11th Principle: Consent
We respect the freedom(s) of those around us. We give only what is appreciated, accept only what is freely offered. As a community with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and communication styles, it is best to use clear verbal communication to ensure everyone’s boundaries are understood and respected. We believe consensus plays an essential role in our connectedness and community. Our vision is that all those involved take part in an encounter with enthusiasm and personal responsibility. Consent can only be given by a person who is clearly in a lucid state of consciousness.
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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.
According to this principle, we want to fully perceive and enjoy every moment and engage in new experiences without reservations or prejudices. With this openness, every experience on a burn becomes a unique experience from which we can draw knowledge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Whatever you always wanted to be – burns are a safe place to express yourself, may it be through an outfit, a performance, or something else.
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Make sure that you are equipped and ready for everything that could happen. For example: It is important that you bring your own food and water.
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.
This means also that at the actual burn events there will be no advertisement or money involved.
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.
Whether you want to gift some (selfmade) cookies, a vegan casserole or an act of service like styling hair or teaching a specific dance is up to you. There are no limits! Please keep in mind that the principle of Consent (see below) also comes into play here and accept any “No” gracefully when offering a gift to someone.
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
It does not matter what sexuality you have or which gender you identify with, where you come from or whatever it is that might have gotten you excluded elsewhere! We strive to include everyone – as long as you yourself aim for it as well.
Intro / Story
Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey wrote the 10 Principles in 2004 as guidelines for the newly-formed Regional Network. Our Austrian burning community is using the 10 principles as a base for all events we are creating, and alongside other European burns, we include the 11th principle of Consent.
The principles were actually developed 18 years after the first burn in 1986 and are probably the result of many years of “trial and error”. They are there to make the Burner experience more safe for every participant as well as to increase the chances to get the most out of it. Taking those principles seriously when attending a Burn is therefore not only highly recommended, it is essential.
