Journalists, police officers, scientists, they investigate everything, and still, sometimes they just forget or ignore the obvious, the phenomenon right in front of them, hiding in plain sight. The rise of vulgarism didn’t start in 2016, but it did gain momentum in that horrible year, the same year beauty and empathy lost its voice, maybe even its existence with the deaths of Bowie, Prince and Cohen. Is it so difficult to see the connection, to understand that the only open question is one of causality, did vulgarism kill these beautiful voices or merely took their place?

Where are the chief editors, the prosecutors, the faculty heads who should be interested, who should scratch their heads and ask themselves: ‘how the fuck did this happen?’ If vulgarism did kill these poets, the public has the right to know about motive, opportunity and murder weapon. If it was a matter of silencing themselves…then why…what was the magic connection between those three, how did they synchronise?

We have the right to know!

Sure, you think it’s unrelated, you think…well…how can there be a connection between just those three, how can their respective deaths even be related to the rise of vulgarism. There are more artists doing wonderful things, there are more artists who die, in 2016 or any other year, big deal! Such blissful ignorance! If only it was just a matter of doing wonderful things. It’s not beauty that died. Hell no, there is beauty in destruction, so how can beauty ever die? What disappeared, got crushed under the jackboot of loud mouthed vulgarism is something else altogether. In 2016 the voice of the outsider died. No more misfits, no more outsiders, no more heroes.

The end of the world as we know it…