1-2-99
We have received a couple of e-mails from semi-thoughtless people who complain that Y2K was a 'hype' and 'propaganda' and feel they have been somehow conned into being concerned over a 'non-issue.' This is about as near-sighted, self-serving, and dunderheaded as it gets.
Rather than praise the apparently miraculous and heroic work by a million plus programmers around the world, not to mention the trillion plus dollars spent, it is a sorry sight to see a few individuals myopically hurling bricks at the multitudes of IT professionals, journalists, technicians, consultants, economists, government and military leaders, and millions of others, who expressed, and continue to express, serious concern over the legitimate danger Y2K presents.
If this was a 'joke' or 'propaganda' and just a 'bump in the road' why did the Premier of Japan, the Government of Italy, and many other government leaders go into underground bunkers?
Why did hundreds of thousands of other government and corporate officials and management people take this threat so seriously that they spent over a trillion dollars to correct it? Why did the DOD and the Pentagon and virtually every city, state, county, and federal governmental agency give this the highest priority possible? Were they all tricked? Are they stupid?
Many of those now so quick to criticize and mock conveniently overlook the long history of Y2K warnings and concern expressed by many of the world's most powerful governments and individuals as well, including the likes of Ed Yardeni, the chief economist of the financial giant Deutschbank. Many of the scoffers, pollyannas, and armchair gladiators did nothing to prepare for possible trouble themselves and now, lustily, gloat in justifying their do- nothing laziness by claiming Y2K is/was a non-event.
What about the false prophets, alarmist doomsday-loving wackos who have been predicting the end of the world at the hands of ruthless space aliens, deadly plant pathogens, pole shifts, asteroid impacts, earthquakes, and a dozen other clichid scenarios?
Shouldn't they be first in line for criticism? How about a call to accountability for them? At least we KNOW Y2K was/is a real threat. The Y2K computer problem was/is an enormous event, which has apparently, at least initially, been handled by human ingenuity, dedication, and sweat.
Let's spend a little time praising the heroic efforts of IT professionals, systems programmers, and those who sought to inform the general public rather than howling at them. These people performed a great human service by forcing attention, and then action, to address and then, hopefully resolve the dilemma.
There is a difference between tabloid-brained merchants of doom and professional computer industry information, government experts who labored for years to raise consciousness levels to appropriate intensity so that the problem would get the funding and the attention required to tackle it.
So, let's do a little thinking about the big picture before demanding that heads rolls at high noon. Certainly, there are hucksters ready to cash in on anything negative. But with Y2K, our own government and governments around the world knew/know the potential for not taking Y2K seriously was nothing less than potentially catastrophic.
The bottom line: EVERYONE benefits from Y2K. The numbers of systems that have been upgraded and streamlined are countless; the consciousness of SOME people about needing to become more self- reliant has been elevated to all-time highs.
Our government has demonstrated it has the intelligence to deal with a crisis environment, and above all, hundreds of millions of people were taken to a higher level of awareness of how thin the line of comfort we are attached to actually is.
Furthermore, the world-threatening issues of nuclear weapons safety and nuclear power plant security have never received more news coverage. The unprecedented military cooperation between Russia and the US is, hopefully, a harbinger of better communications in the future. This note from Reuters uses the word 'elated'...the significance of that should not be overlooked...
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian military experts who worked around the clock to prevent any Y2K computer bugs from triggering a nuclear nightmare were elated on Saturday that there had been no disasters.
And then there is the following statement from Deputy Secretary of State John Hamre: "Did we overreact? Absolutely not. The Department of Defense is the bedrock of American national security, and America's defense is the bedrock of stability around the world," Hamre said. "This was an investment we had to make and it was a GOOD investment. I don't know if we've seen all of the problems we're going to face yet, as many of them will come up in the next few days."
US Y2K czar John Koskinen talked about the enormous gains Y2K has given the world: "Individual organizations of virtually all sizes for the first time now have an inventory of what the information technology is they're using and large companies in the United States and large government agencies have never had that kind of an inventory, primarily because of the rapid growth rate of computer dependence," he said.
Koskinen and countless others are more than aware of perhaps the most important area of Y2K benefit: national and world security. The incredible efforts of government and military to deal with Y2K has yielded unprecedented cooperation and understanding between government, military, and private industry which together operate over 90% of the world's critical infrastructure.
"We have begun to look at the question of how can we build on this unprecedented amount of cooperation and work together," Koskinen said. "We have private sector associations and industries headquartered right now in federal agencies, working together hand-in-glove, exchanging information, making sure that if there are any issues, we all deal with them immediately," he added.
U.S. businesses have also gained because, in preparing for Y2K, they have consolidated information systems and begun "to think much more systematically about their future (technology) spending," said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.
Let's see how good the Y2K fixes prove to be over the coming days and weeks. Self-indulgently rushing to judgement and spouting "I told you so" is not the most productive path to take. Instead, let's breathe a little easier and take pride in what appears to be one of the developed world's finest achievements...a truly inspiring note of cooperation and resource upon which to begin the next thousand years.
Jeff Rense 1-2-2000
-- Mello1 (Mello1@ix.netcom.com), January 02, 2000