Nico

“The traditional village had lived a collective life. Communal rites marked off the village year. Folk art knew no vitality outside those rites. (...) Folk songs brought people together. (...) Every song had many creators, and all of them modestly disappeared behind their creation. No folk song existed purely for its own sake. It had a function. There were songs sung at weddings, songs sung at harvesting, songs sung at Shrovetide, songs for Christmas, for haymaking, for dancing, for funerals. Even love songs existed within the framework of certain recurrent festivities. Evening walks, serenades under maidena' windows, marriage pro-posals they all were part of a collective ritual in which song had its established place.

Capitalism had destroyed the collective way of life. Folk art had lost its footing, its sense of itself, its function. There would have been no point in trying to resurrect it while social conditions were such that man lived cut off from man, everyone for himself. But socialism had liberated men from the yoke of their isolation. Their private and public lives would merge. Once more they would be united by dozens of communal rites. They would create their own collective customs. The former would come from the past. Harvests, carnivals, dances, work. The latter would come from the present. May Day, rallies, Liberation celebrations, meetings. Folk art would be welcome everywhere. It would develop, change, re-new itself. Did we finally understand?”
― Milan Kundera, The Joke