Remember the The Y2K crisis that never happened?

[MichiganVote]

Remember the calls for crisis in all sectors of the economy, banks, computer systems etc. The whole end of the world thing?

What happened? About nothing. A few small businesses had some minor problems b/c of older software and a few places had to make some repairs that were overdue anyway. But our neighbor, Assembly of God, was convinced something was going to happen and stocked up on toilet paper and so on. We laughed her out of most of her delusional thinking.

She's impressionable.

At the time our son's were in HS and one of the teachers casually asked the class what their family's plans were for the millenium. Our son reported all kinds of stuff, people staying home and off the roads b/c the lights wouldn't work, people planning to attend church etc. When our was asked his plans, he blithely said that he was going skiing on New Year's Eve. Reportedly, our son was the only one who had a plan that didn't include prayer or some weird survival plan.

So here's the thing. Where and when did all these people and all these kids get the idea that the end of the world was coming?

They got it from two sources: The Media and their Churches, not necessarily in that order.

President Obama the Anti-Christ? They are learning it and rehearsing it from their sources, the media and their churches.

I'm sorry to those of you who defame we mere baby boomers but I feel sorry that the same racism we lived and groped our way through, you youngsters are going to experience again and again and again.

Someday, I hope someday, this shit is over.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I hate Republicans. I think they're evil. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. ... Republicans are idiotic, evil, and dangerous to the most helpless in our societ.y. nt

[anigbrowl]

3. What happened was a lot of engineers worked hard to deal with the problem

If they hadn't, you have screamed about corporate irresponsibility. Some people always panic over stupid shit, it's not limited to one end of the political spectrum. Head over to the DU astrology group and demand to know why they have such a fixation on 2012 and see how far you get.

[MichiganVote]

7. Yes people panic. And yes other people do not panic. What creates the difference?

[anigbrowl]

30. Education, mostly.

[MichiganVote]

35. Exactly. And that is the reason for this current "panic".

[WeDidIt]

10. I put in 50-60 hour weeks through '98 and '99 getting things dealt with.

[MichiganVote]

14. Job well done.

[Ian David]

4. Clinton stopped Y2K from being a disaster.

Granted, it also involved a whole lot of unnecessary and redundant paperwork.

[MichiganVote]

6. Source? Frankly, I'm distrusting of that.

[ixion]

16. no, thousands of software engineers did, if anything

I don't think Clinton fixed those millions of lines of legacy code.

[MichiganVote]

19. Yup.

[Ian David]

39. He felt their pain.n/t

[47of74]

5. I worked that New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

As did most of the IT people in our company. Everyone was there when I left at 23:00 that evening for home. I was sitting at home playing Age of Empires II at midnight and watching TV. The next day I went back in and there were a few minor problems, but otherwise it went really smoothly.

[MichiganVote]

11. Yes and my guess is the President's upcoming speeches will go the same.

[givemebackmycountry]

8. I spent the millennium in a hot tub in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

And NO, I didn't get my deposit back.
You can't open a Magnum of Champagne after shaking it in a hot tub, without consequences.

I'm going to hell for that night.

[MichiganVote]

9. Well, I hope she/he was worth it. :)

[givemebackmycountry]

17. You have NO idea.

The couple who rented us the bungalow (with the hot tub that was sitting on stilts, carved into a hill overlooking downtown), got married that night.

I like to tell people that I have a Y2K story that defies description.
And no, even Cheney can't pry that one out of me.

[MichiganVote]

20. We all need a few memories like that.....:) Happy to oblige!

[Missy Vixen]

12. My husband worked on Y2K remediation at his company

It was the one time in our lives we've placed and received phone calls after midnight -- he and his coworkers from around the country, chatting to each other about how everything was functioning just fine.

One of our neighbors came to the door in hysterics on New Year's Eve afternoon. She'd seen some panic buying at the local grocery store.

[MichiganVote]

13. Your neighbor must be a relation to mine.:)

[boppers]

15. I worked on the other side.

Years and years of effort were required to fix it. Millions of lines of code, and millions of man-hours. We're currently addressing the 2038 problem, when 32-bit *nix clocks overflow, as it's already started crashing/glitching systems that calculate out that far into the future.

Some minor glitches weren't caught, but for the most part, "we won".

Feel free to mock and discount it, though.

After that you can mock and discount everybody who gave out condoms to control AIDS, because the global population hasn't been wiped out yet.

