The Last Birthday

May this be Putin’s last birthday as a figure who attracts attention or matters to anyone. 

Although, unfortunately, it is certain that more than one author will make a good living from royalties on analytical biographies. Their print runs will be substantial—perhaps a little smaller than those devoted to Adolf H., but possibly comparable with biographies of Joseph S. 

Let us hope that Europe quickly becomes a continent so dull and predictable that it will make business sense to produce a multi-season series about the nuances of the difficult life of an ambitious teenage thug from Leningrad, in an atmosphere as dark and fantastical as HBO’s 2019 Chernobyl.

Each day, entangled in the media, we shall sit before the television. After work, before sleep, relaxed. We live amid dense interference between images and increasingly resemble the serenely enthroned Innocent X in Francis Bacon’s painting. We know almost everything. We have everything under control.