When foriegn countries have their infrastructure collapsing, when the food lines start, when water becomes scarce, when sewage starts to back up, when...

Who are the leaders of these countries going to blame?

Will they tell their people the truth that they were clueless DGIs or might they blame it on the US. Will they say the US tricked us and sold us these computers knowing that the collapse would come?

-- NotMe (notme@it'syourfault.com), April 07, 1999

Answers

I thought your thread title, "Will we be blamed for y2k?" was really asking, "Will those who stock up be blamed for causing a panic?"

I'd guess "Yes" to both questions. The US will be blamed by other nations for selling defective computers, and the guilt manipulators will be in full voice demanded that this injustice be rectified at taxpayer's expense.

Also, whatever disruptions occur domestically will be blamed on "panic" rather than technology failures, and therefore, the "extremist fear-mongers" are to blame (especially those psychotic Youdonites).

Scapegoating is now a highly-refined art in our "perception equals reality" age.

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), April 07, 1999.

Dittos what Rick said.

It will be both.

Look for a complete global re-structuring in the aftermath.

Don't count us in as part of it.

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), April 07, 1999.

While I hope this question doesn't turn out to matter, I must say it's human nature to blame someone else, anyone else, for our problems.

Since bugs in code are a hard enemy to identify with, if there is a great deal of relatively undirected public anger, you can bet demagogues will come out of the woodwork to direct that anger in exchange for personal power. What they might do with that power is anybody's guess, but most likely most of us won't like it much.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), April 07, 1999.

I agree with you, INVAR, Rick and Flint. I think that people will do as they did in the 30's in Germany, and demand that they are "taken care of". They will vote away their freedoms, in order to stay alive... the people in charge will go after whoever they can. Groups such as: the cristians, the jews, the foriegners, and of course, us "evil, craised, deluded, waco and sicopant" survivalists, who "pray off of hard working, decent people who only want peace." just wait, these slogans will be used against us when and if TSHTF, or even if the problem is "mild". They will say that they can save us if we give up our freedoms, and "the Sheeple" will go along with it...

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), April 08, 1999.