There is an old Greek film that summarizes the relationship between the wider society and the artists. It is called "Hippolytos and his violin" and the protagonists are Thanasis Veggos who plays a musician, Hippolytos, who plays classical-gypsy violin in nightclubs and Yiannis Argyris who plays a businessman (animal dealer), Agesilaos, who in a phase of romantic disappointment, when he was drunk he made the violinist a god because only he could cure his woes, but as soon as he sobered up he didn't even remember him, with all the comic-tragic consequences.
The popular farces of the time often concealed a social symbolism, usually simplistic, but this particular film can be said to have a deeper one: on the one hand, the businessman, who symbolizes the perception of the ruling bourgeoisie (the animal dealer shows that not many a time when this class was not bourgeois at all), that work and money matter. On the other hand, the musician with his violin represents the repressed emotional world, which can only manifest itself when there is pain and intoxication, and when the influence ends it must again be silent and repressed.
There is no doubt that the main mission of art is to comfort in the face of life's pain and trial. But the hedonistic illusion of post-war consumerism leaves no room for art for this basic function and wants to limit it to a decorative role. He wants the artist in the refrigerator, (like poor Vengos in the movie) and to warm him whenever he needs him, that is, when the pain of the capsule cannot be soothed otherwise. Where capsule see the convulsive manifestation of repressed emotions.
The lost role of the artist as a mediator for society with the subconscious and the horse, is the deep cause of his disrepute, which also results in the difficulty of artistic education being taken seriously by the state. The crooked and late enlightenment of the twentieth century in Greece has idealized a sterile scientism, we want to move forward only with the right foot, limping. Thus, higher (artistic?) education had to be science, theater and musicology, and not some academy on the standards of all other countries. Indeed, artistic education was relegated to private schools, which, under the purported supervision of the Ministry of Culture, actually operate according to the conscience of their owners. Only in recent years has the artistic education in higher education progressed with very slow and small steps. (Here we should note that the only lucky artists are visual artists who, since the 19th century, already have a higher school with the necessary studies and the corresponding entrance exams).
Instead of making moves in the right direction, namely the evaluation and classification of the titles in the Ministry of Education, the government with a presidential decree gave the gratuitous shot: the titles are considered secondary education.
In order for the constant protests of artists about their constant degradation to take place, we must realize again the mission of art, first Hippolytus with his violin and then Agesilaus with his businesses and animals, which I know will take time, but unfortunately I believe that it will never be otherwise.
Enjoy some hilarious quotes from the movie and ponder: