The relationship between collage and power during World War I is fascinating. Collage artists actually managed to threaten the power structure, getting the public to think critically about the way they see the world, and often, what was in the papers.
The powers of europe literally arrested people for this stuff, often on profanity or indecency charges. And the art establishment followed suit. Comfortable people hate change, basically. And the powerful hate it when people know they're wrong.
So when you read about the last century, especially around Dada, you'll see that there was this huge global group of artists that said, "fine, you don't want to call us artists, whatever, just don't expect us to buy into your bullshit self serving ideas of ethics either." The Dadaists were fucking legendary.