We keep referring to people as GI/ DGI, in discussions about who is doing what kinds of contingency plans and preps. It tends to suggest that today's GI's will have things on hand for the rollover, and that the rest of the world is planning to just "wing it".

Mulling things over today, I realized that I know more people who "sort of get it", than I do people who are either DWGI/DGI/ or GI. Could we use SGI, or something else, as shorthand for the folks who haven't YET done any preps, but who are a little nervous about "that Y2K thing", and who fully intend to do some extra purchases of "food and stuff" and get "some extra cash" JIT for the rollover? We do discuss them alot, and SGI's seem to represent a majority of my friends, relatives and neighbors. I think it might be useful in our discussions and perceptions to make a distinction between this group and the DGI/DWGI's.

To me, the SGI's constitute a group of people who currently APPEAR to be behaving as if they are DGI's, but they aren't thinking the same way. They don't assume that all the important stuff will be fixed in time; they just think that MOST of what is vital to THEM will be, or that what is missed could be FOF fairly quickly. They don't intend to rely on preps for only a 3-day storm (like the DGI's), but they aren't going to be able to handle more than 2 weeks or so, either. They are taking their cues from their workplace observations, from the people they most trust in their lives, from the media (who are always assumed to be on the prowl for something they can turn into a LATEBREAKING and never-ending drama), and from the government (because they believe that the government will WANT people to prepare if there is the need). They assume that people smarter than them are thinking all of this stuff over, and will let them know if they need to do something differently. SGI's can't be lumped in with the GI's OR the DGI's, because their minds could be changed in a hurry, by a change in one of these cues that they rely upon to make important decisions. They have the capacity to turn into GI's, they just haven't heard from their key sources that life could become seriously disrupted and dangerous. These are the people we are beginning to encounter of late, who surprise us with their "sudden" change of minds. Maybe they are surprising us because we have grown to expect what we find on the forum, that is people who are by and large long-time GI or DGI, and remaining so with conviction.

Please, don't flame me if you think using "SGI" is a dumb idea, "who cares because they are all doomed anyway!", etc. I think lots of newbies are hatching, and I'd hate for them to be driven off by scary troll noises.

-- Kristi (KsaintA@aol.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

Kristi:

An excellent and thoughtful idea. I hearby "second" the motion.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 31, 1999.

Yes Kristi,

An excellent and thoughtful idea. I hearby "third" this motion.

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), August 31, 1999.

Kristi,

With all respect (and I'm not flaming you), your treatise describes DGI's PERFECTLY.

May I quote you?

They are taking their cues from their workplace observations, from the people they most trust in their lives, from the media (who are always assumed to be on the prowl for something they can turn into a LATEBREAKING and never-ending drama), and from the government (because they believe that the government will WANT people to prepare if there is the need).

They assume that people smarter than them are thinking all of this stuff over, and will let them know if they need to do something differently. SGI's can't be lumped in with the GI's OR the DGI's, because their minds could be changed in a hurry, by a change in one of these cues that they rely upon to make important decisions.

They have the capacity to turn into GI's, they just haven't heard from their key sources that life could become seriously disrupted and dangerous.

That's pretty much THE definition of a DGI...

122 days remain.

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), August 31, 1999.

Sadly, I must report yet another category--FGI, or Formerly Got It. Yesterday my 23-year-old son called to tell me that he is moving from a rural setting to Asheville, NC. He was planning for Y2K, but now he says he no longer wants to base his life on fear. (He's a hippie, born 30 years too late.) He loves Asheville and says it is a very Y2K- aware area, but he will be living right in the city. I told him to store water. There just wasn't much else I could say.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), August 31, 1999.

Ditto. My folks sort of get it, but still are desperate to believe it won't happen. Nevertheless, they still make good preps. Dad bought a cord of wood. We also have a generator and are in need of some metal barrels for fuel, along with the appropriate grounding rod and cables. They want me to stop stockpiling food, though. They don't think we need that much.

They also don't get it about the economy. Specifically, they don't understand there probably won't be an economy to speak of after Y2K hits.

Sort of is better than don't.

Tim

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), August 31, 1999.

I dunno Tim...

They want me to stop stockpiling food, though. They don't think we need that much. They also don't get it about the economy. Specifically, they don't understand there probably won't be an economy to speak of after Y2K hits.

Really sounds like DGI's to me dude...

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), August 31, 1999.

Kristi -

I think SGI is a useful descriptor, but I believe it is a hybrid of a GI/DWGI rather than a GI/DGI, hence the easy flow back and forth, on the verge.

I'm also thinking that most DGIs are now really DBIs (Don't Believe It), because so many of them are so entrenched (the reason my town leaders won't do any contingency planning).

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), August 31, 1999.

It is part of the price we pay for our highly-mechanized time-deprived complex techno-social structuring, that each of us will, at one time or another, have to depend upon others for information that we have no access to in our particular niche of the universe. This is why we cannot be blame oriented toward DGIs or SGIs...anymore than we would expect to be blamed as GIs (or programmers) for any negative outcomes of the rollover.

But at the same time, we all know that the tendency to turn over the wheel, and just possibly the keys, so one can in effect drive while 'sleeping at the wheel' of one's destiny, has become the modus operandi of many people. It is this that infuriates and frustrates GIs trying to communicate with DGIs...and thus the term sheeple. But the term is derogatory and harmful in discussion; and only adds to the burden of polarizations. There have been many good discussions on this board that I could have used as wake up info for friends and neighbors -- conversations, that were ruined by too much deprecation and outright stupid sneering toward those who DGI. These attitudes show some very small minds and hearts at work. Expecting anyone to listen when they are being spit on is pretty far-fetched. End of Rant.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), August 31, 1999.

Sheila,

I agree. My wife and I recently had a victory in finally convincing her DWGI best friend of the dangers ahead. We never would have done that by screaming at her, calling her names and making fun of her ideas.

If I'm in a contentious mood (which happens..what can I say, I'm a guy), I'd rather squabble over details and have hot political discussions with fellow G.I.s. There's nothing to lose there. They're already preparing. And yes, there is a small number of well known D.G.I.s who just invite bashing, with their invective, and who can resist. But there's a huge number of people who can still be reached. And the store shelves aren't empty, yet, so it's not too late to start preparing.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), August 31, 1999.

I would be happy if we dropped all derogatory comments about doomers, pollys, GI/DGI/WDGI's. But as for another catagory? "Could we use SGI, or something else, as shorthand for the folks who haven't YET done any preps, but who are a little nervous about "that Y2K thing", and who fully intend to do some extra purchases of "food and stuff" and get "some extra cash" JIT for the rollover? " ???

IMHO, someone who hasn't YET done any preps is a DGI. You can't GetIt about the interconnectedness and risk to JIT, and still not have done ANY preps. Someone who INTENDS to get some "food and stuff" and cash JUST IN TIME for rollover is very definitely a DGI. They haven't even got very deeply into AWARENESS... as as we always hear, that is only 1% of the way there. They haven't gotten to assessing their situation, remediating their vulnerabilities or testing their solutions. [those phases work even for those who "don't even have a computer"]

As for Sheila's problem with contentious threads... cut and paste to a word processing program, edit, and send. Save the good, trash the bad.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 31, 1999.

P.S. You may want to print up some nice little graduation certificates however. You can then present the CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW A G.I. certificates after your friends and relatives buy their first 50# sack of pinto beans, their first blue 55 gal. water drums or their first ton of T.P.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 31, 1999.

'As for Sheila's problem with contentious threads... cut and paste to a word processing program, edit, and send. Save the good, trash the bad.' -- Linda (lwmb@psln.com)

Yeah, that works, and I've done that. Just wouldn't refer anyone who is fence sitting to this forum...trash wading won't do when someone is already unclear about what they think.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), August 31, 1999.

I also think the the so-called SGI's are simply a variety of DGI for reasons others have noted. It doesn't have to be an emotion laden derogatory term.

My Dad, one brother and one sister (and families) fit this description pretty well. I'm deeply concerned about them. I've spoken my piece and they aren't moving yet. They're intelligent and prudent about everything else in their lives but not in the case of this peculiar and unprecedented singularity.

When considering extensions to GI, DGI, etc., my mind keeps replaying the pop rock phrase "never gonna' get it, never gonna' get it" over and over. I sure hope my family and dear neighbors don't end up in the NGGI category.

17.4 weeks to go folks, preparations need to be wrapped up pronto.

