About face, Burners!

When retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander and Democratic presidential hopeful, made a reported surprise appearance among the half-naked revelers at the Burning Man festival last week, some skeptics took it as just one more sign that the countercultural heritage of this annual bacchanal in the parched Nevada desert was going up in flames, along with the massive wooden flying saucer sculpture.

“Pretty sure Burning Man is the new golf,” Christopher Mims, a tech reporter, said in a Twitter message.

And it’s not just generals. The Man, it seems, is making inroads on the ancient lake bed Burners call the “playa,” imperiling the anarchic spirit of this annual arts festival known for its barter-only economy, Mardi Gras-meets-Mad Max costumes and conflagratory art installations.

Burning Man may have started out as a beach bonfire for California freethinkers in 1986. But lately it feels more like a dusty alternative to Davos — at least according to Gawker, which cited General Clark’s attendance as proof of its “transformation from a D.I.Y. pseudo-utopia to just another stupid ideas festival.”