What I don't believe is the cherished myth of the so-called Y2K debunkers, that many if not most of the people who have prepared for Y2K are forcing their lives painfully out-of-joint, to the extent that there *must* be a catastrophe for them to feel justified in their decisions. Even those minoroty of doomers who left well-paid jobs and bugged out to the boondocks are often self-selected on the basis of the *attraction* they feel for that way of life.

The handful of doomers who may have embraced a life they otherwise hate, merely to survive an imagined Y2K meltdown may well have a hard time accepting that their real and painful sacrifices were unnecessary. If it comes to that.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), December 27, 1999.

It seems many "have a hard time accepting that their real and painful sacrifices were unnecessary."

Vindicated Regards,
Andy Ray

-- Andy Ray (andyman633@hotmail.com), July 10, 2000

Answers

Hey Andy Ray,

Out of all those posts that you have saved under your bed, do you have the very first posts made to this forum? I'd be very curious to see them. I don't even know when TB2000 opened its doors--1998? 1997?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), July 10, 2000.

Lars check out my y2k songs and limericks, you'll have to trawl through the archives yourself if they're still there

-- richard (richard.dale@onion.com), July 10, 2000.

First, Andy Ray, thanks for getting me into the game. I appreciate the honor.

I still think that it is a myth that most people who prepared for the possibility of disruptions in their lives caused by the Y2K bug did so by making painful sacrifices.

I still believe that doomers "who left well-paid jobs and bugged out to the boondocks" often did so because they felt a certain attraction for that way of life. Y2K was an excuse to act on that attraction.

I still believe that doomers who "embraced a life they otherwise hate, merely to survive an imagined Y2K meltdown" constitute a relative handful out of all those who made some kind of preparations.

As for your contention that:

>> It seems many "have a hard time accepting that their real and painful sacrifices were unnecessary." <<

All I can say is: how many is "many"?

Nothing you have posted here backs up your contention. The quotes in Quotably Quoted concentrate on showing that in 1999 many people were convinced that Y2K would amount to more than it did. They were. They were happy with their preps, then. What about now?

I haven't seen any outpouring of evidence from you or others that more than a handful of people made preparations for Y2K that actually wrecked their lives in the process. In fact, one of your and cpr's main complaints is that so many of us deny having wrecked our lives.

Instead of our moaning about the hash we made of our lives, we seem to you to feel insufficient anguish about having an oversupply of food in the pantry. It irritates the heck out of you that so many of us don't show more remorse and we seem to have an easy time accepting the sacrifices we made. This all proves we are in denial!

OK. If you look, I know you can find several quotes from people who did make painful sacrifices they now wish they had not made.

But, again, how many is "many"?

If you post three quotes saying, "I hate what I did and wish I had never heard of Gary North, Ed Yourdon or Y2K. My life is a hideous wreck", what do you think we can we conclude from this?

Just wondering.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), July 10, 2000.

Brian, when you're on A Mission, you can't let little things like facts get in your way. Personally, my sad story is that I ran out of Beano long before I ran out of beans, and as a result, I don't get invited to The Best Parties anymore. But then, since I was never invited to The Best Parties in the first place... (Not contrite enough, huh?)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), July 10, 2000.

Oh....what the hell....TO THE TOP!!!

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), July 12, 2000.

B-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-R-R-R-R-I-N-G !

-- (BIG@TEXT.MAN), July 12, 2000.

-- - (-@-.-), July 12, 2000.