In retrospect, the Y2K hysteria makes us all look a little … well, hysterical. The media, in particular, loved the frenzy. I spent a few minutes today trolling around for Y2K ghost ships (outdated sites which linger on the web), and tured up these jewels:
Note how, in this article, the quiet voice of informed authority — “I kind of look for it to be a big bust” — gets squeezed between images of dire events and a long list of things to do to be properly prepared (“[Put aside] a three-day supply of water and food that won’t spoil”).
ABC.com briefy mentions that “government officials swear the bug is under control,” then devotes hundreds of words to self-appointed experts who warn, “I see a systematic breakdown … extending over a long period of time.”
Private organizations offered a mix of standard warnings … and bizarre tips:
The Taos County, New Mexico, Chamber of Commerce warned members that Y2K was a “category five hurricane, heading straight for … the whole world.”
From the University of Illinois Y2K preparedness site: “There may be localized disruptions with electrical power causing problems with electronic banking, traffic signals and phone systems. Manufacturing and production industries may also be disrupted.” Other schools set up special call-in lines to tell students whether or not the campus would still be in working order for the winter semester.
Countdown.org encouraged readers to “withdraw two to three months of cash by mid-1999” and “build hidden rooms to avoid thugs.”
Business was big for sites like JosephPrep.com, which encouraged families to follow tips from the now-defunct www.y2ktimebomb.com site and offered Christ-led consumers everything from solar ovens to gas masks.
Not even the uneventful dawning of the year 2000 could calm some alarmists. This site’s editor left up the Y2K preparedness notes just in case the real disaster struck on New Year’s Day 2001. (“69% of Americans say toilet paper is the one thing they don’t want to be without!”)
Today, shops like Gold Nugget Army Surplus look back on the Y2K business boom with an air of perverse nostalgia: “Maybe you made it through Y2K without a hitch … are are you truly prepared for a REAL disaster?”
And there’s the point of transition, of course. With the Y2K apocalypse a bust, the post September-11th world offers new life to disaster-mongers everywhere.
JosephPrep.com — the same folks who sold Y2K solar ovens to Christ’s faithful — now sports a new banner advertising its disaster preparedness line: “If you wait to get these supplies until a biological, chemical, or nuclear terrorist attack strikes our land, you will find you have waited too long.”
Mothballed sites like Y2K Women languished until September 11, when the owner, previously given to obsessions and morbid fantasies about Y2K, realized the attack on the Trade Centers was a fresh opportunity for dread: “On the news tonight, they were reporting that trucks are being stopped at checkpoints (with long delays) and products are not getting to stores. Businesses are not getting the customers they need to remain afloat. The possibility of losing our livelihood or our nation going into an all-out war is mind-boggling.”
How swift, our impulse to embrace a looming disaster!
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