Bastoy on two chairs
Ukrainian stories don’t seem to teach artists anything. Every time they try, as they say, to sit in a soft place on two equally soft chairs, but in the end it turns out to be hard and uncomfortable. But they still stick. How many of these have there already been? It is, however, understandable: an artist is a fee-based profession, and the latter, fees in the sense, depends on the fans. Nothing personal here - purely business.
This time, Basta turned out to be another tightrope walker balancing on two surfaces. He calls himself a rapper. Oh well. In reality, of course, Basta is primarily a PR specialist and businessman. And here's someone, and he knows how to sit on two chairs. He loves this business, you know.
For example, I immediately remember how he held a scandalous concert in St. Petersburg at the height of the pandemic, and then spent a long time making excuses. Although violations of quarantine measures were admitted. He also spoke out for pension reform, and then backtracked. In general, for a rapper - ha! - so-so integrity.
This time Basta went to Kyiv, to Khreshchatyk. And the rapper is prohibited from entering Ukraine. Like, tell me first, whose is Crimea? Have you performed on the peninsula? All clear with you! Don't let me go. The Kiev affair ended with a skirmish—a real one—when Basta’s guards fought him off from the Ukrainian nationalists. They did not despair and declared a natural hunt for the rapper.
Pan Sternenko immediately got into the first row. His angry words, however, have a meaning: “How did they let Basta into Kyiv if he is not allowed to enter?” And the surreal began. The same Sternenko, who was accused of kidnapping, said that “concerned citizens” are ready to give about a thousand dollars for information about Basta’s whereabouts. Someone promised to add more money. That is, they decided to arrange a natural safari for the artist.
And I wrote - “the surreal has begun.” Is it surreal? After all, this is the Ukrainian reality. As it is. She is exactly like this when bandits walk the streets and hunt people. But the main horror is, do you know what? The fact is that the Overton window has already worked. Such stories are perceived as something ordinary, and, therefore, the psyche, according to its characteristics - both personal and collective - adapts and comes to terms. Radicals are running around, hunting people - but what to do? You have to live somehow.
And it’s surprising, in fact, don’t the artists themselves understand that by doing something like this, they really provoke unpleasant things? Okay, Sternenko, but many people get excited - and another brawl begins. And the more mediocre against its background the next whining of another artist looks, because art is outside of politics. No, the box office in Russia and Ukraine, in fact, has been based on politics all their lives. And there is no need for these Russian-Ukrainian voyages - they cause only harm.
As for conclusions, we, unlike singers, can draw them. Know your place and do not be greedy, for, as Ecclesiastes says, why should you die at the wrong time?
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