God bless,

-- TM (digiratoX@mindspring.com), August 31, 1999.

Pearlie....Don't worry about your boy. Asheville is probably one of the friendliest and neighborly cities in the East. The city is also about as y2k ready as you can get according to my sources in the utilities (middle management and some street level folks). If he is willing to help others, others will help him.

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), August 31, 1999.

Thanks for all the good thinking out loud on this! I guess I got to a place this weekend where I realized that there are all types of DGI's. There's my spouse who is a DWGI (or even hear it mentioned in his presence) on his worst days, and a DGI on his best. He thinks that even 3 days of glitches sounds like Y2K hype. Then there are some neighbors and friends who are DGI, but planning to do some JIT preps, just in case they are wrong. I agree; they all share "not getting it" about the interconnectedness of everything and its potential to impact so many people simultaneously, as nothing else in human history ever has, and about our JIT distribution stream. Even so, they are really in very different places, and it gives me a little more sense of hope when I pay attention to that fact.

Among GI's, even though we share perceptions about interconnectedness, etc., we run the whole gamut in what we believe it will probably lead to, as evidenced in our poll last week, and the level of preps we are doing. Among the GI's, we can appreciate the subtle degrees of difference between "expecting a 2, but prepping for a 5", or "prepping for a 3 to 4, but think it could go to a 9 if there is widespread grid failure". I think there is a similar gamut of diversity among the SGI's, DGI's, DWGI's, FGI's, etc., that would be valuable to keep in mind. Someone who didn't get it about "interconnectedness" yesterday, may have an AHH HAA! moment today, and become a GI tomorrow. Every GI out there was a DGI/DWGI/SGI at some point in time, and it might help to remember that, as well.

Most of the people who posted on this thread seem to already have thought of this. They don't divide the world into 2 camps of GI and DGI, and imagine this tidy little battlefield where there are only 2 points of view, one totally right, and the other totally foolish, or worse. I agree with those who said that using these labels as shorthand descriptions may have some value, but using them to demean and "spit all over" each other in US/THEM tirades is offensive and counterproductive.

-- Kristi (KsaintA@aol.com), September 01, 1999.

The scariest folks are the ones who THINK they are full-on GIs that are prepping massively when in fact all they have are 25 pounds of beans, 5 gallons of water, an extra jumbo pack of TP, some candles and $200 cash. They are the ones who are in for the rudest awakening because they think they have it all covered. Maybe they could be called DRGI (Don't Really Get It).

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), September 01, 1999.

After reading just now that SGI (formerly Silicon Graphics) has a non-compliant OS, I'd like to suggest that we find another acronym. SGI has a very specific meaning in the UN*X and computer graphics worlds, and if they don't get the IRIX OS patched properly, it'll mean something much worse...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), September 01, 1999.

One last tidbit about all this talk of GI/DGI/DWGI/SGI and wanting to shield friends and loved ones from derogatory comments. You might try "innoculating" them from derogatory comments by pointing out some of the sorce of the frustration that leads to derogatory comments about pollys and DGI's and sheeple. There is frustration that our loved ones have bought the official party line that Y2K is solved, or that it is all hype, or a hoax. Our anger should really be directed at the major media and the PTB that KNOWINGLY promoted those FALSE ideas in order to maintain the status quo for as long as possible. But unfortunately those of us who have spent hundreds to thousands of hours researching on this topic and have come to the conclusion that it will not be a BITR, get frustrated that our loved ones won't just take our word for it and prepare. We fear for their very lives, yet we can't get them to take it seriously. So the fear and worry turns into frustration and derogatory comments against sheeple and DGIs. Its just misplaced anger against the leaders of the country and the managers of businesses for putting us in this place in the first place, and for not urging serious "contingency plans" by individuals that would mitigate any "glitches".

This could very well be life and death stuff. If a little name-calling is going to be more than they can handle... hmmmm... they are in for a rough ride. DWGI could be a terminal disease. So you might have to consider that it is like having a loved one wheezing with emphesema but still smoking 2 packs a day. At some point you have to just love them and realize that we all make our choices in life.. not all of them wise. And life itself is a terminal disease. Do the best you can, but realize you are not responsible for others preps. You - if anything - were responsible for sharing what you know, but after that it is up to them to act on the warning... or not. Love them in any case.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 01, 1999.