THE ORIGINAL TEN · RECONSIDERED FOR TODAY
10 Principles Inspired by AI
The original ten, plus four additional principlesProposed interpretations from THE 14 PRINCIPLES.
The original Ten Principles were written by Burning Man founder Larry Harvey in 2004. They were created not as dictates governing how people must behave, but as a reflection of the ethos and culture that had organically developed within the Burning Man community.
The original Principles remain the foundation.
The following proposes an evolution of their language while preserving their intent, followed by four additional Principles addressing areas that have become increasingly important within the culture: Consent, Gratitude, Radical Incursion, and Radical Self-Entitlement.
Jump to a principle 14 principles
The original ten reconsidered
PRINCIPLE 1
Radical Inclusion
You are welcome here.
Proposed wording
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger and embrace the diversity of people, experiences, perspectives, and forms of expression they bring.
No prerequisites exist for participation in our community beyond a shared responsibility to respect the dignity, autonomy, boundaries, and equal participation of others.
Radical Inclusion invites everyone into the community; it does not entitle anyone to diminish another person's ability to participate in it.
Original wording - Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Why change it? - Radical Inclusion
The original establishes one of Burning Man's most powerful ideas:
Anyone may belong.
But Radical Inclusion works in both directions. If I expect the community to make room for me, I must also make room for others.
You are welcome here-and so is the person next to you.
PRINCIPLE 2
Gifting
Give without creating obligation.
Proposed wording
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving.
The value of a gift is unconditional. A gift is freely offered without expectation of repayment, obligation, recognition, influence, or exchange.
Its value arises not merely from what is given, but from the human connection made possible through giving.
A gift freely offered should never create an obligation in the person receiving it.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Gifting
The original makes clear that gifting isn't commerce.
The expanded language makes another important distinction:
A gift does not create a debt.
Food, art, assistance, hospitality, affection, access, labor, or an experience freely given does not entitle the giver to something from the recipient.
Gifting creates connection-not obligation.
PRINCIPLE 3
Decommodification
Don't turn the experience into a transaction.
Proposed wording
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments and human relationships unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, advertising, branding, or purchased privilege.
We stand ready to protect our culture from exploitation and resist the conversion of people, participation, art, culture, and shared experiences into commodities.
Money may provide resources, but it cannot purchase participation, belonging, contribution, status, or authentic human connection.
We resist the substitution of consumption and convenience for participatory experience.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Decommodification
Commodification today extends beyond advertising.
It is increasingly possible to attempt to purchase an entire experience-housing, food, transportation, labor, access, entertainment, comfort, and status.
Money can help make participation possible.
Money should not substitute for participation.
PRINCIPLE 4
Radical Self-Reliance
Take responsibility for yourself.
Proposed wording
Burning Man encourages individuals to discover, exercise, develop, and rely upon their own physical, intellectual, emotional, practical, and creative resources.
Radical Self-Reliance means arriving prepared to care for ourselves while remaining capable of both giving and receiving help.
Self-reliance is not isolation.
Our individual resilience strengthens our ability to participate, contribute, collaborate, and care for one another.
Original wording - Radical Self-Reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Why change it? - Radical Self-Reliance
Radical Self-Reliance can be mistakenly reduced to:
"You're on your own."
A stronger interpretation is:
Take responsibility for yourself so that you are capable of contributing to the community.
Being self-reliant doesn't prevent us from helping-or accepting help from-one another.
PRINCIPLE 5
Radical Self-Expression
Be radically yourself while protecting that freedom in others.
Proposed wording
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, liberties, autonomy, and boundaries of the recipient.
We remain conscious that our expression exists alongside the equally radical expression of others.
Freedom of expression does not grant freedom from responsibility for its impact upon another person's ability to participate or express themselves.
Radical Self-Expression flourishes most fully when we protect the same freedom in others that we claim for ourselves.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Radical Self-Expression
The original already contains an extremely important limitation: the giver should respect the recipient's rights and liberties.
