The missing link?

I've been lucky in that every semester I've studied at this college, I've had a class that really made me think about how the world works, or about what kind of person I am, or some combination of the above. And yeah, I know that's what I'm paying an ungodly sum of money for, but it's still something.
This time, it's my art history seminar on the Russian avant-garde. The class itself is a little dull (not to mention three hours long, and on Friday afternoons--double ouch) but we've been reading all these manifestos and statements and treatises by people who genuinely believed art could change the world. It's hard not to get caught up in that utopian spirit, that dizzying whirlwind of ideas, that feeling of change and reinvention and making up the rules as you go along.
I'm a little sad that the era ended so quickly. Granted, the avant-garde movement happened as a response to an industrial and political perfect storm that couldn't be replicated today. But still: whatever happened to manifestos? You know, those brashly overconfident yet slightly inscrutable proclamations wherein artists categorically state what it is that they're doing and why it's important, then list their demands? Doesn't anyone in this cynical modern world care enough to write one?



Hmm. Maybe there's hope after all...