http://www.sonnet.co.uk/muse/DCW-106.TXT

This article is published as part of Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report
and may be reproduced under the same terms and conditions. All other rights
reserved to the author.



Preparedness -- Confronting Fears --



                     What keeps a Non-geek up at night



                                    by



                                Art Welling



Cory asked for a few words from me on a non-geeks viewpoint. Here's what I
wrote back:



Listen, what have *I* got to say that your audience would care about? I can
tell them how I found out about Y2K, so what, one of thousands. How about
what it felt like to really 'get it'? Just another soap opera. Maybe some
words about wading thru Gary Norths entire site in two days flat. Two days,
no sleep, no sanity. Then spending the rest of my life trying to figure why
he's wrong, why he must be wrong, please God let him be wrong. Just add me
to the long list of others who did it.



I could talk about a basement full of food and plans to defend and share
it, but the papers are dealing with that almost daily anymore. It's old
news. I can talk about buying warm cloths and blankets from goodwill
because maybe just maybe somebody will be knocking at my door one day.



The bomb shelter question.....I'm too chicken to face it. I want a huge
bomb shelter. Big enough for everyone. I want enough food to feed everyone.
I want warm clothes for everyone. I want what I can't have. I want to never
need it. I don't ever want to take up arms because I can't feed someone.
Someone? Someones?



Some many? Too many? I live too close to a city.



Small business guys view? I am not allowed to have one. All I get is the
mushroom treatment. Pure bullshit from all concerned. "We're working on it,
everythings fine, thanks for asking, piss off".



Two conversations on the phone with a utility IT boss, almost get the
truth, begins to whisper, I can hear him look around as he talks.... Next
day I get a formal letter.. "thanks for your interest, piss off".



Who the hell am I... small business, less than a half mil a year, dozen
supliers, biggest suplier says their Computer is fine as long as they don't
lose the key that winds it up.



Q) "Can you work without that system?"



A) "Sure, if I want to do 28 hours of paperwork a day"



Q) "What are you guys doing about Y2K?"



A) "I think we are getting a new system, maybe, I don't know really"



Q) "How long did it take to set up the system you have now?"



A) "Christ, it took years to get it right"



I can talk about blank stares from friends and family, calls in the night a
year after telling them about Y2K and NOW they want info on food. There's
some I could talk about, that special couple we just knew a little bit,
that pair of people who grasped what we were trying to say in minutes and
passed us in preparations within months. Our partners now who we talk with
several times a day just to reassure each other.



Maybe they would like to hear about our meeting. The one we held in
February, inviting people thru the Gary North forum. People came from three
states. Not nuts, not kooks, not mutants, not Milnes. A retired airline
pilot, engineers, a builder, technicians, sane people. Our own Greg flew up
and spoke and ate. And scared us. Handed out code and scared us. I can talk
about how the restaurant got quiet and people took 30 minutes to drink a
cup of coffee as they eavesdropped. Hard core country people. People who
keep three years of firewood just because.



I can write about looking at people in the store and wondering what they
will be doing a year from now, will they be alive, will they be cold and
hungry and scared? The children...the kids...... We had a child die. We
died too. All those people, will they die like we did? Will they have to
feel that? Our friends brought us back to life. Will there be enough
friends in all the world..... When the world gets twisted it's always the
children that pay first. I'm not sure we can survive seeing that. The well
of sanity runs shallow.



Or how about those brief moments when it all seems like a bad dream, and I
just know it's a nightmare and I'll wake soon. Maybe a piece about waking
up at 3am so wired I have to go the basement and work on something to make
the bad dreams stop, can't sleep, don't dare, drink 12 ounces of bourbon
the next night trying to buildup the nerve to sleep.



For the first time in my life I understood why weak people can kill
themselves. I should learn to council them... I could hold them down till
it passes.



Maybe some words about the fear? Who would care, who would understand? For
Christs sake, I'm stocking up on food and supplies to make sure my kids
will be able to eat next year! That's insane, it's crazy! It's all I can
do. It's what I must do. Half the world would understand me, not one in ten
thousand in this country would. Stranger in a strange land. The only option
that makes sense in an insane situation is an insane option



I'm a non-geek. A peon. A chubby middle aged drone who runs a business, has
a family, and has no clue what the future brings. Not the 'no clue' of a
guy who wonders whether next years vacation will be at the shore or in the
mountains, but the 'no clue' of a South Vietnam villager who wonders if his
family will survive till next year. There is NOTHING in my culture or
upbringing that gets me ready for that.



I have never been hungry in my life. Not real hunger. Never have my kids,
my wife, my friends, nobody I know. I have never been without a roof.



Never without clothes. Never feared for my life when I couldn't fight back.
Now I have dreams about impossible fights against impossible odds. Money in
the bank kept the wolf at bay. A Colt by the bed made the creeper nothing
more than a harmless ghost. Will money be worthless? Will our blanket of
comfort cease to exist in an eyeblink? I, the king of the world, never been
hungry, can I keep my kids from knowing hunger? I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN!



The only way I can even begin to deal with this is by bringing along a
lifetime distrust of government, big business, and our house of cards
economy. That alone made me receptive to learning about Y2K. If it wasn't
for that offbeat attitude I would have passed by without noticing. I would
have no fears today, few cares, I would be able to laugh. Laugh....Kim says
I never laugh anymore. Humor is a flash, no more. Nothing is funny when you
are buying ammo by the case and wheat by the ton, just in case. Nothing is
funny when the finest government in the world fiddles while their systems
burn. Nothing is funny....when the dragon is mortally wounded but doesn't
yet know it's dead.



