User:John Bessa/Rainbow Gathering notes

History and Culture
The history as I remember being told by the elders over twenty years is much different than the history I am reading here:
 * It was formed by returning Vietnam veterans and their families, essentially, to create a therapeutic environment
 * Unlike other gatherings of the time, such as Woodstock, early Rainbow Gatherings were small, consisting mostly of families
 * It was first held in the Colorado Rockies, and it was attacked by local "cowboys" who were associated with ranchers and may have been KKK
 * The Rainbows formed a circle around their children to protect the children from from gunfire
 * It is an un-organization that defines Kropotkin's natural anarchy in Mutual Aid
 * It is tribal in the Native American sense, rather than a rebellion, say, specifically against capital
 * As such each camp does exactly its "own thing," which shows the Gathering's hippie background, which itself was tribal and often based on Native American culture
 * It is purely democratic:
 * Issues spontaneously trigger a council circle
 * Decisions are made by consensus
 * Anyone may speak
 * A feather is passed around, and only the Rainbow holding the feather may speak
 * Shanta-sena, who have radio contact with officials, may hover in the background if an issue is contentious
 * The culture honors elders exactly as native tribes do
 * Every individual group is thought of as tribe (much as everything on the WP is technically-speaking an article), including animals and authorities, and each is usually represented by a camp
 * Specific cultural traits may come and go depending if a camp is set up based on them
 * There may be a dog tribe camp, or even an ant tribe camp protected with yellow warning tape
 * Not mentioned here is the "Fairy Camp" (spelled different ways) that is one of the handful of perennial camps
 * The camping culture of this camp predates the first Gathering
 * Brought experience to early Gatherings
 * Introduced advanced hygiene standards in 1988
 * The only prohibition is alcohol, but is not effectively enforced
 * Police repression comes and goes; it was mild in 2010, it was brutal in 2003
 * 6-up has been well-received at many camps in recent years, not being an active part of enforcement
 * 6-up calls itself "6-up," apparently "6-up" has become a familiar term over time
 * In 2010, LEOs (National Parks Law Enforcement Officers) were the goons, but I don't recall them having much luck with arrests
 * People at the Gathering may be anti-Rainbow
 * There was a purely disruptive camp in 2010 that violated all the sacred events, drank in excess, and attempted to burn a cross, a hate crime
 * I spoke to one of these anti-Rainbows who had crashed a wedding I was photographing to disrupt it, and he specifically told me that their goal is to replace the hippies and legalize alcohol

I think it may be difficult to quantify knowledge about the Gathering and the Family for several reasons:
 * Rainbows are not necessarily the type to carefully document things
 * News reports of popular happenings tend to be sensationalized and secondhand
 * As a tribal culture, it relies on the aural/oral tradition, which tends to myth (which is fine by me but not WP!)
 * The elders are, in fact, becoming very old

A good strategy might be to describe each camp especially with photographs to show the cultural components, as well as the main circle events.

A value of the Gathering to society and social science may be that it is a real-life neolithic culture, and defensively so. In that money is forbidden, the capital culture, such as it is, functions purely on barter-- and often that even gets out of control in the minds of the elders. While my post-modernest sense makes me think that the trade circle (often not exactly a circle) would beg for a common currency, it functions well without one. Well, it functioned well for me, anyway.

On the topic of alcohol:
 * It is forbidden except at "A Camp," which is supposedly a welcome camp.

Alcohol is confiscated at the A Camp, and you guessed it, drunk there. So it is a drunk camp, and tends to attract, well, not the best of the Rainbows. But if you look at the ratios, perhaps 10,000 great people, and a few not-so-great, the Rainbow is a very stable culture, and the A Camp acts as its social tonsils. "A Campers" tend to stand in the road and stop cars as if they are officials supposedly to ask if there is alcohol in the cars, but they generally have nefarious intent. I saw an A Camper throw a beer can at an infant's face in Utah in 2003. So the best strategy is to avoid the A Camp by taking another road in if you go. --John Bessa (talk) 20:01, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

2010 Gathering
I was there for all seven days, and I would like to upload some images. Please take a look, and note which ones you like.--John Bessa (talk) 19:28, 31 July 2010 (UTC)