Page 168 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

The Sonic Architects of a New Babel 153

SXM Society as a Tower of Babel of
Sin and Sanctity

Clarke’s specialty was the on-air presentation of SXM society as a sinful
sanctimonious place. He was as vulgar and rambunctious as he could be
during his radio programs. Nothing was sacred for this provocateur that
in a joking manner reminded SXMers that their honest hospitality was
always accompanied by the “what in it for me” ethic. No one stood out-
side of the money tie system: the indigenous ideology that presents
SXMers as united by their individual quests for more money and power.
This according to him was a universal that transcended class, ethnic, gen-
der, and religious lines. It was what made SXMers the same despite their
manifold differences.
Those who wished to distance themselves most from this conception of
society and themselves—the highfaluting fringe ethno-political and reli-
gious leaders, the ethnic and religious fundamentalists—were made an
example of, and cunningly presented as the slyest of all SXMers. I wit-
nessed this most explicitly in a radio program where he countered argu-
ments of a local Christian of the pious type, someone with a leadership
position in the Methodist church, who called in stating that the vulgar
style of dancing of newcomers from the British islands during carnival was
most unbecoming. It was not part of SXM culture.
Clarke agreed and then went on to tell one of his characteristic tales
dismantling his prior assertion. He said that when he had just finished
high school he had ambition. He wanted a job where he could earn lots of
money, did not have to think, and did not have to work in the hot sun. Two
professions came to mind, becoming a politician or a priest. He chose the
latter for he said that most people knew you had to be full of tricks to be in
politics. He wasn’t that good. So there was nothing left than to become a
priest. He was a Methodist, but didn’t want to be a Methodist preacher.
The reasons were obvious: according to him, since most SXMers were
Catholics, it was in that church that he would make a killing. The Catholics
had mass many times a day and the collection plate went around regularly.
The priest would then raise the collection plates on top of his head letting
God take whatever he wanted. The rest went into the priest’s pocket. This
was the profession he was looking for: not too much work and earning a
good buck.
There was, however, a problem, which was celibacy. He felt that he
should enjoy himself as much as possible before entering a seminary, so he
became a frequent customer of a whorehouse. One night he saw a man
sneaking out of the brothel acting all conspicuous. He thought he was a