It’s no longer enough these days to be a star.   Any celebrity worthy of general notice must be a superstar

Likewise, what’s the big deal in being a model?   Only supermodels are now of interest to us.

By the same principle, we no longer pay much attention to just-plain heroes, unless they’ve recently rescued us (or people we’re close to).   The rest of the time, we demand superheroes with superpowers.

Most of us have undergone devaluations similar to those suffered by plain-old-ordinary stars, models and heroes.  This process has affected even people with exceptional talents who, in most of human history, would have been widely admired.

The plight of today’s musicians is one telling example.   Very few people show up at local places anymore to hear local musicians play.   Most of us now listen to the same miniscule group of global megastars who everyone else on the planet tunes in to. This gigantism of scale dooms almost all other musicians to never being able to support themselves—or even generate a significant income supplement—from doing the thing they’re best at, and clearly meant to do.  Has there been another society in human history that’s treated its musicians so poorly?