The Fear of Dark Fantasies

The Burning Man festival; a giant human figure is burned on a dry ancient lake bed in Nevada called the playa.

People wore innovative and colourful costumes to set themselves apart in their artistic flamboyance, and to celebrate being among others with similar values as innovators, artists, thinkers and performers. This was the annual Burning Man get-together, a gathering where a giant-sized notional human Everyman is burned, standing atop a futuristic rendering of a space ship. Both standing in place on a dry, ancient lake bed in Nevada.

What began in 1986 as a modestly-attended event has burgeoned to a 61,000-person-attendance in 2013. The week-long event, from the last Monday in August to the first Monday in September draws people infused with the feelings of togetherness, yet uniqueness. People are encouraged to discover their inner resources and self-reliance. Everyone is responsible for looking after their own needs; no commerce is permitted, money doesn't change hands, exchanges of items are encouraged.

Those who attend are prepared to express themselves through art forms and projects. They may choose to burn their art projects as part of the festivities. Attendees may regard clothing as an optional requirement; although nudity is not widely practised, it is not uncommon in the gathering. Perhaps more to the point nothing is quite 'common' in the gathering, and that, perhaps, is what it's all about; to expect the unexpected.

The giant encampment on the Nevada playa

Without doubt the colourful costumes and peace signs made a comfortable impression on those attending the free-mind festival, since that primarily is what it is. A festival of free minds. Minds free to wander the corridors of self-expression, of imaginative and creative corridors of the human will to be and to be noticed and be part of something larger than themselves.

Although one of the co-founders of Facebook must have had an open mind when it came to the possibilities of experience at the gathering, he was still obviously taken aback to come across two people whose presence and his proximity to them, however brief, might have been quite awkward. Perhaps in a different setting, it might have been. Dustin Moskovitz, 29, came face to face with 32-year-old twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

The history there is one of accusation, the twin brothers alleging that the more famous co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, unethically and without consultation purloined their brilliant idea for a university-based social network that became Facebook, made it his own and became a very young billionaire. A settlement in the long legal dispute made the Winklevoss twins $65-million richer than when they had set out to seek justice, as they saw it.

Leaving Mr. Moskovitz still worth $3-billion, and Mr. Zuckerberg $16-billion. The four thought, independently of the others, to make their presence at the Burning Man event. Mr. Zuckerberg whose pitched tent Mr. Moskovitz was responsible for, somehow missed out on the reunion of the once-friendly university students exchanging ideas, hugely benefiting one half of the foursome.

Thanks to all the peace signs, the relaxed atmosphere, the colour and bustle and cool wonder of it all, the meeting, chance as it was, between the Winklevoss brothers and their one-time nemesis was civil and polite. They are no longer antagonists. The resentment at having a a brilliant idea yanked out from under their own achieving potential has dissipated with time and diminished with a cash outlay.

"In spite of our tangled history I had never actually met them", wrote Mr. Moskovitz in a blog. "We only communicated through lawyers. These guys are among the only people on Earth I might describe as real antagonists in my life or even enemies, but on playa my first instinct was that I quite obviously needed to introduce myself and start with hugs.
"They had just arrived so I wasn't sure how they'd react, but they were very gracious at the time and I knew they'd understand more deeply by the time they left. Almost immediately when I got back, I had a Facebook friend request from Tyler and we started a thread mutually extolling the virtues of the festival. In no uncertain terms, he described a spiritual experience.
"I had created all kinds of dark fantasies about how meeting them would go (Tyler assures me it would have been cordial regardless), but on playa it was laughably clear. There, we were all part of the same community."