That deserves greater prominence.
Radical Self-Expression cannot simply mean:
"I can do whatever I want because this is Burning Man."
Everyone else possesses Radical Self-Expression too.
My Radical Self-Expression cannot require the surrender of yours.
PRINCIPLE 6
Communal Effort
Build it together.
Proposed wording
Our community values creative cooperation, collaboration, and shared responsibility.
We strive to produce, promote, protect, and sustain social networks, public spaces, works of art, infrastructure, and methods of communication that support meaningful human interaction.
Community is not something provided for us.
It is something we create together.
Each person's contribution strengthens the whole, and the strength of the whole expands what each of us can create.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Communal Effort
Someone built the shade.
Someone cooked the meal.
Someone built the art.
Someone fixed the generator.
Someone greeted the stranger.
Someone cleaned the kitchen.
Someone stayed behind and picked up the MOOP.
The community isn't a service. It exists because people contribute to it.
PRINCIPLE 7
Civic Responsibility
Accept responsibility for the community you help create.
Proposed wording
We value civil society and recognize that community carries responsibility.
Organizers and participants alike share responsibility for the welfare of the communities and environments in which we gather.
Those who create events and experiences assume particular responsibility for communicating expectations, protecting public welfare, and conducting those activities in accordance with applicable laws.
Each participant likewise accepts responsibility for their own actions and for contributing to a community in which others may participate freely and responsibly.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Civic Responsibility
The original places much of Civic Responsibility upon organizers.
But participants create Black Rock City too.
Citizenship creates both freedom and responsibility.
PRINCIPLE 8
Leaving No Trace
Take responsibility for your impact.
Proposed wording
Our community respects the environment and accepts responsibility for the consequences of our presence.
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 also asks us to consider the resources we consume, waste we create, energy we use, and environmental consequences of the choices we make before, during, and after our gatherings.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Leaving No Trace
Our environmental trace doesn't begin at Gate and disappear at Exodus.
Transportation, fuel, generators, construction materials, food, packaging, water, waste, and disposal all create impacts.
Leaving No Trace means taking responsibility for our footprint-not merely what remains on the ground.
PRINCIPLE 9
Participation
Don't merely consume; contribute.
Proposed wording
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic.
We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual, the community, or society, occurs through deeply personal participation.
We achieve being through doing.
Everyone is invited to work.
Everyone is invited to play.
Participation takes many forms, but it asks each of us to contribute rather than merely consume the contributions of others.
We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Participation
Black Rock City isn't something produced by one group for another group to consume.
You aren't merely attending the experience.
You are one of the people creating it.
PRINCIPLE 10
Immediacy
Be here.
Proposed wording
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 recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers.
We encourage presence over observation, experience over documentation, connection over distraction, and participation over spectatorship.
Technology, images, stories, and ideas may enrich our experience, but none can substitute for being fully present within it.
Original wording - 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.
Why change it? - Immediacy
Technology isn't inherently contrary to Immediacy.
But technology becomes a barrier when recording, photographing, posting, messaging, or observing replaces experiencing.
Are you documenting the moment-or are you actually in it?
Four additional principles
PRINCIPLE 11
Consent
Ask rather than assume.
Proposed principle
Our community recognizes consent as fundamental to meaningful participation and authentic connection.
Consent is the freely given, informed, specific, and reversible agreement to participate in an interaction or experience.
Consent applies to our bodies, touch, sexual activity, photography, personal space, property, and other circumstances where one person's actions directly involve another.
Consent should be communicated rather than assumed.
Silence, familiarity, previous participation, intoxication, costume, nudity, Radical Inclusion, or Radical Self-Expression does not constitute permission.
Every participant has the right to establish and change their boundaries, and those boundaries should be respected without pressure, retaliation, ridicule, or judgment.
Radical Self-Expression gives us extraordinary freedom to express ourselves.
Consent reminds us that this freedom does not grant us access to another person.
When we ask, listen, respect the answer, and remain attentive when circumstances change, we create a community in which people can participate freely and authentically.
