I adore Dostoevsky, and he was eerily prescient about many things. Notes from the Underground predicted the failure of positivism and the industrial revolution to create a utopia due to the inherently irrational nature of man, ultimately leading to the nihilistic world we find ourselves in as we discarded our old traditions in favor of science and technology. And for the record, I am not a religious person, so I make that statement without any intentional bias, nor am I saying the previous order was inherently superior or something to return to.

Nice essay, good analysis of the Machavellian types that thrive around unlimited money, power and bullshit. Would a scene from another Russian novel about playing Russian roulette while partying would fit here? Sure you capture the spirit of that but nearly everyone has severe dopamine addiction while online these days. It has to be outrageous and over-the-top to get clicks and resharing!

The internet has become a circus and AI keeps us all on the freak show and hall of distorted mirror images.

Make it into a script/screenplay, perhaps?

This time in history looks like a revival of technocracy from the 1930s, dressed in new colors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy