Whenever things go to hell in the course of human events, angered humanoids create scapegoats to slaughter and to mutilate.

Researching the Internet about Y2K etc., it's a no-brainer to conclude that things will go to hell, again, and soon.

Previous man-made hells resulted in great casulties. According to the Wall Street Journal more than 170,000,000 people were killed by their own governments since the beginning of this wonderful century. This number does NOT include war casulties. "Only" about 40,000,000 checked out of this world as heroes.

Therefore the no-brainer conclsusion is:

After the start of TEOTWAWKI, one segment of the human population will destroy another. As before, there will be many innocent victims, "collateral damage."

Remembering that scum floats to the top and sheet flows downhill, we may ask:

Who is responsible for the Y2K mess?

Who will be the scapegoats?

-- Weeping Soul (innocent@mad.humanoids), November 12, 1998

Answers

You got my vote for "optimist of the year".

-- James Chancellor (publicworks1@bluebonnet.net), November 12, 1998.

>You got my vote for "optimist of the year". <

Denialhead, pardon your ignorance. How do you explain the 170 million? They were just "collateral damage" to you?

I was born during one of those mass killings, so I know.

-- Weeping Soul (innocent@mad.humanoids), November 12, 1998.

Denialhead, pardon your ignorance. How do you explain the 170 million? Yes I share your horror of genocide, I think under a totalitarian system it appears humans are capable of following any orders. Trouble is totalitarianism itself is a result of acceptance by the population. Read the Mass Psychology of Fascism (red or black) by W Reich. Dispossessed populations is another reason.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 12, 1998.

In answer to your original questions, Uncle Deedah and Uncle Deedah.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 12, 1998.

Responsible: Authority figures; any Manager type

Scapegoats: The media/press for not reporting the truth, warning us, and pressuring the Authority Figures to fix it starting in 1989.
xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), November 12, 1998.

I agree that business managers will get a lot of blame. So will the press. CNN did a story on Y2K at least as early as January, 1996. The press should have been doing stories at the beginning of 1998 saying that if you hadn't started your Y2K project yet, then you might not get finished.

Some of the blame is going to go to whoever decided to use two digits instead of four digits in the 1960's. There was a great article on Gary North's site awhile back that lays blame on our military.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), November 12, 1998.

Ever hear of "K.I.S.S." -- Keep It Simple, Stupid? It will indeed be kept simple and stupid: The computer programmer types will be burned at the stake by the New Luddite Order or some such. Whining about Management, The Lawyers, etc., won't mean diddly to the NLO.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), November 12, 1998.

I wonder if those 170,000,000 were armed to defend themselves? If they weren't that's why they were among the numbered. In order for genocide to rein there has to be organization and a plan to carry it out. I just hope that if the government's plans are to turn on it's own people, that enough militia and ex-military people have the forsight and braverity to fight them every step of the way. I was never in the military, but count me in. Fighting for freedom on my soil will be worth it. I'll do it for my children and my children's children.

-- ReadyEddy (ReadyEddy@webtv.net), November 12, 1998.

Who will be sacrificed? The sick and the young Who will be punished? The doctors and the parents who blame themselves.

Who will be sacrificed? Thousands upon thousands of people on welfare, who are basically good people in bad times (i.e. *not* welfare momma's) Who will be punished? The politicians (nothing wrong with that...!)

Who will be sacrificed? The hard working Ford or Chevy line-man Who will be punished? The stockholders and CEO's (nothing wrong with that either...:-)

Who will be sacrificed? All of us, who have made preparations and must sadly, not open the door when someone comes for food. All of us who won't give a neighbor a gallon of much needed gas. All of us who for a few, very tight months (no money, little food & water, etc.) must do things--in those months--that we will never forget as long as we live. Who will be punished? We will punish ourselves quite nicely, thank you.

-- Okum (ws000@aol.com), November 12, 1998.

Who SHOULD be punished? Many. But only one mention this time: Bill Gates -- for foisting non-compliant programs on the public. Even now, most of his crap has problems of one kind or another.

Oh, one more: Any of YOU who still write dates as 12/31/99 or 01/01/00. Or as January 1, 2000. Start doing it RIGHT: e.g., 2000 January 1 or 2000-01-01 (YYYY-MM-DD)

-- hulk (avenger@doit.com), November 12, 1998.

Hey Hulk,

I wouldn't be so quick to jump all over people for the way they write dates. You offered two choices yourself. The fact is that there are no universally recognized standards or conventions for writing dates. That is part of the problem.

Who will be punished and who sacrificed? No one should be punished--it isn't really anyone's fault. We will all suffer however.

-- Buddy (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), November 12, 1998.

The programmers will be branded with a big "C" on their right arm and mass exterminated.

-- Knows no trivia (History@repeat.self), November 12, 1998.

(NOT)Sorry to disappoint some of you but I personally know quite a few programmers and others in the computer fields. In my experience, a great many of them understand such things as sight alignment and trigger squeeze. As for branding anyone, ten cuidado lest you end up on the wrong end of someone's sight picture.

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), November 12, 1998.

I'm sure someone(s) will be scapegoated...and as usual they will have most of it wrong.

Hopefully Y2K will be the two-by-four to the world's skull that wil enable them to finally get out of the "blame game".

Finally...too many people to blame, too much of the dominant cultural set-up to blame...all of it reminds me a Stephen Sondheim piece from "Into the Woods" that I'll refrain from quoting...get the recording and listen.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 12, 1998.

Balkanization and Zenophobia will the the order of the day.

Logic and reason will be rare.

The "others" will be to blame - "Oh, the brother-in-law Ralph here, yeah, he worked on Computers but he dinna do none of that bad stuff"

I suspect the Jews will be blamed sooneer or later. No, I don't think "they" had the least to do with anything. History tells us repeatedly that the Jews end up getting blamed for something.

If this thin veil of civilization gets stripped away remember one thing - All politics comes out the end of a gun.

Anyone who is unable to counter force or hide from it will likely be sacrificed.

And you thought E. was a pessimist.

Greybear

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), November 12, 1998.

Those whom have been shown the problem and haven't prepared should be punished and will be. Good'ol Uncle Sam won't be there to bail them out this time, because he has placed his bet on technology, too. No one will buy his trillion dollars of debt, he can't buy your votes anymore, he can't even lie to you on TV anymore.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 12, 1998.

Has anybody here read A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller? It covers this ground pretty thoroughly. On a speculative basis of course.

Some of it sounds all too familiar.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), November 12, 1998.

Punished / sacrificed? As much as the past predicts the future: the poor, the weak, the different, the children, the elderly and far too many for far too long. This will happen for anything worse than a 1, IMHO.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 13, 1998.

Lets keep it simple and just blame Deedah, then we can all carry on wit our lives.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 13, 1998.

Maybe I'm just having one of those days, but I can't help thinking that a lot of us Forumites will get blamed. I mean, we will be the haves, if we prepare wisely, and isn't it ALWAYS the haves who get their 'palaces' stormed and trashed?

I can picture a mob of villagers crowding the fence outside our house, and someone pointing and yelling "THEY knew what was going to happen!!! THEY prepared and now THEY hoard EVERYTHING!!!! Let's get 'em!!!"

Uffffdaa! I think I'm going to go look over the real estate sites again...

-- Arewyn (nordic@northnet.net), November 13, 1998.

Pour boiling oil over the peasants they deserve it, maybe thats too valuable a resource to use, they are other alternatives if the sewage system fails.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 13, 1998.

Wow, Tom,...Canticle For Leibowitz is sitting in my SF bookcase, and I haven't read it for about 20 years. I'm gonna dust it off and remember. Thanks.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 13, 1998.

Buddy: there IS a date standard -- ANSI

All: Want to read about how it could be after? "Lucifer's Hammer" by (if I recall correcttly) Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Unfortunately that scenario required a community and a leader.

-- hulk (avenger@doit.com), November 13, 1998.

Come with rice, and I'll keep you warm. Come with wood, and I'll feed you. Come with nothing, and you will be sent packing. Come to take my food and wood, and all you will get is lead.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 15, 1998.