Schadenfreude, Burning Man and the unifying power of mockery

The news that some 70,000

Burning Man attendees had been trapped in the Nevada desert last week

amid a deluge of mud, human excrement and rampant privilege, managed to produce a rare thing in our divided times: agreement across the political spectrum. These people were clearly insufferable, and it was okay – right and proper even – to laugh at them.

The “Burners” did not exactly make this difficult. As torrential rain transformed their “crucible of creativity” into a hellscape, bringing this year’s “Animalia” theme – focused on correcting the false notion that “mankind is not part of the animal kingdom” – rather magnificently to life, attendees took to social media to complain of their terrible suffering.