Phil Davidson: Is he the Messiah, or just a very naughty boy?
The past six weeks have been a roller-coaster for the UK. Phil Davidson's meteoric rise to fame and fortune has rocked society to its core. Revolutionary? Visionary? Schizophrenic lunatic? All of the above? At times like this, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on just how we got here...
The world met Davidson as he played a set at the now legendary Fisherman's Arms pub in Shoreditch. For over three hours, he and his band kept the crowd captivated, almost without breaking between songs.
But what audience members at the time didn't know was the band had only met Davidson that evening, after one of them found him wandering the streets of London, homeless and hopeless, and talking to voices inside his head. After the gig, he was taken to Sussex where he recorded six albums that have become by far the most streamed music of all time.
On its own, this would have been a remarkable story but when Phil began to claim that he'd never played guitar before being given one the day before the gig, people began to ask questios: it was either a miracle or mental illness. Occam's Razor won the day.
Even before the AI Crash this would have been headline news, but in the brave new world of the CCS and the Creative Economy - where the majority of people earn their salaries by Influencing on Social Media - a figure like Davidson is social dynamite. He isn't simply a performer, he's a means to a salary, and the public's obsession with promoting him has shown no signs of slowing.
And no sooner had he landed than he started biting the hand that fed: the CCS Economy was oppressive, destructive, and the AI that ran it was corrupt and dangerous. We could do better than this, he wanted more than this, we needed to rise up and be better; he claimed that dangerous days were coming and only he had the key to escape.
The authorities could see the danger, and, as links between Phil's backroom staff and the underground resistance were revealed, many have started questioning his real intentions: he claims to want a peaceful world where we can all express ourselves and love each other, but his actions - and the actions of those around him - would suggest that this was nothing more than an age-old power-grab.
But who is he really? What does he want? Who are the voices that haunt him, and is there a way to heal the hurt that lives in the heart of this Broken Seed?