Requesting 10% More Balls Among The Master Morality Nietzscheans Pls

As soon as something is cool, the monoculture comes to devour it. Burning Man is no exception. In my camp’s pre-burn Zoom acculturation meetings, members are prompted to give their pronouns “if they want” in their introductions. Most capitulate (some jump at the chance!) The majority of the leadership isn’t woke, some are opposed, and yet they do this anyway. But at least there was the fig leaf of not being required to “give your pronouns,” and several people politely ignored the demand.

Near the end of build week the camp’s most enthusiastic wokist circled up everyone at dinner and initiated a welcome circle, introducing herself as a They and prompting everyone to introduce themselves and give their pronouns. When long time members “forgot” she cajoled them into confessing the obvious pronouns. Everyone fell into line. I was the only person that gave “I don’t believe in pronouns” as my pronouns.

Days later, talking with campmates, I was asked what I meant by this.

The campmates that asked consider themselves pretty darn based. They spoke of Nietzsche several times that week, and we had at least one great long-lasting conversation on Slave vs Master Morality (they’re partial to Master, within reason). When speaking with our Swiss campmate they wished to know if the Swiss political system encouraged more masculine politics — masculine in this case being used to mean straightforward, honorable, and willing to be open about fundamental conflicts, as opposed to conniving, scheming, and making secret backroom deals. Several of them worked for Curtis Yarvin’s tech company and had some admiration for him. At least a couple had lived in a monarchy for a couple years because they believed it would be a superior system and wanted to try it first hand.¹ I consider them among the more admirable of the Master Morality Nietzscheans.

Those that had been present at the woke introduction circle gave their pronouns.

I explained the reason for giving my pronouns as “I don’t believe in pronouns” (briefly it rounds to ~I’ve stopped submitting to woke power-grabs, and I’m starting to push back when they happen near me). All of them approved, several said this was admirable. And yet, despite being the based Nietzscheans, they had completely crumbled in the face of a small energetic girl demanding pronouns.

I’d really respect the Nietzscheans a lot more if they had just 10% more balls. Based on internet reading, I had expected even the slightest bit of resistance.

In their defense, they were burn-virgins and justifiably very insecure in their social position within the group. This was my 5th burn, I knew this girl was a 2nd-year upstart. The new guys had no way of knowing she wasn’t some camp leader, she certainly spoke and asserted herself like one. At Burning Man your subconscious is absolutely screaming at you “This desert wants you dead so badly, it will absolutely kill you if you don’t have the acceptance and support of a tribe of humans. Don’t get yourself exiled in this place!!” It takes a burn or two to accept that you really are safe… and even so, getting exiled could make for a very crappy week in a horrible environment.

Nonetheless, accepting some risk in the service of standing up for one’s principles is kinda the essence of having balls. I think expecting 10% balls even in such a harsh and unsure environment isn’t beyond reason for proud Nietzscheans?

The really crazy part happened a couple weeks after the burn. Back in the real world I met up with three camp veterans for lunch. These guys aren’t the Ubermensch crew. Two of them are tech workers, one of them is a shaman-poet. The most junior has three burns under his belt and helped direct build crew twice. The shaman has been with the camp for over 12 years, and is one of the founding members. The last one has been around for years and is the literal successor chosen by the outgoing leader of our camp! He led the entire project this year. Importantly, all three of them are extremely secure in their social positions in camp. There is damned little a 2nd-year member could do to threaten any of them.

All three of them said they admired the heck out of my refusing to give pronouns and saying I don’t believe in them. All three of them were there in that circle, and each one had kneeled to the wokist and offered pronouns, despite resenting it and despite being more secure in the camp’s social order than I am.

This was a shocking update to my model of humanity. This is how authoritarian movements win. The majority of humans will simply kneel to any perceived power rather than risk even a low-stakes confrontation. The authoritarians only need a few loud, energetic people willing to imply a threat and the game is conceded to them by default.

10% balls, man. Is that really so much to ask?

On the plus side, all the guys I talked to seemed to want to be stronger, and said they’d stand up in the future. So maybe they just needed an example and some encouragement. We can still be the change we wish to see in the world, and catalyze local changes. :)

1. They were disappointed and disillusioned, and moved back