The Burning Man festival takes place every year at the end of August in middle-of-nowhere, Nevada. The festival creates it’s own city called Black Rock and encourages art, self-expression, and a spirit of community. Typically equating to crazy costumes, nudity, and use of illicit substances.
It’s not exactly the kind of place you would expect to see Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. But nevertheless he plans to attend the festival this year.
It all started when the founder of Burning Man, Larry Harvey, came to Washington D.C. in 2012 to meet with the National Park Service about land use for the festival. Harvey stopped by the Americans for Tax Reform weekly meeting while he was in the area and ended up getting dinner with Norquist and his wife.
Norquist told the National Review that he has wanted to attend the festival ever since, but prior commitments have gotten in the way. In 2012 he tweeted, “which idiot put the GOP convention the same time as ‘Burning Man’ in Nevada? Is there time to change this?” to express his frustration.
The stars aligned this year and Norquist and his wife will be heading to Black Rock City for an unpredictable week of self-reliant shenanigans.
Norquist is drawn to the inconspicuous similarities between Burning Man and American’s for Tax Reform. Both were founded in 1986 and started with only 20 participants, but he sees farther than that.
“These are very similar operations, except we tend to wear more clothes,” Norquist said.
While many people see Burning Man as a hippie-dominated, drug-ridden, week of nonsense, Norquist views it as an excellent portrayal of the theory of spontaneous order and “old-fashioned capitalism.”
“There’s no government that organizes this. That’s what happens when nobody tells you what to do. You just figure it out,” Norquist said in an interview with the National Journal. “So Burning Man is a refutation of the argument that the state has a place in nature.”
So if you’re attending Burning Man this year, look for a naked guy in glasses preaching about fighting income-tax increases. Chances are you will have run into Norquist.
