‘It was an absolute Fyre Festival.’ Before Miami contestants were enlisted to save the world, another group signed up in Montreal. But where were the cameras? They were there. The world was watching.
We saw it all unfold in real time — the madness, the drama, and the chaos (‘The chaos was incredible. For one hour I watched the entire festival. It was insane. I was so proud of my friends,’ remembers one of the contestants).
But our media was nowhere to be found. We saw the madness, but we weren’t there, either. That’s because no one ever showed up — no cameras, no journalists, no reporters — and we were there all along.
It is one thing to walk through a crowded mall and witness an incredible, unexpected, and sometimes horrifying event. It’s quite another to walk through an empty mall, and find yourself in the presence of the chaos, the drama, and the chaos.
As the first two people to walk through the doors of the empty mall, I saw it all, because I was there first.
When people start talking, they do it. When crowds gather, they start to congregate. When strangers approach, they start to greet each other and give each other a hug. Before the madness, there was the chaos.
The reason I thought no one would show up at the shopping mall was because it’s a metaphor for everything that we see and do in the media. Because it’s inescapable. Because people never choose to be at a mall, but they always choose to be in front of a crowd. They never choose to be at a restaurant, but they always choose to work in front of a camera. They never choose to be at a restaurant, but they always choose to be around a reporter.
It is a metaphor for the media, and it is even worse than I thought.
The media is the biggest crowd gathering
