Early this year I collected and copied a series of articles concerning the potential serious ramifications of Y2K.These articles came from a variety of sources such as Vanity Fair, Wired,Utne Reader, and The Nation Magazines. I also copied National Guard Magazine's piece on Y2K and martial law and Jack Anderson's piece entitled; "the Government's secret Y2K plans". I gave copies to friends and relatives with little effect.They were mostly polite, but lukewarm and I found out later that most of the articles had gone unread.Lately a few of these people have become GIs and started to prepare. Curiously, I went around and asked these people what event or piece of information had served as a catalyst to push them into the "believers" camp. The answers reveal alot about the credibility people give different sources of information. One woman's turning point came from reading a tract sent by her fundamentalist Christian sister entitled "Y2K and the end times". For a conspiratorially minded coworker it was an article portraying Y2K as a NWO plot to plunge society into chaos and impose a one world government. One sister, who tuned me out when I brought up Y2K, was shocked to discover a coworker, the resident computer guru, was stocking up like mad. He has bought a "Vacation" cabin in a remote part of Oregon, which he confided was "in case it got really bad".Another sister, a nurse, had a patient recently who is a big honcho for a power utility.When she casually inquired about Y2k, he got serious and told her to be prepared to survive without power and stock up enough groceries to feed her family for a minimum of two months.About ten days later, her husband came home from work and announced that his med lab had just brought in a large generator and fuel tank.One relative, who was totally disinterested and even disdainfull, changed recently when her son, a big city police officer, told her of a Y2K meeting held at his department.Apparently they expect to be overloaded with calls, that traffic lights and 911 system may experience failures and all vacations at rollover have been canciled. They expect crime to skyrocket as criminals seek to exploit the chaos. He "ordered" her to leave the city and go stay at her sister's farm for at least two weeks starting at Christmas. One coworker, a backwoods type,refused an article I was trying to give him and said Y2k was a bunch of hype. A couple months later he approached me and said sheepishly; "say, ya know that Y2K you was talkin about. Well,my wife is a secretary and her boss is married to one of the big wiggs at EWEB, (a local power utility) She (the boss) said that her and her husband got three years wortha food". They live out of town, have a well,chickens and are stocking up. He proudly told me that his wife planted an " extra big garden and is cannen everthing in sight". He's usuing Y2k as an excuse to poach deer. Then there is my dear old mum. For months she resisted both my and my GI sister's attempts to get her to prepare. She would read the articles and say, "Who are these people, I've never heard of any of them". Finally she was convinced, by HENRY KISSINGER of all people. If Henry the K said it was raining outside, I'd walk to the window and check. But hey, whatever works! We were discussing Y2K for the upteenth time when I said the magic words; "Hell! even Henry Kissinger is going to pull his money out of the banks!".She stopped, looked at me strangely and said; "Where did you read that?" "It was in some newspaper quoted on the internet" I replied." "Ya got a copy" she said, and off I went looking for the article.Found it on Scary Gary's site; London Sunday Times from March 20, entitled; "Headaches start as the bug bears down on banks". On the second page, the magic quote,"At a high powered millennium meeting in Washington recently, delegates were stunned to hear Henry Kissinger announce that he intended to withdraw all his money from the bank as 2000 nears." She looked at me and said slowly; "Henry Kissinger?" and that was it! She put up shelving in her garage and stocked it with canned goods and bottles, went to the bank and moved her nest egg into T-bills cash and gold,and bought a safe.She now lectures us on life growing up during the depression and on her experiences with rationing as a young wife during WWII. My DGI brother says he'll never forgive me!

-- Ralph Kramden (and@awaywego.com), October 31, 1999

Answers

"What event or piece of info triggers DGIs into GIs?"............................. for many it will be starvation and [Snip--Sysop]

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), October 31, 1999.

oops!!the p.c. police got me,maybe I should have said "rectal molestation"...lacks emotional inpact though.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), October 31, 1999.

