When Dionysus offered Midas any gift he desired, Midas could think of nothing better than to ask that everything he touched turn into pure, shiny gold, and this wish was immediately granted by Dionysus. Midas decided to test his gift: he touched a branch of an oak tree, and it turned to gold; he picked up a stone, and the same thing happened. When Midas returned to the palace, he ordered a feast to celebrate his new gift. However, when he reached for food and drink, they too turned to gold, making it impossible for him to eat or drink.
In Bulgakov’s novel, Woland staged a performance at a variety theater, where money rained down on people’s heads, and women were invited to dress in fashionable stores. After the show ended, the money turned into paper, and the people were left naked.
Prophecies, right?
Table of Contents
Photograph
Photography was once a marvel. Then came the art of photography—the skill to capture a moment, a frame, a composition, to turn an idea into a print that emerges on photo paper. The demand for photography grew among people. They began buying “point-and-shoot” cameras to take pictures of themselves rather than things that might interest others. Then digital photography arrived. Soon, the camera became an essential feature of every phone. Now we take pictures of our food! Not only do we photograph it, but we also make sure those around us look at it! Capturing landscapes at sunset or architectural landmarks has become cliché. Instead, we focus on ice cream or a salad. We feel happy because we see something that someone else planned for us to see in that exact way—it’s a secondary experience of a secondary experience. And in the end, it amounts to nothing. Millions of people decide to become photographers and spend outrageous amounts on digital equipment. If the world was once filled with good photographs, now, even if there are more good photos, finding and seeing them is nearly impossible. 99% of everything shot for “artistic purposes” is outright trivial and banal. Did we want photographs? We got paper instead of money. Or, to put it another way, we create visual value from food instead of simply eating it. Photography is dead.
Music
Music. In the past, there were serious filters for artists who wanted to reach the public. Huge transactional costs. Critics and experts hired by record companies or censors in totalitarian countries ensured that only higher-quality music made it to our ears. Most importantly, we could discover the world of music from neighboring countries, equally good or even better. Music in each country developed in its own way, within its own context, offering delightful discoveries to those who found it. We explored Italian pop and French chanson. We admired British rock bands and American musicals. We wanted more music. We became greedy again. Music started to be churned out. Reduced transactional costs brought untalented individuals with money to the forefront, “projects” that “promote” themselves. Millions of wannabe rappers are making what they call music. The world is full of talented performers, but they are invisible and unheard amid the avalanche of garbage that is universal across the globe. Niches and sanctuaries where authentic music could emerge are disappearing, and contextual boundaries are being erased. Yes, now anyone can create a YouTube channel and sing into it. Or TikTok. And so what? 99% of what will be there will be trash. The kind of stuff that would have been filtered out at a school competition. And if someone could create something new, they would struggle to break free from the imposed universal context. A good car designer needs to grow up in Italy, surrounded by the right architecture and forms. A designer raised in South Butovo simply won’t have the necessary resolution to create something beautiful. So where will new, good musicians and composers come from if they are raised on the universal trash pouring into our ears from every direction? Music is dead.
Friendship
Yes, yes, I will write that friendship is dead. And not just because social networks have brought in fake friends. Not only because children have stopped playing with their peers in the yards and now spend their time glued to screens, and not just because there’s no one to help carry out even a corpse, let alone a wardrobe. But also because friends have simply been pushed out of our minds.
Mass media and marketers have replaced our face-to-face communication. The “memory slots” meant for close relationships are occupied by politicians and brands. The “memory slots” I mentioned refer to the number of people our brains can hold in memory, and this number is limited. This limitation is known as Dunbar’s number. For wolves, depending on the individual, this number is around 20. For humans, it’s about 200.
And we start thinking not about people, but about car brands, believing that automotive brands have a reputation and that we can predict a car’s behavior based on the badge on the trunk.
We judge living people by the brand of phone they hold in their hands. We swallow a tidbit of news or a movie, and politicians and artists spill out in our minds. They have occupied the memory slots we so desperately need.
You are watching. television Do you read the news? Instead, it would be better to spend that time doing something nice, like knocking on your neighbor’s door and sharing a treat. That’s so much more important and beneficial! Millions of people complain about loneliness while, in fact, they are surrounded by others just like them. In most cases, good people. Yet we choose to remain alone and lament our solitude.
But we can no longer truly connect with real people because our minds are occupied by Louis Vuitton or Vladimir Putin. When people meet and communicate, they talk less about actual mutual acquaintances and spend more time discussing imaginary ones, from Elon Musk to Alla Pugacheva. Friendship has died.