Dismal Exercise In Manipulation Panic A Distraction Preparations Rooted In Fear, Not Reality

In the Henry James short story, “The Beast in the Jungle,” the main character, John Marcher, believes he is fated to experience “something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible.” He spends his entire life waiting for this something. He doesn’t marry or work much, but he does pass the time with a woman who believes in Marcher’s premonition.

The woman eventually dies. As Marcher stands over her grave, he realizes he was so busy waiting that he missed out on the woman’s great love for him. This passive lifelong waiting, devoid of the woman’s love, turned out to be Marcher’s terrible fate.

A year ago, our country was filled with John Marcher characters who placed their lives on hold waiting for the gloom and doom of Y2K. They stockpiled a year’s worth of freeze-dried food, purchased nonreturnable generators, converted stocks into gold and became victims of hysteria generated by people who made money off that fear.

The most fervent of the gloom and doomers spoke with irritated condescension toward anyone who argued for more realistic preparations. This newspaper, for instance, was asked by some in the community to devote a staggering amount of story space to Y2K and to hold community meetings to help prepare people for the inevitable chaos of Jan. 1, 2000.

Luckily, moderation prevailed here, as it did with most individuals who prepared in a prudent manner. And very little happened in the Inland Northwest, in the United States, in the entire world! Among the biggest failures, according to a recent Associated Press article? “Computers that process images from U.S. spy satellites broke down. Some credit cards charged for the same items multiple times. Japanese nuclear power plants experienced glitches … but no radiation leaks or safety problems.”

Read old Y2K web sites and you feel some anger. Anger that people grew rich manipulating the fears of people who might have been depressed, suicidal or simply bored and used Y2K planning as distraction from their real problems. Anger that those obsessed about Y2K missed out on important living during 1999. Just as John Marcher could never recover the love of the dead woman, the Y2K fanatics lost forever some precious time, experiences - and money.

Y2K web sites are fading to obscurity. Finally, a happy new year.