Fetes
Fetes are derived from a traditional European festival, one of merriment, usually held in a pasture and which contains wholesome family events which are typically used to raise money for charity and other such things. However, in modern Caribbean culture, they are Bacchanalian orgies of pleasure and bliss. This stems from the slaves within the Caribbean, particularly in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago, seeing the well-mannered and eloquent French performing these fetes (or more accurately Fête champêtre). Out of spite and hatred for their slave masters they decided to adopt their own version of the fete, one that would be the antithesis to all that the Europeans valued.
Rather than have pleasant music, the music of fetes was created using crude instruments that created a boisterous noise and disturbed the peace, the lyrics of their songs were usually insulting in some way toward their slave masters. Instead of dressing in fine clothing, the slaves instead chose to dress using rags. And rather than have the Romantic dance outlined by the Europeans, they instead chose a degenerate and vulgar display of ‘wining’ (an act of debasement where a female typically gyrates her hips over a man’s privates). What a beautiful culture. *Sarcasm*
All of this calling forth that Tolkien quote:
“The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.”
~ Tolkien
In modern times this has degenerated even further. Thanks to the sexual revolution, the ragged clothing is now replaced by skimpy outfits, the lyrics of local music have turned instead to promoting this degenerative act of wining, alcohol and other recreational drugs are used in abundance and the entire affair seems to be hell-bent on fulfilling Aldous Huxley’s prophesied Dystopia outlined in Brave New World.
Everyone certainly belongs to everyone in this amalgamation of flesh and bodies pressed next to each other while all drugged on alcohol and whatever else the kids are taking these days. This is their substitute for Soma, the all-numbing drug that inhibits rational thought and allows people to submit completely to their baser instincts. (For the uninitiated this is also the same technique employed by gangs and murderers before a kill). The hive mind of the Betas is so self-absorbed they cannot recognize that they are dancing in a prison of the Director’s making, or they are too drugged to even care. Ignorance, bliss and pleasure, this is what the modern day fete promises.
H. P. Lovecraft also uses the term orgiastic when writing about demons, cults and other horrid things that squirm and writhe and twists one’s guts. I cannot think of a better description of the modern day fete as it is something wholly evil and self-indulgent.
I suppose in contrast this would make me (and other decent people) one of the Savages who come into this Brave New World and are utterly appalled by the degeneracy and debasement thus enshrined. It is quite a thing to witness, that these fete-goers be so enthralled in this act of perversion and completely oblivious to their own addiction. Even now if they were to read this article their minds would constantly be seeking rationalizations or counter-arguments to all presented here, or else if nothing sensible can come to mind then they shall embrace that Nietzschean philosophy of the last man and in less than an hour after reading this article it shall be wiped from their minds, and it shall bother their conscience no more.
In the end to argue for the modern day fetes of the Caribbean is to argue for degeneracy whose foundations are nested in spite and hate for slaveowners. Instead of embracing something that is instead beautiful and closer to Godliness, we instead vie for degeneracy and pleasure above all else. As the fete-goers continue to revel in their debasement, Huxley nodding wisely in his grave utters that all too familiar phrase of ‘I told you so!’ and deep in the bowels of Hell there echoes the sound of Screwtape’s triumphant laughter.
Notes
It is also important to note here that anger towards the slaveowners is understandable at the time in the slaves’ ignorance, but we should remember that it was their own people that sold slaves out of Africa and transported by Jewish ships to white-owned countries as labor. White Europeans took no slaves and less than 1% of Americans took slaves. Whites were also responsible for abolishing slavery.
Another note is that blacks weren’t the only slaves within history, whites were also slaves under the Ottoman empire and in fact more whites were enslaved under the Ottoman empire than blacks slaves were brought to America. Regardless, even if this weren’t the case, the ‘culture’ that we prop up in today’s society is not only objectively degenerate and self-absorbed but is rooted in hate and spite for others. Something built on hate can never be beautiful or wholesome, we can keep certain aspects of culture as I’ve outlined in my video essay on Carnival, but we should shy away from this acceptance of ‘feteing’ as something normal and socially acceptable.