It feels like the stage is being dismantled. It is a subtle change not that noticeable maybe. This stage has existed for hundreds of years and on it were all the top-drawer people whether writers, intellectuals, novelists, singers, musicians, actors or performers. They were the cultural icons who were looked up to and appreciated for their high value. They were the ones who could do certain things best. They were the crème de la crème, admired, respected, sometimes idolised.

The elite were on the stage and the masses were in the auditorium. That's how it was. But as the stage is dismantled there is no longer a mass focal point. Cultural works are scattered to the four winds and none are able to transcend the mass. There are therefore no greats. There is only niche. The possibility of a household name in the arts is less and less likely. The chance that the next person digs an artist you have never heard of or is artist himself is the new reality.

In some ways this is the great democratising of society that was so long anticipated. It is the de-massifying of culture into infinite fragments predicted by Toffler. It is the end of greatness because there is no shared forum where greatness can be exhibited. Warhol said fifteen minutes. Fifteen seconds might be more accurate or no time at all. You will be known within the walls of your own community only. Like traffic in London now being at the speed of the Victorian era, the demise of mass culture takes us back to a time before communication links when notoriety remained local.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. It has huge possibilities and actually suits me personally. I hated mass society and its fake idols. I'm just saying it is a phenomenon the implications of which are not fully grasped. With no mass there are no greats.