Here truly, is TEOTWAWKI; (when) "Any hopeful glimmer, filtering toward the sympathetic eye of a supportive fellow human from a future only now struggling toward birth, is lost in the darkness between bits of data."

- Steve Talbott, The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst

Aboard the Taker Thunderbolt -

Since April of this year when we turned onto Final Approach, we have been shedding altitude in preparation for that instant when our landing gear will contact 'Runway 00' and we will meet our Hopes and our Fears.

Argument, debate and even conversation have dropped off markedly in the passenger cabin. A few fistfights have actually broken out and it is clear that the tension is extremely high. Most of the passengers are straining to hear the scraps of information coming through the speakers. The closer to the airport that we get, the more stations come in and the more broadcasts we receive. The confusion is keeping pace with the tension, and the same basic questions remain: Is the information we are getting reliable? Are we worried for no good cause? Are we going to Crash? These questions have all been answered, but unfortunately, they have been answered in both the affirmative and in the negative and might as well have not been answered at all.

The landing gear has been deployed and indicates 'three down and locked' and the flaps are extended. The air brakes have begun eating speed. Each change in engine sound or bump of turbulence produces a collective gasp and brings a momentary yet profound silence among the passengers. The 'goo' outside is the same uniform grey as before and the only things visible are the diffused flash of the anti-collision strobes and the flashing red of the rotating beacons. The 'goo' condenses onto the windows and the droplets stream rearward and off the pane, only to be replaced by new drops. . .

Despite the confusion and concern, there is yet a great Truth apparent and a large measure of comfort to be had. Whether the Ultimate Authority has been revealed to you as the God of the Old Testament or the Allah of Islam or the Great Spirit Who is All Things, that Truth is constant. We are all possessed of the most important single preparation possible. The non-hybrid seeds, the nitrogen packed rice and beans, the cords of firewood and the newly-dug water wells all pale in insignificance beside it. We all have it, and we will all have it still at touchdown and beyond. How we use it will be the single most determinative factor in what Y2K turns out to be like and each of us will use it, either correctly or not.

Each of us has the knowledge of a technique for interacting with each other that will guarantee the success of Humanity if properly used by enough of us or its failure if not. The technique itself is quite simple and we all learned to do it at an early age. It will work in spite of the total loss of our technology, or just as well in harmony with it. It is universal in its utility and applies equally in all languages and cultures and in all situations and all circumstances. In the final analysis, it may well be the only thing that will save us both from ourselves and for ourselves.

There is yet a short space of time before the 'Fasten Seat Belts' and 'No Smoking' signs light up. Only the very last few minutes of our flight will be spent strapped into our seats with nothing to do save think. Use what time there is left to ready yourself to use that omnipotent preparation and indeed it will be apparent that its immediate usage will be beneficial.

Focus your minds and your hearts on how you will, "Do Unto Others. . ."

From GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) on Runway 00 at 21st Century airport:

"Taker Thunderbolt, this is your final GCA controller. You are 888 hours out, speed 3600 seconds per hour. You are on glide path, on course. Expect touchdown 21st Century Airport at 00:00 hours, January 1st, 2000. . ."

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

Very pretty!

A far nicer picture than flying "White Knuckle Airlines" (noted Canadian Forces wide for their over-the-top-powerdives-onto-the- tarmac-while-you-watch-in-fascination/horror-at-the-certainty-of-your- doom...!

Anybody else have that pleasureable experience?

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), November 24, 1999.

Cool! The return of Hardliner! This interesting metaphor is from Ishmael's idea of our civilization believing itself to be flying, while it is actually falling (not being able to distinguish to 2 at high altitudes, we'll find out when we land!) But we should note that even if Y2K is a BITR, the original metaphor was applied to our industrial civilization as a whole, and a soft BITR landing on Y2K would be, in terms of the original metaphor, just postponing the inevitable.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), November 24, 1999.

Cool! The return of Hardliner! This interesting metaphor is from Ishmael's idea of our civilization believing itself to be flying, while it is actually falling (not being able to distinguish the 2 at high altitudes, we'll find out when we land!) But we should note that even if Y2K is a BITR, the original metaphor was applied to our industrial civilization as a whole, and a soft BITR landing on Y2K would be, in terms of the original metaphor, just postponing the inevitable.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), November 24, 1999.

Hardliner!!! We've missed you! Welcome back! :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 24, 1999.

Hardliner,

Vivid. And I agree completely.

Sincerely,
Stan Faryna

Ready for Y2K? Got 14 days of water, food, way to keep warm and cook?
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001o cf

Cooperative Preps : Have you checked out the deals we can get on  preps?

One time deal on a inexpensive grain mill
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001q Sw

Water filters for less than suggested retail
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001q T8

Gas masks, potassium iodide, solar ovens, etc
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001q TK

Aladdins: the kerosene lamp for readers
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001p 1v

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), November 24, 1999.

Great post, Hardliner, as usual. Thank you.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@welcome.back), November 24, 1999.

Good to hear from you Hardliner. We've missed you.

-- DaveW (dwood@southwind.net), November 24, 1999.

For you, my friend:

Flying in The Goo

Flying in the Goo II, aboard the Taker Thunderbolt

Flying in the Goo III - Final Approach

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 24, 1999.

Count,

In the immortal words of Toy Story character, Buzz Lightyear: "I'm falling with STYLE!"

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), November 24, 1999.

Hey Hardliner-

READY for Pinochle...got chips? Welcome back.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 24, 1999.

I remember the first one. Still think about it once in a while. Thanks for this and it IS good to see you again.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), November 24, 1999.

We missed you, Hardliner.

;-D

Namaste'

Diane

@}->--

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Read, Hardliner. Five x Five.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@hiding.now), November 24, 1999.

thanks Gayla, saved me the hunt.

Thanks Hardliner, nice to see you back.

i trust you will have the play by play from the "Seatbelts Please" light going on 12/28. (OH please oh please ohplease...)

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), November 25, 1999.

Dammit, Hardliner, you held out on us tooooooo long this time! Welcome back, and please park your arse here to stay now. WE NEED YOU!

{ we're gonna hose da rose plucker ;~}

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 25, 1999.

This is THE finest post I've read-- utter, unshakeable optimism, and a ringing endorsement of Faith, importance thereof. "...if you have not charity..."--or love, two freely interchangeable words in the Divine Lexicon. Time, that bete noir of Man, that puzzle, that irreducible THING, is actually about to reach out and give us a collective slap upside our heads. "WAKE UP!" it demands: "your human constructs have failed you! If you want to live, follow the Creator, He who made Me and Thee." The spiritual-minded know this in their hearts: only love will survive. (Not to introduce too heavy a note of 'religiosity' into Hardliner's elegaic metaphor, but I believe in the Third Millenium mankind will live in the Divine Will; no longer struggling to obey the precepts of the Divine Will, man will learn, or be made able, to abandon his own human will for that of the Divine. Men will somehow understand that since the Divine Will is perfect goodness and perfect Truth, we should simply abandon ourselves to the care of the Creator. [Some Catholics will recognize this: others are invited to peruse the Divine Will.org website). Jesus told Louisa on Jan. 21, 1919 that every two thousand years the world is transformed: After the first 2000 years, the Father purified the world with the Flood, after another 2,000 years, the Son redeemed the world by His blood, and now, the world will be Sanctified by the fire of the Holy Spirit. After a large part of present-day mankind is destroyed, survivors and their descendants will live in the Divine Will of God.]). Whoops, I guess this does betray a SLIGHT religiosity, but...(all in unison)...WHATEVER! A most happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Mr. Hardliner.

-- Spidey (free@last.Amen), November 25, 1999.

Luisa, you ask? I fell prey to an irritating lack of a screen editor (as always): I was referring to Luisa Picarreta, who was bedridden her entire adult life (a Victim Soul, like Audrey Santos in Worchester, Mass.), and wrote thirty volumes of 'messages' from Jesus about the Divine Will. What form this 'sanctification by the Fire of the Holy Spirit' will take, I do not know. A Japanese nun in Akita, Father Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests, and many other Catholic visionaries and locutionists have talked of 'fire falling from the sky, and two/thirds mankind being destroyed.' The visionaries at Medjugorje say they've been made aware of a series of future events, "the first of which will break the power of satan on earth." Many have spoken of "a moment of Illumination" that will occur soon, when man would be confronted with the true state of his soul, and that this would be tied in, somehow, with a Second Pentecost event, this time global in nature.

