous Zones[1] (which Burning Man is a large scale example of)

As an aside, the article claims that online Burning Man failed because of it was too consumption based. It's not a good example since there were numerous issues including participants lacking VR headsets, userbase split up into different platforms (there was no singular "official" software), capacity constraints, etc. I tried it on burn night (Altspace VR) and the man was floating in mid-air as it was burning, so glitches too.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone

The author has obviously never been to Comicon. The festivals are still there, they just aren't manditory anymore. We no longer inist that everyone enjoy the same setpiece festivals at the government-approved times and locations. Compared to the past, we are now all free to participate in or even create our own festivals.

"None of the problems facing humanity today are technically difficult to solve. Holistic farming methods could heal soil and water, sequester carbon, increase biodiversity, and actually increase yields to swiftly solve various ecological and humanitarian crises. Simply declaring a moratorium on fishing in half the world’s oceans would heal them too"

What kind of sanctimonious BS is this. I stopped reading because his thinking did not appear to be worth my time. And I came here to the comments to check if I was correct or not...

This is mixing up the cause and the effect. What's happening isn't society fracturing for lack of occasions to break the rules, it's that society can't invent occasions to break the rules if it can't agree what the rules are. Which side of the culture war is going to be given up when "violent unanimity" is achieved at the end of the festival?

You could almost rework this to be a promotion for "The Purge" movies

I am a Girardian newb but Girard even mentions sporting events in the article.

IMO it isn't just sporting events though but violent sporting events that let us exercise the scapegoat mechanism. At least in the US. If your team wins, it doesn't matter your background if you are both fans of the same team. I really can't think of anything that quite brings us together like team sports in the 21st century.

Obviously, if you are not a sports fan this is much harder to see.

Burning man is too obvious, literal and it just isn't that many people vs the whole of society.

I can remember as a little kid the mimetic desire to become my favorite sports stars complete with wearing a jersey with their name on my back as if I was them.

On a side note, it is an absolutely ridiculous situation that Audible has one audio book by Girard. I would love to pass the time driving in the car with a wide selection of Girard to chew on.

I spent 4 marvellous days at a semi-private psychedelic trance festival in deep Russian woods this June, and I couldn't disagree more. I felt as if I witnessed an event of similar cultural significance as british late 80s raves were back in their day, but the one that nobody outside of the community really knows anything about.

The festival culture is alive and well, it's just got a little bit private, as it tries to conceal itself from authorities and masses. Burning Man, as well as many other festivals that attracted crowds lost a lot of intimacy and implied freedom; I just don't believe that you could feel the same way in a commercial festival that has more than a thousand of attendees.

Well that certainly added every ingredient in the kitchen. Who can argue with such a sprawling word associative piece of prose? I’m not entirely sure I understood the latent threat, nor do I see any attempt to apply these concepts to seriously “modernly” repressed societies, oh let’s just take North Korea. Are they all just going to socially explode? What are the concrete consequences of removing all dangerous festivals from society?

> As for Burning Man and the transformational music & art festivals, these have exercised some of the festival’s authentic function – until recently, when their exile to online platforms stripped them of any transcendental possibility. Much as the organizers are doing their best to keep the idea of the festival alive, online festivals risk becoming just another show for consumption. One clicks into them, sits back, and watches. In-person festivals are different. They start with a journey, then one must undergo an ordeal (waiting in line for hours). Finally you get to the entrance temple (the registration booth), where a small divination ritual (checking the list) is performed to determine your fitness to attend (by having made the appropriate sacrifice – a payment – beforehand). Thereupon, the priest or priestess in the booth confers upon the celebrant a special talisman to wear around the wrist at all times. After all this, the subconscious mind understands one has entered a separate realm, where indeed, to a degree at least, normal distinctions, relations, and rules do not apply. Online events of any kind rest safely in the home. Whatever the content, the body recognizes it as a show.

I don't buy it. Surely there are still burns and de-facto lawless (as long as safety of others is not violated, and by that I'm not talking about social distancing or masks) festivals happening worldwide still? It's just that most government/corporate-backed ordeals, and huge (1k+ participants) events are called off.

Here in JP (an otherwise famously very restrictive and normative society), meat-space outdoors raves/festivals and rainbow-like gatherings have been thriving during the pandemic, even moreso now during the summer, likely due to the nerfing of indoor club events.

May be the case for other scenes as well; this is just the one I'm personally familiar with presently.

From my limited perspective the festival scene is more active than ever: There are multiple 1-to-3-day raves/music festivals happening every week within 2h drive from where I'm at in the sleepy conforming boonies, states of emergency or not. There is certainly code, but I argue at least the events my friend groups have been frequenting are easily breaking social norms enough that they're still valid under their definition. They may be smaller, but they're more in numbers and frequency.

From what I hear, the fetish subscenes also alive, active, and well.

If it still happens here, I'd be surprised if it wasn't the case most everywhere. I suspect the author hasn't been seriously surveying their locale.

(I certainly don't go rave every week; I know people who do, though. I gave up trying to preach to people that they should act COVID-safer. Party people gonna party people)

Reads a lot like Jordan Peterson. Essays on psychological symbolism are hard to judge; I’ve read some Jung and Campbell but my comprehension still feels weak.

Or consider Wittgenstein. Maybe people attend festivals just because it’s fun.

Stopped reading at `Systemic use of natural and alternative healing modalities could vastly reduce covid mortality`