[Sniff] H'mmm. Methinkes' think I smell a double-standard hereabouts.

Every year, we hear about some other artist's work getting ripped off, vandalized, messed with by malevolent persons unknown. And we all screw up our brows in artistic sympathy and go, "Ohhhh, they're so uncool! That's just bad, the perps should be ashamed of themselves. BTW, have they caught the jerks who messed with [placeholder for vandalized art installation/camp of record here] from last year yet?"

But when the CENTRAL FIGURE of the festival gets torched, the guy who did it gets showered in glory and praise and everyone says he saved the festival from itself! (Tell me again...we need to be saved WHY?)

Whether it's the Man, the Temple, or a bamboo rack hung with sand-cast bells, or a spiral labyrinth of handsewn silk flags waiting for someone to come play hide-and-seek or make love amongst them; whether it's a grant-funded project aligned with the theme or a "just-because" labor of love; whether it's 30 feet tall or literally pocket-sized........at least one person busted their ass and poured their heart into making it and getting it there. Doing an installation at Burning Man is HARD. Getting there is expensive. But what inspires its attendees to stretch themselves like that, is that they know that once they get there and set up, they'll be paid back many thousands-fold, because everyone else did the same. A beast that's more than the sum of its parts.

So what's going on here? How is someone's installation getting stamped flat by a rampaging Shark Car NOT okay but a lazy, nose-in-the-air little Napoleon hijacking the Man' Burn IS okay? Chaos is fine, but R-E-S-P-E-C-T is just as good. Today's Headline™, they needn't preclude each other.

Yep, that's definitely Double-Standard spoor I smell here, mmmm-hmm.