The Million-Dollar Banana Effect: A Revelry in Times of Plague

The international media and social networks have widely discussed the act of Chinese billionaire Justin Sun eating a banana that he purchased at auction for $6.2 million. Through conceptual art, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan attached a regular banana to a wall with duct tape and named it "Comedian." Notably, the resonance of this act of banana consumption by the Chinese billionaire exceeds the coverage of significant events happening these days in Syria, Ukraine, and Lebanon on media platforms.

This occurrence can perhaps be characterized by Alexander Pushkin's famous saying, "A Revelry in Times of Plague." By spending $6.2 million, Sun is publicly eating a banana, while every day thousands of people, including children, are dying of hunger in different corners of the world. Commentaries on this matter seem, perhaps, superfluous.