Sinister: the improbable rise of the jeepster empire

[Damon Seils]

   "It is a certain kind of religion to retire from your subjects."
    ---Juan Fernández de Medrano

Remember when it was a strapping young republic? Maybe even more
like an anarcho-syndicalist movement, a doomed experiment in the way
of pre-Franco Spain? The Israeli kibbutzim? Jeepster as that really
sad, attractive woman in _The Salt of the Earth_? Oh, and Charlie Brown.

Surely I'm misremembering, romanticizing...

I've been away for a while, a lurker who doesn't even bother to
lurk. To be honest (/me shudders), I haven't even pulled out the old
B&S records much lately. So imagine my surprise when I returned to
the homeland and gave the official Jeepster site a visit!

So shiny and smooth! Dreamy, really. The roads and sidewalks have
been polished. All sorts of new sections, cozy cushions to hide in,
kiosk after kiosk of information about *everything*. Maps, lyrics,
pictures, hygiene recommendations, a fortune in gold-plated mailing
lists bearing the official imperial seal, message boards, picnics,
gigs, new music...! <SIGH SIGH SIGH>

But there I am, walking at a leisurely pace along the new aquaduct,
and I arrive at the center of Jeepster City only to find a crater
where the old Historical District of town used to be. The only sign
of its glory...a rusty sign swinging in the wind, "Ye Olde Sinistre Lavatorie."

I guess I can understand it. A burdgeoning world power sheds a bit
of itself--maybe even a substantial bit of itself--in the name of
"progress." I wonder what it feels like to treat one's roots as mere
appendage, to demote one's strongest supporters to a less than
"essential" status. I guess it just seems like kind of a shame.

---
Damon
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