I have recently been to an event taking place at ‘’La Petite Bouffe’’ in Cotroceni. The guest was the pianist Dan Grigore. It was like a gift to myself.
A long time ago, I used to go to all his concerts, as well as all the theatre shows in the city. For several years, I saw all the ‘’Hamlet’’ performances at the Bulandra theatre, with Ion Caramitru as the protagonist and directed by Alexandru Tocilescu. The show would take five hours, it was always too hot in the room, but I didn’t mind, seduced by the artistic performance. Theatre and music were taken very seriously. In addition, there was an immense respect towards the artists and the artistic act.
Being an actor, director, pianist, teacher, doctor implies a lot of studying, and people appreciated the effort as well as the talent, the sensitivity, the grace in practicing those jobs.
It amazes me that, of late, everyone seems to be able to do everything, and that everyone with some money can do any job, go to any university, with ease. I perceive it as a devaluation, a way of trivializing the liberal professions. Excellence requires a lot of effort, a lot of learning, and a lot of practice. However, shortcuts are now all the rage. Anyone can become an actor, anyone can become a coach, anyone can be on TV, anyone can graduate a university without attending too many classes.
Everything is a tabloid. We lost the patience to read a book, all we need now is a summary on Audible. Marketing has come to serve under false values. I have no idea if what is happening now, from the point of view of education, of individual culture, of respect toward every occupation, represents an antechamber for mediocrity or whether we have gone past it already.
It is easy to destroy the culture of a country; by culture I mean identity, who we are, essentially. Refusing to educate yourself means no longer wanting to exist. Building a culture is infinitely more difficult.