10 Principles of Burning Man

TEN PRINCIPLES OF BURNING MAN

 and their Manifestations through BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS

1. Radical Inclusion 

Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Radical Inclusion Manifestation: BWB seeks to include and empower anyone and everyone to take part in fostering community resilience. We believe everyone has a role to play in creating strong communities that thrive.

2. Gifting

Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Gifting Manifestation: BWB promotes unconditional volunteer service and civic engagement. BWB also supports alternative social and economic models that increase a community’s willingness and capacity to give.

3. Decommodification

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Decommodification Manifestation:By actively empowering social and solidarity economies our community seeks to remove dependence on commercial interactions.

4. Radical Self-reliance

Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-reliance Manifestation:Through community engagement, BWB helps communities create the conditions to explore and develop radical self-reliance. BWB also actively maps and tracks these resources to share with people and communities around the world.

5. Radical Self-expression

 Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Radical Self-expression Manifestation:BWB seeks to bring radical self-expression into worldwide community service that allows uniqueness and diversity to thrive. BWB respects the rights and liberties of the participants and beneficiaries of BWB programs.

6. Communal Effort

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Communal Effort Manifestation: BWB seeks to build an active network of resources, people and communities worldwide that engages individuals in creative cooperation and collaboration.

7. Civic Responsibility 

We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Civic Responsibility Manifestation: As a global community, BWBs activities are part of humanity’s civic responsibility. In all areas where BWB operates, activities are conducted in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

8. Leaving No Trace 

Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Leaving No Trace Manifestation: Community resiliency strategies must include environmental protection at its core. We endeavor to leave the planet in a better state than we found it.

9. Participation 

Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Participation Manifestation. We believe that an active, engaged, citizenry is the foundation for highly creative, resilient communities. BWB supports activities that require a high level of community engagement.

10. Immediacy 

Immediate experience is in many ways the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

Immediacy Manifestation BWB supports the development of community infrastructure systems that enable citizens to rely upon each other and respond immediately and appropriately to situations that need to be resolved in their community.