On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
February 1, 1999 Permalink
Y2K doesn’t have to be/trigger TEOTWAWKI. It could easily be a major contributing cause, or simply a few minor nuisances piled on top of a system that in and of itself isn’t going to hold its own much longer strictly because of too much shortsightedness being too tolerated for too long. Y2K is going to be bad, it’s a forgone conclusion based on simple evidence coming from the people in the know that are willing to mention it.
But, Y2K is but one (albeit massive) piece of a contraption that is at best sadly unstable, and at worst critically at risk of self-destructing or simply collapsing under its own weight. It’s a simple law of nature; if you don’t have enough support to hold the thing together it won’t stay together. Faith-driven systems abound in the financial sector planetwide and faith in these systems is eroding. When the faith is shattered by anything large or small (See Columbia and their infrastructure-eliminating earthquake; or Dade county, Florida, for the month of September after Andrew saw to it that little was left standing and what was didn’t work well.) these systems collapse and start taking down interdependent systems as per the domino effect we’re all expecting to see in some form or another.
Y2K might very well be the catalyst for Armageddon, or the Biblical Great Tribulation that leads to Armageddon, or it might be a really rough ride for most city-dwellers, or it might cripple lesser companies and countries, or it might be a series of incredibly annoying but fixable problems. Nobody knows, and it scares the hell outta a good number of folks. But, Y2K isn’t the only beast poised to spring out at the unsuspecting...
—OddOne, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 02/01/99
I have noticed a development in the press’s self-reporting which is, verifiably, 100% wrong. Watch for it.
Y2K articles begin as follows:
“Press reports on the Year 2000 computer problem present one of two views: nothing will happen or else it’s the end of the world.”
On the contrary, most press reports -- as distinguished from an occasional column -- report that it’s something in between. The lazy reporter interviews a government official, who says there will be problems, but it’s under control. Then he interviews a public utilities flak, who says the same. Then he may interview a private person no one has ever heard of who bought a food storage program. Then types up his story. It’s cookie-cutter journalism.
Watch for this. You’ll see more and more of it.
I have never seen any press report that concludes that it’s the end of civilization, or even could be.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 02/01/99