I first GI on a toilet seat in Tijuana

-- (wouldnt@kid.ya), October 31, 1999.

Excellent question, Ralph! I am looking for more answers, too ... seems like many people need a specific, personal hook to change their minds, something near and dear to them or some influential person to model. Such are the quirks of credibility.

Chief Chuck Lanza,director of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency Management and a columnist for Westergaard's Y2K website, offered the following observations in his Westergaard Aug. 27 column, Y2K Prep, A Behavioral Study:

"In my 21 years in the fire service I have become, by necessity,a student of human nature. I have tried to understand why in emergency situations people react the way they do. Some observations I have made that may be helpful in preparing for y2k are:

People will wait until the last minute to prepare.

People who share a common bond, be it political, racial, national or religious, are more apt to prepare together.

Decisions on whether to evacuate and go to a shelter are influenced by the credibility of the person making the recommendation and the perception of the threat.

Many people who are dependent on community services will contact support agencies during the emergency period.

No matter what you plan for the public, some people will be unhappy with your efforts.

People who wait the longest to prepare will be the first to complain when they are not provided immediate support.

The first activity following a major event is finger pointing.

When making life safety decisions, many people will be easily swayed by friends and relatives and,

When making life safety decisions, many people will NOT be swayed by friends and relatives."

not sure, but I think you can get to this essay through: http://www.wbn.com/y2ktimebomb/GL/CL/gl9934.htm

-- (normally@ease.notnow), October 31, 1999.

Zoobie seems to have a fixation with this subject.

-- Doomer Logic (gotta@love.it), October 31, 1999.

Ralph,

I think your stories are good examples of how many get converted... by the actions of someone they respect.

The sad fact seems to be that a majority of individuals in our society have forfeited their individualism to be part of the herd. What this amounts to is that each sheeple has their own group of personal favorite idols that they look to for the answers to choices. It could be Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, Arnold Schwarznegger, Jerry Falwell,... well you get the idea. Many are no longer capable of making a decision if their life depended on it, as is perhaps the case with Y2K. Some will intentionally go against their own instincts because they hear one of their favorite personalities say not to worry about it, and others will wait, then decide to get ready only after they hear their personal superstar say that he thinks it would be wise to do so.

What you have on this forum are a group of predominantly independent individual decision makers, most of whom began researching quite some time ago and made their decision based on their own judgements. It is fairly obvious that most of us are "non-conformists" as far as relying on what the media and the idolized "leaders" in our society have to say about it. They have not done as much research as we have, so does their opinion carry more weight, just because they have superstar egos? I certainly don't think so, but unfortunately, most of the herd does. I hope some day soon they will regain their ability to think for themselves, as I think they will be much happier than being led around on a leash.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.

I "Got It" when I read Michael Hyatt's book. I think it's a real keeper. I believe it is how I found this forum. I have visited his group, but didn't find it nearly as interesting. Anyway, I feel thankful to him for waking me up.

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), October 31, 1999.

Boy, the reality comes home to haunt, doesn't it?... "Curiously, I went around and asked these people what event or piece of information had served as a catalyst to push them into the "believers" camp. The answers reveal alot about the credibility people give different sources of information"...

You aren't going to hear it from our media or our government, so.......Unless you are at the helm, seeing the failures as they occur, it's always going to be a matter of WHO you hear it from that makes it real for you.

Where have I heard that before?

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), October 31, 1999.

When I wrote a transaction to master update with yymmdd as part of the key. The year was 1969.

-- curtis schalek (cschalek@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.

Last July, driving down the lodge in a car full of drunks my brother says (regarding y2k which I had never heard of and was SURe could be easlily fixed) : "hey jere, hypothetically speaking, what would the world be like if every computer shut off at once?" it came like a flash....

-- jeremiah (braponspdetroit@hotmail.com), November 01, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

Calling All Opinion Leaders: It's getting a bit late... I remember when I first "got it" about ten months ago, reading comments at that time about how it was getting too late for people to prepare, even then.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 02, 1999.