From MSN - Y2K wackos: Should you be afraid?

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This was on MSN's front page when I started up this morning (For educational purposes only):

http://www.slate.com/diary/99-12-20/diary.asp?iMsg=

Alex Heard is the executive editor of Wired magazine and the author of Apocalypse Pretty Soon (click here to visit his site and here to buy the book). Posted: Monday, Dec. 20, 1999, at 10:00 a.m. PT

I've spent lots of face time with a grab bag of millennial and utopian players over the past 10 years, trying to understand what they're all about. The major categories included Christians who believe in the Last Days prophecies outlined in the Book of Revelation (by far the largest group, numbering in the tens of millions); New Agers who think the Earth itself is angry with mankind and is stepping up the severity of natural disasters to kill us off (this is called "Earth Changes"); UFO enthusiasts (specifically, ones who think flying saucers are piloted by infinitely wise Ascended Masters); Y2K panickers (also prone to survivalist measures); far-right hotheads; and various political separatists.

Along the way I made many fascinating new friends, including an emergency-room doctor who's convinced he was tapped by fate to be the first human to hug an extraterrestrial; a guy who thought he was "the new David Koresh"; and members of a UFO religion who expect spaceships from 32 planets to land in a stack near San Diego next year.

Strange stuff, but it rarely amounts to much, and when you dig down you find that millennial beliefs are usually a fantasy substitution for some other larger or smaller gripe, ` la: The government sucks; I hate the sluttiness of celebrity culture; I am unhappy, so I want to be taken away by loving Space Brothers.

For most believers, the tricky part about such enthusiasms is what to do with them. They can't do much, so they hunker down, hoot, and anticipate. And if the prophecy fails, they discover that the tension of waiting was so much fun that they rewrite the rules and start waiting again. I witnessed this over and over: Jesus is coming back! When? Uh, the Bible says "could be any time." What will you do until then? Wait! The Space Brothers are landing in 2001! What if they don't? That means they're landing in 2002!

When millennialists are "active," they typically come up with bizarre but meaningless ways to work off their energy. My favorite person of this ilk was a Christian evangelist named Arthur Blessitt, who years ago was told by God to carry a 40-pound cross to every nation on Earth before 2000, to prepare the way for the Second Coming. He did it, too, along the way weathering deadly assaults from "a green mamba snake in Ghana" and a Nicaraguan firing squad. (Jesus saved him every time.) Arthur's work is done, and these days he's taking it easy with long-distance cross-hauling victory laps here and there.

For you who missed my book on millennial subcultures--and hey, it's not too late, there are still a few shopping days left before Jesus comes back at the head of his Armageddon cavalry--here's the gist of what I think about fin de sihcle madness.

1) Mostly, you shouldn't worry about it. Millennialists are usually harmless; some are even endearing. So if an apocalyptic "wacko" turns up in your immediate family, be open-minded. Ask questions. Dialogue.

2) Y2K probably won't be that big a deal, but you never know. The other day I heard a top spokesman for Los Angeles County's Y2K preparedness effort say, essentially, "We're completely ready and we expect no major problems, but you never know." My current thinking: Since roughly $365 per person has been spent in the United States to ameliorate the Y2K problem, why not kiss off $150 more and lay in a few extra candles and Slim Jims? I was shopping with my wife at Target recently and we impulsively bought a stack of D cells and many, many extra jugs of water. Our rationale? That we were filling in the blanks on our "earthquake kit" (we live near the Hayward fault), but we both knew the truth. Y2K OKness doubt had briefly crept in.

