Sinister: They shoot Hipsters, don't they?

[funkyseb at xxx.com]

 Hi there Darlin's,
 This is a hard message for me to write, but please bear with me; I think 
it's important that anyone who cares about sinister should read it.
      To start with, I'll make it clear (as if I need to) how much 
sinister has meant to me for the past 18 months or so. I don't hate you 
all, I don't want you all to fuck off, and I don't think that everyone on 
the list is a fake,or a nazi, or both.
 
 But there is  something deeply wrong with our list. Not many of you will 
know this, but Sinister is really two lists- the one you're reading, and 
a second, secret list, where friends of Honey discuss how the list is 
running, and decide what they should do to make it run the way in the way 
that they want it to. (i.e. in the way it ran for a few months in 1998, 
before most of us joined.) 
This second list is called SOS (save our sinister- clever eh?) and since 
it's founding 5/6 months ago, the main list has become more and more 
tired, more repetitive, and lacking 
 the drunken, cheeky swagger that made it so compelling in the first 
place. Why? Well, because many of the people who used to contribute so 
much to the real list have joined SOS, and stopped posting to the real 
list. (I can think of only a couple of exceptions to this rule.) And I 
can only think that they spend so much time seeing if our posts are up to 
scratch that they don't have the time to contribute to the list 
themselves...
      New sinisterines have told me that they feel they're eavesdropping 
upon a private 
 conversation, and loads of the great listees that I've loved have felt 
so ostracised by all this SOS business that they've left Sinister for 
good. 
 This is how I feel. This is why I'm leaving.
     I won't stay on a list where a handful of unelected people (fuck it, 
let's call it what it is...a clique) decide who and what meets their 
standards, and ridicule and bully those whom they dislike. I've read 
things from the SOS list, and I've read bulling letters sent by its 
members, and I hate what I see. I don't like feeling as if I'm writing my 
posts for 
their benefit, playing to the gallery, and I don't like watching the list 
pretending to be what it was instead of accepting that growth and 
evolution are inevitable. I hate the thought that there are new members 
out there who are too afraid offend the list's Prefects to risk  posting 
anything new or challenging. A list that looks at itself too closely, and 
tries too 
 hard to maintain an percieved atmosphere can only end up as a forum for 
in jokes, and for mutual back slapping. And if this is going to happen, 
then I don't want to watch.
      There is a way out. If Honey wanted, he could hold proper elections 
for the Sinister Parish Council. The councillors could change regularly, 
and new ideas would percolate like flavour from a tea bag. But I get the 
feeling, seeing as SOS isn't even officially acknowleged, that our pot's 
just going to stew.
         I know that care is needed if we're going to survive. I know 
that rules are required to keep our very special community vital and 
enjoyable. But SOS doesn't seem to have done a very good job does it? 
Face it, when did you last cry with either laughter or gut ripping 
emotion after reading a post? 
         I'm not saying for a moment that the SOS listees are evil- I 
know lots of them, and chances are you do too. They're lovely people, 
very friendly and talented, and that's why I'm not naming them now. But 
what they're doing, whether actively or passively, is wrong. 
           I hope this letter does make you all ask questions, I hope 
there is a debate afterwards, and every mail box is flooded, from Glasgow 
to Thailand. Because this is OUR LIST. We're all indebted to honey for 
the huge amount of time, risk and work he's 
put into it, but if the sinisterines are feeling left out, what's the 
point? 
If the same old faces are going to say the same old things, and if the 
kids 
can't creep out of their loneliness into a warm, loving community, why 
bother with it all?
          I hope to keep in touch with you all, and please, if anyone 
wants a pint, or a picnic, a conversation, or a tape, then just write, 
you've got my address. But unless democracy rears it's beautiful head on 
this list once more, I won't be back.
          As a wise man once said,"Stay lucky". See ya popkids.
seb
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