On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
January 11, 1999 Permalink
“2Y2k or not 2y2k” depends on how sick of the controversies and obsessions one is. Some days I’m sick of it, I feel I’m obsessing too much and should enjoy myself more while I still can. Or spend those 2-3 hours I do reading y2k internet stuff on stockpiling and making sure I’ve covered everything to the point I want or can cover. So I take a day off, or a week off. But I find myself coming back to my keyboard after that, with renewed obsession.
I’ve thought a lot about this obsession. Why am I still obsessing, when I know for sure that I must prepare? Why can’t I just let go of the internet and prepare as best I can while still enjoying my “normal” life? I obsess about 2 things. This forum, and keeping up with my bookmarked sources for new developments.
The answer I came up with is 1. the forum fills a deep need I have to discuss y2k with intelligent people, that it stresses me out much more to just observe the people around me going about their lives as if nothing is wrong, that the people here are a great source of support, and that it beats hands down watching tv, reading a book or cleaning as a source of relaxation when it comes to my spare time. 2. I have to keep informed of new developments, to watch “barometers” that will give me a clue as to when to bail out to my 9 hours drive Y2k retreat.
—Chris, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 01/11/99
[W]e fail to appreciate the magnitude of this event ourselves. We think of it in terms of a problem similar to other disasters such as the Great Depression or a world war. However, I believe that no event in the history of our civilization will compare to this. And when people are told that the power and water are at risk, they realize this deep inside and run away as fast as they can from such thoughts. We try to inform people in the spirit of community as well as self interest in the hopes that everyone will be able to escape the terrible effects of such an event as the end of a civilization. (as we know it) Yet we fail to appreciate the power and momentum of the many centuries of human experience that led up to this day and we fail to appreciate the weight of people’s expectations that it simply must continue because it always has. So far, only a very few people even of those who understand computers and live on the internet are able to see the big picture and take in the emotional realization and really get it. And all of us who do, are struggling terribly with feelings of craziness and split minds and immense stress and sometimes outright panic attacks from what we have seen. Many have pulled back from the original sight to a more comfortable place. It is very hard to do and we are asking people to do that with us.
Sometimes I feel that community organizing is pointless and other times I don’t. The blank stares got me thinking, is the effort to make people get it possible and helpful as I would like to think. Or is it really impossible for most people to live in the world after y2k. If we lose our water in Southern California, no amount of organizing is going to save up enough for all of us to live. We humans have insisted upon building a house of cards in which millions of people live in places that would never support them in an attempt to fool mother nature. It isn’t going to work, the house of cards is coming down. I really don’t think that the normal kind of organizing is going to cut it. But I do think that small, rural, sustainable communities will make it and that humans will go on to the next civilization.
—Lora Ereshan, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 01/11/99
Is awareness entering the upward spiral? I submit the following for your consideration:
Mrs. Deedah was shopping today (strange but true) at the local “Target” store. “Boyoboy was it busy, just like Christmas!” Being the curious Y2K aware person that she is, she took the time to surreptitiously check out what everyone was buying. She noticed a lot of people buying two or more of the same items, hair coloring, toothpaste, that sort of thing.
But the big seller of the day was- 36 roll packs of toilet paper!
The kicker- TP was NOT on sale!
AWARENESS GROWS, GO SHOPPING NOW!
—Uncle Deedah, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 01/11/99
