We sat near one of the obelisks. It gave us a good 3/4 view of the Man.

The rangers are in a difficult position throughout the festival, but especially so at the burn. They have to maintain order so no one gets hurt, but they can't appear authoritarian, since that's counter to the whole Burning Man philosophy. So as the crowd came filtering around looking for a good vantage point, this guy was trying to tell them to sit down in the most passive-aggressive way possible.

"You know what would help me out a lot is if you folks would take a seat right here. Can you do me a favor and sit down? Thanks. You're a big help."

This approach was utterly ineffective when the ranter arrived.

This guy was pacing just inside the circle of cones, addressing the crowd like a Baptist preacher, if that Baptist preacher happened to be a frat boy having his first brush with really potent psychedelics. "I. Am. The. UNDOING!" he announced.

"Yeah, I understand that, but you'd really be helping me out if you'd go over there and sit down."

"We are all brothers," the ranter still implored the crowd. "We are all sisters!" I'm not, I thought.

"That's great, but if you could just give me a hand and--"

"I AM THE UNDOING!" he bellowed. By this time some of the other rangers were smelling trouble and converging to assist. One took him by each arm.

"Listen! Listen! Listen to me!" he greeted them. He began to spring up and down like a pogo stick. The rangers holding him did the only thing they could. They started jumping along with him.

"Laugh! Laugh! Laugh!" he cried. Together the rangers pogoed him right out of the circle and away from the crowd.