-- Spidey (free@last.Amen), November 25, 1999.

Sorry to bother you again, but just wanted to say, I ain't no saint...just passing along information, handing out leaflets on the cyberstreet. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, all you Y2Kers!

-- Spidey (free@last.Amen), November 25, 1999.

We have died and gone to heaven -- Hardliner and Spidey on the same thread!

-- Thank You (allaha@earthlink.net), November 25, 1999.

Hardliner -- good to see you again. Stick with us for the rest of the ride....

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), November 25, 1999.

Hardliner,

"I have you outer marker inbound, positive radar contact."

"Strangle your parrot".

"Cleared for a full stop to terminate."

Excellent, as always Sir. May this be a three point landing and we don't prang this hog in trying.

35 days until touchdown.

Welcome back Sir.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 27, 1999.

Hardliner, so good to see you post here again! Your voice is clear and resounding above the noise, as an oasis island in a maelstrom of confusion, to help us refocus.

Count Vronsky, here is part of the passage in "Ismhmael" comparing civilazation to a flight:

(For those not familiar with the book, the "Takers" refer to "civilized people", i.e. civilization as we know it, as opposed to tribal people.)

Ishmael nodded. "Here is the connection. Ten thousand years ago, the people of your culture embarked on a similar flight: a civilization flight. Their craft wasn't designed according to any theory at all. Like our imaginary airman, they were totally unaware that there is a law that must be complied with in order to achieve civilisation flight. They didn't even wonder about it. They wanted the freedom of the air, and so they pushed off in the first contraption that came to hand: the Taker Thunderbolt.

"At first all was well. In fact, all was terrific. The Takers were pedaling away and the wings of their craft were flapping beautifully. They felf wonderful, exhilarated. They were experiencing the freedom of the air: freedom from restraints that bind and limit the rest of the biological community. And with that freedom came marvels -- all the things you mentioned the other day: urbanization, technology, literacy, mathematics, science.

"Their flight could never end, it could only go on becoming more and more exciting. They couldn't know, couldn't even have guessed that, like our hapless airman, they were in the air but not in flight. They were in free fall, because their craft was simply not in compliance with the law that makes flight possible. But their disillusionment is far away in the future, and so they're pedaling away and having a wonderful time. Like our airman, they see strange sights in the course of their fall. They see the remains of craft very like their own -- not destroyed, merely abandoned -- by the Maya, by the Hohokam, by the Anasazi, by the peoples of Hopewell cult, to mention only a few of those found here in the New World. 'Why,' they wonder, 'are these craft on the ground instead of in the air? Why would any people prefer to be earthbound when they could have the freedom of the air, as we do?' It's beyond comprehension, and unfathomable mystery.

"Ah well, the vagaries of such foolish people are nothing to the Takers. They're pedaling away and having a wonderful time. They're not going to abandon their craft. They're going to enjoy the freedom of the air forever. But alas, a law is catching up to them. They don't know such a law exists, but this ignorance affords them no protection from its effects. This is a law as unforgiving as the law of gravity, and it's catching up to them in exactly the same way the law of gravity caught up to our airman: at an accelerating rate. "Some gloomy nineteeth-century thinkers, like Robert Wallace and Thomas Robert Matlthus, look down. A thousand years before, even five hundred years before, they would probably have noticed nothing. But now what they see alarms them. It's as thought the ground is rushing up the meet them -- as though they are going to crash. They do some figuring and say, 'If we go on this way, we're going to be in big trouble in the not-too-distant future.' The other Takers shrug their predictions off. 'We've come all this enormous way and haven't even received so much as a scratch. It's true the ground seems to be rising up to meet us, but that just means we'll have to pedal a little harder. Not to worry.' (bolding my own.)

I see this metaphor as very relevant to the Y2K controversy. Some of us as "GI's" see the signs of the Y2K ground rushing up to us, but the rest of civilization as "pollys" shrugged the warnings. Everyone's pedaling feaverishly now. But this metaphor is part of a much bigger picture, of which Y2K is only a symptom.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), November 27, 1999.