In difficult times, sorcerers, sorcerers and charlatans always come. True, I never thought I would live to see something like this live, so to speak, on the air, but I survived and I can’t help but share my impressions.
In February of this year, as you know, a lot has changed irreversibly. Facebook (the owner of Meta was considered and banned in Russia) and Instagram (the owner of Meta was recognized and banned in Russia as an extremist) were soon officially banned in Russia. The latter, among other things, once gave rise to entire industries – crowds and crowds of craftsmen, trainers and knowledge gypsies who simply feed off of this social network, even getting really rich.
But trends have changed. And what I’ve observed is frankly baffling.
Instead of numerous courses, webinars, seminars “How to succeed without doing anything”, tarologists, fortune tellers, magicians, psychics and other fortunetellers sprouted on the Russian Internet like mushrooms after the rain. I had a final stun when I saw a tarot reading pop up on a well-known political blogger’s channel! The man naturally opened his cards on the international economic situation. Thankfully, the Council of Ministers has not thought about this yet, or is there a Central Bank Presidency?
And the audience for such projects continues to grow. However, this is understandable. In an era of great upheavals, the Russian people unconsciously seek help from higher powers. We have a mystical consciousness, it’s time to accept it, no matter how far you cross Russia, it still seems to be somewhere in the direction of Perun and tarot layouts.
How to flag economic crises in my own country? Well, at least the hard times after the 1917 revolution? So what is it known for: decadence and pervasive fashion for extrasensory perception. Even in Bortko’s painting “Heart of the Dog” this moment is indicated: the poor aristocracy evokes the spirit of the king by taking a plate across the table.
And the flashy 90s? Yes, almost the entire country has gathered in front of the television to recharge the water! Tell today’s hipster – he’ll lose consciousness from laughter, but it wasn’t long before, to say the least.
Kashpirovsky, Chumak is not an invention of the author of this column, but a phenomenon existing in nature, their popularity was incomparably higher than today’s popularity, say, Olga Buzova.
Of course, processes can be understood in terms of psychology: when you cannot influence the situation, you seek outside support. Yegor Letov vividly described this process with the words: “There are no atheists in the trenches under fire.” There are no surprises and changes in the times of those who are skeptical of the tarot and horoscope.
A person is looking for help and support, understandable explanations that he is not getting them in the usual way. But in the end, the general confusion not only aggravates, it turns into general madness.
We are the first generation users of the global internet. Perhaps in a hundred years humanity will somehow structure the information in the network, introduce clear and appropriate rules for processing it. But now the Internet most resembles a fairground, where the communication system works according to the principle of “who has how much” and you hear the loudest shout. And today, at a not so easy time, it was as if a crowd of gypsies, fortune tellers, and little crooks had come to this square, brought along an accordion, brought a bear, and performed a hellish round dance.
“And I am alone among them,” as the poet wrote.
I’m going to go or something else, fortune-telling – will universal enlightenment come?
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.