Why oh why oh why do you bump-in-the-road believers think that we who are preparing have to be "mad" at somebody - Ed Yourdon or the forum in general or the neighbor/friend who convinced you to prepare? Why oh why should we be mad if the power stays on and the gas continues to flow and there are fresh strawberries in the produce section of my local Safeway? I guess my mind just can't comprehend that I should be mad at anything if nothing goes wrong. To me, expecting preppers to be mad if nothing goes wrong says that you as a Polly are more of a "Doomer" than I could ever hope to be because you must have such a scewed view of people in general. I will be eternally grateful, if life can just continue as "usual".

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.xnet), November 17, 1999

Answers

Concur.

Who wouldn't want things to go along smoothly? Heck ... I'm doing better financially than I've ever done before. I have a job that I enjoy (developing software) and make a good living at it. Would anyone in their right mind want this interrupted?

However, as a developer of 20 years, I am not going to take the Pollies view that this thing is going to go away. There's 40 years of sloppy coding out there that uses 2-digit years (to say nothing of the other problems already there) and anyone who says that it could be fixed within the last 2 years is either nuts or simply doesn't understand the problem. It takes a seasoned developer like myself many hours to find even the most trivial problems when they are buried in code that is undocumented and the person has no experience with. When Y2K hits we're going to have millions of little one-line errors take place all over the world - we are going to be fighting fires for a long time.

Angry? Not me. Prepared? Yeah ... not as much as I'd like to be, but I ain't going to fool myself like the Pollies into thinking that everything is fixed; there's simply no way it can be!

-- Bruce W. Roeser (broeser@ccgnv.net), November 17, 1999.

DITTO Valkyrie. Wierd thinking isn't it. They think we are more afraid of being "wrong" than being hit with the full brunt of Y2K???? Maybe it is their own flawed thinking that keeps them Pollys? I may be a doomer but it is not from choice. It is because the facts just scream, "prepare" because we don't have a clue what is going to happen. Seems too logical. I would say if anyone is going to be mad, it would be a polly that didn't prepare?

-- tt (cuddluppy@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999.

Can I be wrong? Pretty please? My daughter wants to be sure to finish High School.......

I went into debt. I'll be GLAD to pay it all off. With interest. After all, grocery bills will be a bit lower for me next year..........

-- mushroom (mushroom_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), November 17, 1999.

1. I have yet to interact with an informed IT professional on the doomer side of the debate who is not selling something.

2. When some doomers thought they were being clever with their threats of spit-roasting Pollys over an open pit and consuming their flesh while reminiscing about how correct doomers turned out to be post-Y2K, some industry professionals were paying attention. In response, these industry professionals began drafting internal memoranda aimed at screening doomers from work on their and their client's information systems. The logic is thus: If they will jest (giving the doomers the benefit of the doubt) about cannibalising their opponents in a debate, they could possibly inflict harm upon industry information systems when nothing significant occurs 000101 - in order to claim Y2K was something more than a hope clung to with endearment by victims of the catastrophic Y2K meme.

Patient Regards,
Andy Ray

-- Andy Ray (andyman633@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999.

Anybody seen the spitroast? There's another entree here.

-- victim of the (catastrophic@Y2K.meme), November 17, 1999.

I don't think "Pollies" think "doomers" will be mad if everything is ok.

Except a few "MAD" doomers who are "mad" anyway, with or without Y2K. Some people, on both sides of the coin appear to be mad about something, maybe everything and this gives them an outlet for their anger. But then we have dumped all "mad" people out of the facilities that housed them and possibly helped them.

I do not understand why so many people make such blank statements about who thinks what anyway, like saying "pollies" think being prepared is wrong. The only people saying that are "doomers" stating that pollies say it.Yet no one has ever shown a statement made by a "polly" saying that. The people making money off of the people who prepare are probably not thrilled when it is shown that things will not be as bad as first thought, but then, it's money out of their pockets.

http://www.tiac.net/users/axlrosen/

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), November 17, 1999.

I ditto what Cherri said. I've never felt anyone would seek revenge or anything for a unfulfilled prophesy. I'd also ditto what Cherri said about preparedness.

-- Anita (notsaying@anymore.com), November 17, 1999.

I think a very few individuals will "snap" next year.....but they are completely unstable now anyway. ANYTHING could have set them off. There will probably be a few "luddite" type situations, but I expect that when nothing much happens, everyone will breathe a collective *sigh* of relief. I'm not sure about the hand-ful of posters here who have been very public with their desire to see "everything come down" (AisA, Milne, Invar, and a few others)...maybe they can finally get help. Again, these are the exception...not the rule.

I do have to chuckle when I think about Gary North next year....what is that guy going to do?

-- Not mad (neither@should.UB), November 17, 1999.

I beg to differ about who is going to be mad: I, as a doomer, am going to be seriously mad at the pollies in my family when they come begging for food and water next year. This will be orders of magnitude greater than the anger they show whenever I approach the subject these days.

-- J (mad@doomer.bunker), November 17, 1999.

As a moderate to pessimistic "doomer" I have found myself doing something that I thought I'd never do: Praying! Specifically, I've been praying that I am absolutely and utterly wrong about all of this! I have invited all of my friends to call me an idiot and parade me around downtown Chicago on the back of a donkey with a large dunce cap labeled "Paranoid Flake" sitting atop my head. I would be overjoyed if nothing happens: I have a musical career, lots of friends, and a woman who lives across the country that I have fallen for...AND I WANT A FUTURE DAMMIT! So those of you buffoons who think that this is all apocalyptic wishful thinking can abruptly get stuffed! I'm sure there are a few misanthopes out there who think that way, but the majority of us who see the writing on the wall do not. Since this was/is supposed to be a board dedicated to sharing information, why don't you pollies (the useless ones mind you, some of the pollies on here actually do have a few interesting points of view from time to time) go somewhere else to irritate people? Perhaps if you got out from behind the safety of your screens and acted out your angst in the real world you might the necessary adverse conditioning that would motivate you to behave yourselves.

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), November 17, 1999.

Andy Ray: I have yet to interact with an informed IT professional on the doomer side of the debate who is not selling something.

I'm not selling anything. Of course, you could call me uninformed, but I wouldn't go there if I were you; I suspect my resume is a lot better than yours.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), November 17, 1999.

Catastrophic - Come on; spitroaster?; thats like using an old embedded chip. I use the Binford 2000 powerroaster.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), November 17, 1999.

I'm not selling anything. Of course, you could call me uninformed, but I wouldn't go there if I were you; I suspect my resume is a lot better than yours.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), November 17, 1999.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

-- LOL!!! (LOL@LOL.LOL), November 17, 1999.

In the event of a BITR, there will be some disappointed hard core doomers, but these (IMHO) will be the kind of people who are dissatisfied with their society all the time, and were hoping for a major shake up and - frankly - a die back of non-believers. (This is not a religious prod, TEOTWAWKI has generated its own belief system).

But I don't see anyone getting mad or feeling cheated. Well, maybe a very few folk, but anyone who makes a major investment in useless goods purely based on the say-so of a stranger really DESERVES to get screwed. Those who have done their own research will have made an informed decision and will have no one but themselves to blame.

I think many preppers are like me: they've just pre-bought the things they would have bought anyway, and lost a few months interest. Big deal, I'd have spent that money on consumer toys if I hadn't spent it on rice. Now I don't have to buy food for a month, so if it's a BITR, I'll laugh with joy and live like a king next January.

Still, this is all just guessing. Hard core doomers won't even want to consider a BITR right now, so we'll have to wait and see.

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.