To be utterly blunt, there were not enough experts alive here who knew exactly where the code glitch might show up in our county’s many technologically “ancient” systems.  The engineers and programmers who had originally used that code were largely fired, retired or dead. 

We didn’t know where or how to fix it, so instead, we prepared to bypass or repair what life-threatening things could go wrong.  We had volunteers with radios to call in to the Emergency Ops center (where Mercedes Lackey and I were charting & tracking), in key locations across the county.  We had a network of electricians, doctors and utility specialists awake and ready.

So, you can imagine how tiresome it is to hear “See? Y2K was nothing, they were so gullible and stupid!” year after year. 

With the (rightful) rage millions have over poor disaster responses and preparedness when horrors like Katrina and Sandy hit, you’d think people might instead be proud that we saw a danger coming and were ready for it.  We were ready to respond in scores of ways. 

To me, Y2K was one of our finest hours, because we were aware of a technological danger that could result in disaster, and we were prepared to roll out.

We’ve been endlessly mocked for doing so.

I am tired of reading hype stories by people pretending that others imagine the world is going to end.  Such hype is being created by the nay sayers, not by actual people believing the world were about to end.

Why don’t we next pretend that “lot’s of people” believe the sky is going to turn red, next year, and start writing articles to debunk that BS, to make it seem like people actually believe it.

Hmmmmmmmm……

Yes, people know zombies aren’t real, but I think a lot of my peers (20-somethings in NYC) talk only half-jokingly about being ready for the zombie apocalypse because it’s a proxy for the sort of event, whether it’s 9/11, a financial collapse, a hurricane, that seems to threaten stability and security. Add major trends like climate change to these specific events, which have defined a lot of our youth and young adulthood, and there’s a general sense that we shouldn’t be shocked if the next thing, whatever it is, really does bring things crashing down.

Okay I guess that doesn’t really make sense. But still.

The entertaining apocalypse is about the destruction of society and an accession of the individual so great that genocide of anyone not like the hero is justifiable (zombie apocalypses or alien invasions—and their historical roots in “yellow menace literature” where the brave, rich, white man had to fight  hoards of Asians, Mexicans, Africans, or the poor) 

The real climate apocalypses must be dealt with as a society, through strengthening our common efforts and working together. The individual will be asked to make sacrifices for the common good. And they won’t be the “sacrifice yourself to save the blonde haired, blue eyed child” kind of sacrifices. They will be the “you will no longer receive subsidized gas, so you will no longer be able to drive the exact car you want to drive, and will instead be forced to think of your impact on others for once” kind of sacrifices.

  NJ now has to seriously look at infrastructure and all the boring and expensive stuff to prepare for our probable semi-apocalyptic future. Where are the Doomsday preppers – they can be consultants now! Fighting weather and water is really hard. Getting anyone to pay for it is REALLY hard.

  As said above, it’s fun while it’s in your head. In reality, we found that as soon as the power came back on we had to go back to work and the same old grind.  Just start rebuilding your life…

  There was some looting, but almost no “apocalyptic” survival fights. We did have some tense moments in line for a generator or gas… but we knew help was coming. That’s the real American Dream.

  In NJ we know that none of us should live alone.

That, or a more garden-variety case of self-loathing that can only be satisfied by making as big a possible public ass of oneself as possible,.

http://mshanecrowe.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/la_fin_du_monde.jpg?w=85&h=300

Come to think of it, the same trouble plagues my utopian dreams as my dystopian nightmares.It’s just not predictable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse#Examples_of_civilizations_and_societies_that_have_collapsed

(…he says as he heads off to his crappy job.)

Maybe the Mayan calendar is both sentient and sensitive to our needs. Could be that it’s just waiting until all time zones have had an opportunity to have a nice brunch first, then die horribly.

I’ve never cared much for the fools holding signs. I’m always wondering, if you know that shit, why aren’t you somewhere having sex, spending time with your wife/husband & kids, doing awesome drugs,, stealing nice cars, giving all your cool shit to poorer people, skydiving or killing people who once offended you? There’s LOTS to do if the end is coming, buckets of bucket lists.

I’m getting ready for everyone else to go to hell too, I’m no exception.

Real life cataclysms on the other hand represent a lot of real hard work on an already saturated global mind…

When I raced cars in my mind, I was awesome and supremely skilled.

When I raced cars for real, for years, the highest I ever placed was eighth.

In doomsday speculations, whether it’s zombies or god-bombs, we somehow hold the idea that we’re gonna be the stronger one, the smarter one, the tougher one.  The one that actually makes it.

Daydreams are like that.  They’re way sexier than the reality of mortality. 

Fantasies have unlimited budgets.  The real world has bureaucracy, graft, laziness, factionalism and greed as constants, and somehow there’s never enough money, but someone’s always getting rich.

I was a volunteer firefighter for years and worked Katrina and Rita relief and after all that, I’ve come to think this: the attraction of post-apocalypse fantasy is the idea that you, yourself, will somehow survive.  Walter Mitty of the Wasteland—because in the real world you have this aching awareness deep inside that in a real disaster, despite the trillions spent on military and agencies and infrastructure… heaven help you, you’re on your own.

Why do we often balance between this odd fascination with fictitious apocalysm and a state of unpreparedness toward authentic urgencies?

One word: Rapture.