History Says Y2K Won’T End World

As the new year gets underway and the drumbeat of millennial anxiety gets louder, what should people buy to prepare: A .44 magnum? Or a new computer?

We recommend the computer. It will equip buyers for success in the next century.

Unfortunately, fear about the “Y2K” computer defect is creating a hazard larger than the one that data processing experts are working hard and successfully to prevent.

Sure, there’s a possibility that some unrepaired computer systems will malfunction a year from now. If they do, people will do the same thing they’ve done in countless other difficulties, many of them less foreseeable than this one. People will adapt, innovate, lend each other a hand, survive, recover and continue on with life.

This is not a reason for panic or paranoia. It certainly is not a reason to withdraw from society, hunkering down on a mountaintop in a cabin stockpiled with food and ammunition. And yet, in a striking parallel with people in prior centuries who felt the world would end when the calendar flipped, some very intelligent folks are heading for the hills or stuffing their basements with supplies.

It might be helpful, therefore, to reflect on the difference between intelligence and common sense. Intelligence can pore through piles of complex information - like Old Testament prophecies or the Internet’s Y2K web sites - calculating exactly (and incorrectly) when and how civilization will end. Common sense, on the other hand, takes a look at history and concludes that humankind probably will muddle on, resilient as ever.

In the meantime, however, some are attempting to capitalize on fear: Buy weapons. Buy a year’s supply of food and medicine. Buy solar panels, wood stoves, generators, fuel storage tanks…

All responsible predictions about the Y2K computer problem are qualified with “maybes.” But it is a flat-out certainty that sales people are spooking the fearful into buying things they don’t really need. The elderly are particularly vulnerable. The Spokesman-Review has received calls from frightened elderly readers, asking what they should do to prepare for a problem they barely understand.

The best preparation: calm, common sense, patience.

During the last several months, the pace of computer system tests and updates has exploded.

Businesses, utilities and government agencies are spending billions finding and fixing weaknesses so systems will work. Manufacturers of common devices like cars, refrigerators and medical defibrillators are testing and determining that the vast majority of equipment will keep operating.

There will be more reassuring news as the year progresses and repair efforts continue to accelerate. Again, consult your common sense: Businesses and public agencies, like people, have a strong survival instinct. One by one, they’re fixing their equipment.

Go ahead. Buy the computer. In 2000, you’ll enjoy it.