[MichiganVote]

18. I think you have misunderstood me. I'm not mocking you and your cohorts,

I'm reminding people that sometimes the crisis that are predicted by the media or the heavy religious are not really crisis afterall. Now clearly you think that's your doing and for that I am grateful. Cuz' you surely would not want to depend on me.

[boppers]

25. The thing is.... that it *was* a crisis.

The problem is that folks thought the worst-case predictions were the expected outcomes, and when those didn't happen, folks pooh-poohed the whole thing.

It's kind of like saying "If Washington DC isn't flooded this year, then climate change isn't an actual problem"... just because the worst didn't happen (yet?), it doesn't mean that the problem never existed.

As far as depending on you, you're wrong. When the fit hits the shan, I will depend on every other human being still left for my survival, I just hope that such a thing never happens in my lifetime.

:)

[MichiganVote]

26. Well you see, in the public domain it wasn't a crisis b/c the toaster still worked in the morning.

Had the public been in your shoes, working long hours etc. then they may have shared your point of view.

[anigbrowl]

33. Well, that pretty much contradicts your OP

where you mock that some people were panicking or preparing for unlikely worst-case scenario, while your family member went skiing instead.

[MichiganVote]

36. Not sure I understand. Plz explain.

[boppers]

40. Lets say you have a heart attack.

Someone in your family (let's call him Fred) thinks it's horrible, and goes to the hospital, and sits in the waiting room.
Somebody else (let's call him Bill) goes skiing.

Because the doctors work hard, you survive, and walk out alive.

Did Fred, or Bill make the better choice?

You seem to be saying that Bill made the better choice, and Fred was manipulated by churches and the media into thinking that your heart attack was important.

[MichiganVote]

41. But Fred didn't have a heart attack because you, Dr. boppers, treated him

effectively before he ever made it to the hospital. And Bill (my family) didn't have heart disease b/c of the work that you and others did THAT we already had confidence in.

On the other hand, if race or politics had been involved, Fred might not have been treated at the hospital and Bill (my family) while still enjoying skiing would have lamented the loss of the toaster in the morning.

You know of course, that this post is not about Fred, or Bill or IT. It IS about the choices we all make to cope with a media that is out of control and religious views that rely on fire and brimstone scenarios which encourage panic reactions on the part of the public.

What exactly did you do on that New Years Eve?

[boppers]

42. On that night?

Since I was raised as a survivalist, I already *had* food stocks, water stocks, etc. Had them since the 80's, and cold-war panics.

I still do.... No generators for me though, I kick it old school with non-electric when I can.

On that night, I logged into the 8 boxen that I was responsible for, and watched the 800-1600 programs I was supposed to monitor. Only a few things were broken, and they were found and fixed within a few hours, with a few more things found in the days after.

[MichiganVote]

43. I had a friend back in teh 90's who had been raised as a survivalist, interesting lifestyle.

She was great to go camping with.

[boppers]

48. My car has a week of supplies in the trunk. :)

Yeah, we're a bit weird, but we can go camping in a matter of seconds.

[MichiganVote]

49. You're a marvel. Good talking to ya'. And thank you for your efforts on or off the campground.

[Mojorabbit]

53. My dad was military

I grew up with a years supply of everything in the house. I don't think I'd call myself a survivalist but I was a girl scout and am prepared for just about everything. If the power goes out or if we get hit by another hurricane I am good. It gives me peace of mind.
edited cause I spelled dad dasd.

[anigbrowl]

50. Briefly, I'm confused because...

you say it wasn't a crisis in the public domain because nothing happened, people's toasters kept working etc., yet in your OP you were saying that people will jump to believing in media-created crises. Don't worry about it - I get the impression this thread is more about exploring some ideas than making an argument, so I'm not trying to score points off you.

[MichiganVote]

52. I am saying that the media and people's pulpits made it seem that a crisis was about to happen

and as we know, they did not report on the remedies. People I knew seemed to believe in and expect a crisis. Following the New Year date there was virtually no major disruption to the everyday lives of people. You get the idea.

[givemebackmycountry]

22. I know your right...

You and thousands like you, did a herculean effort to make sure all was right.
I know the company that I worked for did.
That's why I was in a hot tub, instead of the office.
We knew we had it covered.
And if you were one of those people, it was a non-event because of people like you.

You get a HUGH hat tip from me.

:hi: :pals: :toast: :toast: :pals: :hi:

[47of74]

23. Thank you.

As one of the working stiffs who spent New Years at the office instead of with the family, I say thank you!