Why add it? - Consent
Consent makes explicit something that exists implicitly throughout the original Principles.
Radical Inclusion does not mean compulsory inclusion.
Gifting does not obligate reciprocation.
Radical Self-Expression does not override another person's autonomy.
Participation does not require participating in every interaction.
Your autonomy belongs to you. My autonomy belongs to me. What we freely choose to experience together belongs to both of us.
PRINCIPLE 12
Gratitude
Recognize what others freely contribute.
Proposed principle
Our community values gratitude as recognition that what we experience together is made possible by the gifts, efforts, creativity, labor, and care of others.
Nothing in our community happens entirely on its own.
Every structure raised, meal shared, piece of art created, experience offered, problem solved, and helping hand extended represents someone choosing to contribute.
Gratitude asks us to recognize those contributions without expectation or entitlement and to appreciate both the visible and unseen work that makes our shared experience possible.
We express gratitude not only through words, but through respect, participation, reciprocity, and our willingness to contribute in turn.
What we receive as a gift should never become something we simply expect.
Why add it? - Gratitude
Gifting describes the responsibility of the giver.
Gratitude completes the relationship by addressing the recipient.
It recognizes the artist and the person who unloaded the truck.
The cook and the person washing dishes.
The person building Black Rock City and the person restoring the playa after everyone has gone home.
It transforms:
"Look what Burning Man provided for me."
into:
"Look what people contributed so that we could create this together."
PRINCIPLE 13
Radical Incursion
Recognize where your expression encounters another person's freedom.
Proposed principle
Our community recognizes that Radical Self-Expression does not exist in isolation.
Expression becomes Radical Incursion when one person's actions, behavior, sound, speech, sexual expression, or other form of self-expression intrudes upon another person's autonomy, boundaries, consent, or ability to experience and express themselves.
We encourage participants to remain aware of the impact their expression has on those around them and to recognize that respect and consideration are themselves forms of participation.
Radical expression should expand our shared experience, not diminish another person's freedom to participate in it.
Why add it? - Radical Incursion
Radical Self-Expression establishes freedom.
Radical Incursion identifies where one person's freedom encounters another's.
Expression may be behavioral, verbal, sonic, physical, artistic, sexual, or otherwise experiential.
The question shouldn't only be:
"Am I free to do this?"
It should also include:
"Does doing this unnecessarily interfere with someone else's ability to exercise their own freedom?"
PRINCIPLE 14
Radical Self-Entitlement
Being here does not mean you are owed something.
Proposed principle
Our community recognizes the difference between Radical Self-Expression and Radical Self-Entitlement.
Participation does not create an entitlement to another person's time, labor, attention, resources, body, space, art, gifts, or experience.
Nor does purchasing a ticket, contributing money, volunteering, holding a position, or having years of participation grant greater ownership of the community or privilege over others.
We encourage participants to arrive prepared to contribute rather than expecting to be accommodated, served, entertained, included in every experience, or exempted from responsibilities shared by all.
The freedoms of our community flourish when we recognize that what is freely offered may be gratefully received, but what has not been offered is not ours to demand.
Why add it? - Radical Self-Entitlement
Entitlement can become the shadow side of almost every Principle.
Radical Inclusion becomes:
"You have to include me."
Gifting becomes:
"You should give me something."
Participation becomes:
"Someone should entertain me."
Radical Self-Expression becomes:
"Everyone else has to tolerate whatever I choose to do."
Radical Self-Entitlement rejects those inversions.
Participation gives us an opportunity to contribute to the community. It does not create a debt the community owes us.
THE CENTRAL IDEA
Build the community together
Be radically yourself.
Allow others to be radically themselves.
Take responsibility for yourself and your impact.
Contribute more than you consume.
Recognize and appreciate what others contribute.
Ask rather than assume.
Do not mistake gifting for obligation or inclusion for entitlement.
Respect the boundary between your freedom and another person's freedom.
And build the community together.