Finally, it is interesting to note that the victory of liberalism coincides with the

advent of festive celebrations. In his admirable work on the 1980s, Franois Cusset
accurately described the ideological context that favored the creation of many
celebrations during the Jack Lang era. Philippe Muray interprets this type of events
as a reflection of the void and the insignificant. Music or books are "celebrated"
because they are dead; Our time would strive to give the illusion of an artistic
creation in reality agonizing. Consecrated by the advent of exotic or electronic
music, the festive act is characterized by great reflexivity. The festive discourse
seems to function as if it were performativity, hence its importance: the feast as the
celebration of emptiness rests only on itself. Philippe Muray took note of this
performativity by evolving his conceptual character from Homo Festivus to Festivus
Festivus, the individual who celebrates his celebration. In the musical field, the
"tube" illustrates this phenomenon by the idea of repetition and the expression of
the success of its own power of seduction.
Thus, as Guy Debord already noted in the Socit de Spectacle, "this epoch, which
shows itself to itself
Its time as being essentially the precipitous return of multiple festivities, is also a
time without party ".
The observable tension between the destruction of structures and the construction
of new types of social ties is one of the most fascinating aspects of the evolution of
our societies. The anomie provoked by liberalism seems supplemented by festive
collectivism. Modernity imposes itself all the more easily because it has previously
made a clean slate of historical society. Culture is today praised for its federative
virtues; Social policies rely on it in order to recompose a social fabric in a state of
disintegration. This discourse applies as much at the level of a city, with the
integration of inhabitants of neighborhoods excluded from the rest of the
population, and that of Europe with a cultural policy
Purpose of completing the Union's economic and institutional process. This
exploitation of culture for social purposes greatly affects the conception of culture,
as Philippe Muray explains. This utilitarian conception of culture does not admit of
negativity and instead proposes a virtuous definition of art that goes against its
"inevitable aristocratic dimension." The artistic productions of hyperfestive society
must defend egalitarian principles and thus flatter the ego of consumers.
This "self-celebration of the mass" is often reduced to complacency in mediocrity.
However, this regression is not inherent in the democratic functioning of our
societies: the Third Republic has demonstrated in the past that it was possible to
raise the mass towards a demanding culture, especially through the school.
We have evoked in the preceding chapter the multiplication of oxymorons as the
expression of an epoch of resolution of conflicts and oppositions. The present ideal
of modernity seems to include a desire for fusion, that it applies to countries (the
liberal desire to close borders, the most flagrant example being the European
Union),

Sexes or populations. The often far-fetched justifications of this tendency to fusion

show its total irrationality; Philippe Muray designates it humorously as "FusionInquisition Department".
Mestisage has gradually become a value in itself, as well as modern forms of
worship such as the androgynous or the mestizo. The hyperfestive society has a
very ambiguous relationship with history. First of all, there is a celebration of the
discipline, through, for example, the Journes du Patrimoine. However, these
celebrations occur to the detriment of any historical perspective.
In the artistic field, there is a rewriting of works not in keeping with the spirit of the
time. As far as music is concerned, we have seen
Second part of the 1990s the bootleg (or mashup, or bastard pop), which consists of
mixing two songs to form one.
The result obtained by mixing the words to empty the two works of all meaning (the
process of manufacture does not imply any reflection on the correspondence
between the texts) and to move them from their original historical context. This
type of work is rather symptomatic of the fusional frenzy of our time and the sense
of absurdity that it provokes.
The hyperfestive era is characterized by the erasing of historical differences; Festive
totalitarianism is based on a hatred of intimacy and secrecy. The difference between
private life and public life seems doomed to disappear, and individuals are now
invited to become friends with their neighbors through sinister building festivals or
neighborhood festivals.
As always, this fight against privacy claims to defend incritiable values: fight against
pedophilia, corruption or even adultery; "Says Eric Schmidt, president of Google," if
you want to do something and want no one to know, maybe you should start by not
doing it "because" only criminals care about protecting their data Personal
relationships ". It seems difficult to identify the responsible process for this
regression of Western democratic gains. Perhaps this form of modernity borrows
from Marxism its totalizing conception of existence; "Everything is political," and
soon everything will be festive.
Thus, festive modernity presents itself as a totalitarianism
Regressive exploitation and perverting culture in order to reach its end, that is to
say the widespread degradation of the world and the self-celebration of the
realization of this ideal. Personal culture (cultura animi dear to Jean-Louis Harouel)
seems more necessary than ever to resist the festivization of the world.
We have thus been able to observe the intellectual mechanisms
Explaining the evolution of the conception of culture in Western societies, and
especially in France. However, if we are to realize the extent of this disaster, it
would be futile to defend a conception of art or culture now out of use. George
Steiner emphasizes that these profound transformations of our imaginations can not
be ignored. These changes have taken place, however regrettable they may be. The

situation thus seems complex because it leaves little freedom between an

anachronistic criticism and the approval of an ideal of festive modernity.
Philippe Muray adheres to the Hegelian hypothesis of a death of art. However, the
conclusion of all his observations is paradoxical.
Thus, if the criticism of this festive society is a moral duty, it is also necessary to
note the creative potential of such a period.
This debacle represents an endless field of exploration, especially for literature.
Philippe Muray thus recognizes the richness of his main source of inspiration; As he
expresses it in Minimum Respect, "the world is destroyed, now it is a matter of
versifying it. "
Finally, it would no doubt be absurd to consider that this Regression is destined to
last forever. The history of the West has been marked by cycles, ascending phases
succeeding periods of decline. The peculiarity of these dull periods is precisely that
they do not have the capacity to imagine any renewal. And, as Cornelius Castoriadis
points out, an artistic renaissance remains inseparable from a social and political
revival.