[boppers]

32. Thank You.

I'm a backend systems geek. When we do our jobs best, you never see us, hear from us, and may even wonder why we have a job, because absolutely *nothing* ever goes wrong... as far as you know. :)

[BoneDaddy]

21. The Manufacture of Consent

by Noam Chomsky. Eventually if the populace is so frightened, they will give away their rights. Same applies to this.

[MichiganVote]

27. Not much left to give.

[pipi_k]

24. I have a couple of friends who went crazy...

not literally...I mean, they went crazy buying dried food and stocking up on lots of stuff. They probably prayed as well. Before Y2K happened they gave us a cassette tape made by a guy who predicted all sorts of horrible things would happen...they told us we needed to "be prepared", and it all sounded so ominous and they were really and truly frightened.

Then....

nothing happened.

So. One would think that people who have been told shit like this, waited and waited and sat and worried and agonized over it, would not listen to any more of it ever again.

Noooooo......

Every time some new scary deal comes out, they're right there at the head of the line. Nothing happens. Things calm down for a while. Then it starts over again.

It's insanity, that's what it is...

And the really sad thing is, this couple has been in AA for a long, long time. They gave up drinking for another kind of addiction...fear. They are well aware of the saying that goes "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". These aren't evil people...just very ill...

[formercia]

31. Good Marketing

Every time there's an induced panic, people go out and buy stuff. The corporations like that. People pay retail or more without a whimper.

[MichiganVote]

37. Good point.

[doc03]

45. The same thing is happening today with guns

and ammunition. The NRA and right wing nut jobs have worked themselves into a panic.

[MichiganVote]

47. They LIVE for a panic.

[MichiganVote]

34. I know what you mean. To me it was sad to see people so stressed.

Now my neighbor lives like that all the time so she didn't bother us at the time. And despite her messengers, Fox and the Assembly of God thing, she listened to us reassure her that when we ran out of food, we'd come visit her. She listened to reason vis a vis humor. It reached her.

Your neighbors on the other hand, have given up some risk in their lives and sometimes addicts will make a deal that goes like this: If I give up all my bad habits then I'll be straight and nothing bad will happen. Pretty crushing when they realize that deal doesn't exactly come through for them.

I could be off base on that. Sorry if I am. But it is a form of insanity that the media in particular has exploited knowing they will get more viewers. Its such a sick thing to do.

[Generic Brad]

28. Hopefully it will all end in 2013

There is a lot of nonsense out there about the year 2012 having some astrological/Mayan/Rapture significance. And when we all wake up on January 1, 2013 and nothing has changed hopefully our culture can put this ridiculous end of times myth behind us and we can actually work on fixing problems that affect all of humanity. But I doubt it. I am personally bracing myself to be told that end of time date will be pushed out another 10-30 years so the idiocy can continue unabated.

[MichiganVote]

38. Assuming we still live nearby, our neighbor will let us know. I'll add u to the mailing list.

[Generic Brad]

29. Hopefully it will all end in 2013

There is a lot of nonsense out there about the year 2012 having some astrological/Mayan/Rapture significance. And when we all wake up on January 1, 2013 and nothing has changed hopefully our culture can put this ridiculous end of times myth behind us and we can actually work on fixing problems that affect all of humanity. But I doubt it. I am personally bracing myself to be told that end of time date will be pushed out another 10-30 years so the idiocy can continue unabated.

[miyazaki]

44. Y2K. Nothing but a cold fart.

still can't believe the idiots that bought into the doomsday soothsayers.

[MichiganVote]

46. Read a few of the posts from the IT people. They seemed to do a good job.

[morningglory]

51. I was the I.T. person during the y2k scare. I changed the dates on our

oldest Windows 3.1 pc's to 12/29/99, time 23:59:00 and waited around. Then went into the computer, to Wordperfect and date-stamped documents, looked all around. Could not see what the deal was. However, remember when we had a wonderfully prosperous economy then under Clinton? Every company was spending money like crazy to upgrade their computers. We all got nice new pc's and latest software. Then, thanks to Bill Gates nothing would work with the latest Windows s/w, so we had to get new printers, and everything else. I think we made a lot of progress during that era. In addition, I didn't have a pc at home, because I had to mess with them all day at work. During the Monica Lewinski scandal, everyone I knew got completely sick of looking at the tv, so we all got on line. It led to a quantum leap in our lives. So all turned out well.

[windoe]

54. A lot of people are waiting for planet X

to collide with Earth in 2012. Endless photos of lens flares. I have a strange fascination, and check in from time to time to see the latest photos. Reptiles are riding on this planet and will take over again. They are coming to kick our butts, apparently.

If this is the case, I want to have one last party, no---I think I'll start right now!