I have been studying Y2K in every way possible to me since October of 1997.
On a daily basis. How many hours? I don't want to know. In that time I have
become convinced that we are going to get blasted. Big time blasted.
Infomagic blasted. I have learned enough to get real damn scared, scared
motionless like a rabbit facing a snake.



Then I learned enough more to get slightly past that and begin getting my
family ready for as much as possible. All it takes is one of your WRP's to
bring back the snake for a while. That's why I NEED them, I MUST face the
fear down, for my family. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the enemy, fear
is the demon that stills your hands and leadens your feet. Screw the snake!
I'll feed it to my dogs before this century is out.



Fear is not knowing



Cory, I don't scare easily. I am 6'2", 340 pounds, and built like a bear. I
can let my wife hit me full strength just so she gets the excercise.



I can put 8 .45 slugs into the heads of 4 B-27 targets in 2.4 seconds with
my good hand, and 3.6 with my off hand. I can match that at 35 yards with
an M-1 carbine, and almost match it with an M-14. I can shoot a woodchuck
in the ear at 300 yards on purpose, 4 out of 5 times from the first shot
out of a cold barrel. I fear no man on this earth. I FEAR Y2K.



So... what do I have that your readers would want to hear?



 



 

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000

Answers

YUP, just like a kid in the dark fearing the "unknown". But this "adult" didn't have a chance after the flood of PROPAGANDA was delivered almost free of charge by the NET for him to do what HE THOUGHT WAS "STUDYING".

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000.

You mean PROPAGANDA like this?

-- (cpr@fud.slinger), September 10, 2000.

ESAD,,,,,,Shit HEAD:... mine was written for an audience of IT PROS and I DEFY YOU TO FIND ONE PART IN IT THAT:

1. Discusses any form of societal collapse; 2. ANY need to "prep" personally except to update your MACHINES. 3. OR.........anywhere there is ANY SALES PITCH FOR MONEY.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a different story when YOU do it!

I bet the real reason you wanted to destroy Ed and Gary was because they were competing with you, and they provided much better information than you!

You just can't stand it when someone else gets more attention than you. LOLOLOL!!!

-- (cpr@outdone.by.gary), September 10, 2000.

You know CPR; all of these trolls are coming from EZboard. A simple search tells you who they are. I know and I am sure that you do too. They aren't too bright if they think that their closed board can't be spammed.

Seek

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

HOW...ASSHOLE BIGTIME.........in the world was ** I ** "competing" with Duct Tape or Has Been Eddie??

I had NOTHING TO SELL.

NOTHING. ZIPPO. Vs. their newsletters and books, Ed's MLM scheme with his Video Tapes.

ME? ZIPPO.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000.

You're full of shit you fucking hypocrite. A closer inspection of your page reveals all kinds of efforts to produce income, and you know it.

You're a fucking low-life, all these years insulting others for doing the same thing you did, years before they even started.

-- (cpr@fucking.scum), September 10, 2000.

The people on EZ board would be suprised to learn who fucking scum is.

Collecting data.

Seek

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

"A simple search tells you who they are."

LMAO!! Nice try fool, you're just making it obvious what a moron you are. I was banned from EZ, please feel free to spam away jerkoff, I'll laugh my ass off!

-- (seek@some.brains), September 10, 2000.

Seek some brains:

Don't be so sure. This is still a beta version but it works. Now I am not going to post your name, address and phone number, but I have it. I won't be posting here anymore. Just wanted to let you know. It is only fair.

Seek

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

Seek (Seeker@look.ing):

I am using a beta version of the "Hunt for Morons" wireless surveillance parsing technology to track you at this very moment. I *SEE* you! I'm watching you through your computer monitor! Isn't it time you took a shower? Oh, and I'm sure you already know there's a direct correlation between obesity and diabetes? Stop stuffing those Cheetos in your mouth and go outside!

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000.

CPR:

Of course your response is silly. I am working with a beta version that I created. It does work. If you, with your Moron program, can't do this; so be it. Would you like the names and addresses of the folks from EZ board. No way now.

This is my last post here. I will just watch and collect data. That is what you did; correct? No more contact with me.

Seek

-- SeeK (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

Seek,

ROTFLMAO!!! You crack me up you dipshit!

Okay, show us how smart you are. PLEASE post my address and phone number, I DARE YOU!

Dumbfuck, learn something about the Internet before you say such stupid things, you look like a stupid fucking kid.

-- (seek@brains.NOW!), September 10, 2000.

Seek brains or whatever:

You can't offend me or stop technology. I will not post your name, address, etc. I believe that this would be wrong. I do have it on a tape drive; stored with your responses, etc.

I have no intention of spamming your beloved EZboard. But I do know who is who there. It is on the drive.

Like CPR, I am storing data for that time it will be useful.

Seek and disappear.

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

That's right. I won't be posting here anymore.

This is my last post.

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

I'm going now. You won't see me here anymore.

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

I'm almost gone now.

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

I'm outta here. This is my very final post.

-- Seek (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

Okay kid, you just keep collecting data. Maybe someday your childhood fantasy of working for the CIA will come true.

In the meantime, go back to your Nintendo games, something you might even know something about. LOL

-- (seek@the.zit-faced.geek), September 10, 2000.

That's right, Zog. You are now in the Federal database.

This will be my final post here. Ever. The very last one.

-- SO (Seeker@look.ing), September 10, 2000.

ZOG?? THE "zog"??

INTERESTING when you know what the initials stand for.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000.