By invoking that phrase , I recognize Davis to be a veteran burner. "Poetic Terrorism" and "Temporary Autonomous Zone" were Cacophany Society concepts (accredited to Hakim Bey) that had initially attracted me to the event back in the late '90's. They were part of the vernacular and experience of Black Rock City that many other veterans lament is missing from the Burning Man of today.
See:
Says Davis:
"I first showed up at Burning Man in 94, when the event was ugly, deranged, and totally transformative: cacophony and suicide and discordia rolled into one mobile feast of AK-47s, mescal, and cigars. Larry Harvey may not care for the term, but I believe in the temporary autonomous zone. I felt it; I was there.
Don't get me wrong: I am not pulling an elitist move or claiming the festival was "better" back then. It wasn't. I remain continuously amazed at its evolution. I am fascinated by the fiery city. But those years catalyzed such bizarre ruptures of reality that they demand a fidelity that I and some quasi-jaded old-school Burners who still attend the festival cannot and will not shake.
My sadness these last few weeks is mostly a recognition of how many of today's Burners do not share that fidelity, which in retrospect makes Addis' act even more meaningful to me than the poetic prank it seemed that Monday night."
Erik Davis is an award-winning journalist, independent scholar, and “performance lecturer” based in San Francisco. He is the author "TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information" a cult classic of visionary media studies that has been translated into five languages. His essays on art, music, technoculture, and contemporary spirituality have appeared in over a dozen books, including AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man. For many years he was a contributing writer at Wired, and he is now the editor-at-large for Evolver magazine.
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