3) A tiny but significant fraction of millennialists are dangerous. I was reminded of this not long ago when an eerily labeled FBI report, Project Megiddo, came to light. The report warned of likely violence from any one of several fringe elements: Christian Identity (a far far right anti-Semitic kook-ball religion), Black Israelites (racial separatists who tend to preach that whites are devil-babies), and bomb-happy militia members. To that I'd add fringe Christians and Jews who think the Temple Mount in Jerusalem would be a lot more scenic without the Dome of the Rock, because they want to build a "Third Temple" up there. So, if the apocalyptic wacko in your immediate family says any of the following--"ZOG must be destroyed!"; "Whitey must be destroyed!"; "The Muslim pox on the Temple Mount must be destroyed!"; or "I am the Antichrist--everybody must be destroyed!"--don't dialogue. Call the FBI. I guess 3 sort of negates the cheerfulness of 1 and 2, but I still hold out hope that we'll get to 2001 without any major millennial disruptions. Call it crank calculus, but I just have this faith that the benign spirit of most millennialists will outweigh the evil guys and gals, and we'll all muddle through.



-- Coder (Coder@Work.Now), December 22, 1999

Answers

2) Y2K probably won't be that big a deal, but you never know. The other day I heard a top spokesman for Los Angeles County's Y2K preparedness effort say, essentially, "We're completely ready and we expect no major problems, but you never know." My current thinking: Since roughly $365 per person has been spent in the United States to ameliorate the Y2K problem, why not kiss off $150 more and lay in a few extra candles and Slim Jims? I was shopping with my wife at Target recently and we impulsively bought a stack of D cells and many, many extra jugs of water. Our rationale? That we were filling in the blanks on our "earthquake kit" (we live near the Hayward fault), but we both knew the truth. Y2K OKness doubt had briefly crept in.

This is typical. A general overall tone of mockery and contempt for those who choose to prepare for whatever reason they feel it's important to prepare while at the same time admitting he's prepared himself.

Of course he never really addresses the major reason why most folks prepare in the first place and that's natural disasters of all sorts. With the media giving us daily in-depth coverage of every natural disaster that knocks someone's house down combined with the seeming increase in the frequency of these disasters it's no wonder more people get a bit more spooked every year. Y2K may or may not be a real disaster but everyone knows that there is no safe area in the country from some sort of natural disaster.

Sure hope he buys a fire extinguisher to go with those candles.

.........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), December 22, 1999.


A great post from the "Don't worry, cult (culture)" Whacko? Its all a matter of perspective. I hope your right on!

-- robert j. (crandalls@cableone.net), December 22, 1999.

Hey, I KNOW Zog, and he's a nice guy. Anyone who wants to destroy him has gotta go through Da Kook first!

Bodyguard Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), December 22, 1999.


[snip]

They can't do much, so they hunker down, hoot, and anticipate. And if the prophecy fails, they discover that the tension of waiting was so much fun that they rewrite the rules and start waiting again.

[end snip]

I've heard this one a few times and it pisses me off. This has NOT been fun for me and I don't want to have to do it again. I would have been much happier if I could have ignored this whole mess and gone along on my merry way like the rest of the world is doing.

Things were going very well for me before I learned about this issue and decided I was going to prepare - I was completely blindsided by Y2K. I certainly wasn't looking for something to f**k up my life with. At least I had a couple of years to prepare. Thank God it's finally here so I can get on with my life, regardless of the severity, instead of sitting here waiting.

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), December 22, 1999.


...members of a UFO religion who expect spaceships from 32 planets to land in a stack near San Diego next year.

Cool! Did they give more details? If they land anywhere near Del Mar in the summer, everyone will think they're just really fancy hot air balloons. Perfect camoflage.

Sounds like I may need to brush up on my Galacta. Uhhh, lessee... "Klaatu, barada nicotine." No, that's not it. "Klaatu, baracuda nickdanger." Shoot, I used to know all the useful phrases.

Now where did I store my Hitchhiker's Guide?

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 22, 1999.



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Now where did I store my Hitchhiker's Guide?

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I have an extra copy lying around somewhere, but you'll need the battery pack out of an electronic thumb to make it work as I had to swap the pack into mine. Don't panic!

O d d O n e, who always though Trilian was kinda cute...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.


Nice attempt to discredit the GIs. Too bad it won't be valid in another 9 days or so... Save the name of the author...it will be useful to the tribunals...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 22, 1999.

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