The Y2K Disconnect--Part Deux

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http://www.y2knewswire.com/19990629cv.htm

[snip]

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans have chosen to go along with appeasement rather than skepticism. They have surrendered their responsibility to draw conclusions, handing it over to journalists who kicked it upstairs to the media owners. And those owners happen to be -- guess who? -- the very same companies that would be harmed by admitting to Y2K problems. Then, observing this journalistic incest, people continue to claim, "See? Y2K is solved. The media said so."

[snip]

The Y2K Disconnect has another parent: conformity. To think intelligently -- and differently -- is to invite ridicule by your neighbors, your coworkers and your government. As a population, we are trained not to think outside the politically-correct boundaries. From the time we enter the government-run propaganda centers known as "schools," we are trained to accept authority, to fit in, to believe whatever we are told as long as it comes from a teacher, a person with a PhD, the press, or the government. To question these things is to invite immediate punishment. It is no more complicated than the rat in the electrified cage. You step over the boundaries, you get shocked.

[snip]

The only way to shrug off the Disconnect is to realize you have been under its influence. You can't escape a cage you don't think exists, of course. So now, if you really want to get out of the herd and see what's really going on, your first job is to see the cage. Notice the boundaries that have been placed on your thoughts and your behavior. This act alone is empowering.

Next, you must take one step outside the boundaries. Test the waters, see what happens. You will be battered, of course, by the herd-minders who want you to come back into line. They might be your neighbors, your friends, even your coworkers. Don't pay attention to that: your independent thinking is making them look foolish, and they want to punish you for it. Move ahead.

When you break away from the herd enough, you will discover the grass really is greener on the other side. Not only that, you will find yourself among highly-capable, intelligent human beings who control their own destinies; who decide what they are going to think and believe, not what the herd wants them to believe.

(How, exactly do you accomplish this? First of all, you read your information, don't let people tell it to you. That means turning off the television for good. Throw it out. From here on out, you take responsibility for what you read: read the news and think, don't sit on the couch and let the networks stuff your brain with garbage.)

In this place, away from the herd, the air is fresher, the grass is greener, and you will be able to examine Y2K with a sense of clarity. You won't be very popular here, of course, because the herd has moved on. You will, however, be empowered.

Welcome to the land of original thought, where Y2K isn't a joke or a myth. It's a serious problem that is easily survivable. From the outside, Y2K suddenly becomes clear: it challenges all the myths, the half-truths, and the fiction of the establishment. It challenges the fractional reserve banking system, the faith in technology, the faith in big government, the belief that highly-complex financial entitlement systems make the world a better place. It challenges a highly-complex tax code, the "automated" society, the fractional policing system, the daily surrender of personal privacy to computers.

From the outside, from that green grass, you can see the Y2K problem encapsulated: it is a giant bubble, filled with dark, strange logic, warped thinking, poor communication, and outright deceit. It's all stirred up in there, the mixture of people and computers, the bubble boundaries, the herd population.

And now you know why they don't want this bubble to pop. It would spill everybody out into the green grass. It would give them their first opportunity to see outside the bubble. It would force them to think.

BOTTOM LINE The Y2K Disconnect is:

An unwillingness to zoom out and see the big picture.

An inability to follow cause / effect beyond the first step.

A personal surrender of the responsibility of drawing conclusions.

A desire to "conform" in order to avoid ridicule and the burden of original thought.

A selective delusion that supports a person's stock market investments.

A comfort zone where neighbors, friends and colleagues all believe the same (false) information.

To shrug off the Y2K Disconnect:

Throw out the television. Stop letting megacorporations feed filtered information and emotive advertisements directly (and passively) into your brain.

Get your information through reading. Reading involves active thought. You must think about the information as it comes in.

Challenge the mainstream. Ask questions, follow the logic, follow the money, follow the motive. Ask who is behind each Y2K claim. Ask what motive the sender of the message might have for sending it.

Complete your own Y2K preparations. Once you are physically and mentally prepared for Y2K, you are no longer tied up by emotions like anxiety or fear. Eliminate those emotions by taking action.

Educate yourself. Don't allow others to tell you what's real. Search out the information on your own. Draw your own conclusions, question credibility, question motive. Y2KNEWSWIRE, for example, accepts no outside advertising. But NBC, CBS and ABC all accept hundreds of millions of dollars in outside advertising, mostly from companies that would be harmed by rapidly-falling stock prices if they admitted to Y2K problems. Recognize this conflict of interest.

As you do this, you will find yourself empowered not only about Y2K, but about the entire world. This is one way in which Y2K can have a lasting, positive effect on humanity. It can wake up a large number of people. How about you?

-- regular (zzz@z.z), June 29, 1999

Answers

All I could add is:

BOTTOM LINE The Y2K Disconnect is:

Because few people have had to build/put together weird and wonderful systems, or rebuild/recover weird and wonderful systems, or have ever had to sync up your own weird and wonderful system with somebody else's.

Or even visualize what a weird and wonderful system even looks like...

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), June 29, 1999.


"A personal surrender of the responsibility of drawing conclusions."

This part is a word for word description of flint.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), June 29, 1999.


You know it is kind of funny how people won't do anything without permission. I guess it's drilled into you as a child.

-- at work (dontemail@me.com), June 29, 1999.

Tuesday June 29 12:22 AM ET

Energy Firms On Track To Tackle Y2K Computer Snags Full Coverage Year 2000 Problem By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There shouldn't be any major disruptions in U.S. energy supplies on New Year's Day, as nine out of 10 oil and natural gas companies plan to have their computers immune from the Year 2000 millennium bug by end of the third quarter, a new industry survey Monday showed.

According to the survey, most U.S. energy companies are in the final stages of making sure their computers don't break down on New Year's Day by confusing the last two ``00'' digits in 2000 with the year 1900.

By September 30, about 91 percent of oil and gas companies plan to have their computers upgraded, a slight increase from the 86 percent of firms that said in a January survey they expected to be in compliance at the close of the third quarter.

``The oil will flow. The gasoline will be produced,'' said Ron Quiggins, chairman of the American Petroleum Institute's Year 2000 Task Force. ``We'll (oil firms) all be okay,'' he added.

While the survey's results show energy companies are making progress, John Koskinen, chairman of the White House's Year 2000 task force, warned that much work still needs to be done to meet the target date for upgrading computers.

``Businesses... that are projecting system completion dates late this year have limited flexibility for unexpected delays,'' he said.

Indeed, a recent General Accounting Office report warned that with many firms not finishing their computer upgrades until near the end of the year, there will be little time to resolve any sudden glitches.

In addition, a top Energy Department official told a Senate committee in April that homeowners should take the precaution of filling their heating oil tanks for the upcoming winter before New Year's Day just in case computer problems disrupt petroleum supplies.

``While we see no cause for panic or alarm at this point, consumers who are dependent on oil should always be prudent in planning for their heating requirements, and should not wait until the last minute to fill their home heating oil tanks,'' said Robert Kripowicz, the department's deputy assistant for fossil energy.

-- cd (artful@dodger.com), June 29, 1999.


Quote:
"Next, you must take one step outside the boundaries. Test the waters, see what happens. You will be battered, of course, by the herd-minders who want you to come back into line. They might be your neighbors, your friends, even your coworkers."

They will especially be your churches (who are one of the main promoters and beneficiaries of sheep-like thinking ... "The Lord is my shepherd and I am a stupid sheep") and governments (who are one of the main promoters and beneficiaries of herd-like thinking ... "Big Brother is my cattle driver and I am a stupid cow").

-- A (A@AisA.com), June 29, 1999.



I liked this article because many points characterized how my coworkers, nieghbors and family members are disconnecting from anything related to Y2K.

They want to enjoy this Summer and when Y2K nears, well, then, they might do something prudent. Of course they will. When the time is right. No problem. And stop talking about it.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), June 30, 1999.


It's nice to have the forum, so I am not as alone...for even with relatively good preparation on Kaua'i, the majority are still DGIs (or worse yet, DWGIs).

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 30, 1999.

We probably should mention the tendency of individuals to hold off telling their boss bad news until the last possible moment. Like, everything COULD test out ok, right? So don't tell him that it'll be late until the deadline...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 30, 1999.

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