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 | S.C. Feldhahn, "Y2K: The Millennium Bug," Multnomah, (1998). Read reviews or safely order this book from Amazon.com |
| J. Gregori, Ed., "What Will Become of Us? Counting down to Y2K," Academic Freedom Fdn., (1008) Review/Order this book |
| M. Hyatt & G. Grant, "Y2K: The day the world shut down," Word Publ., (1998). A novel. Review/Order this book |
| G.R. Jeffries, "The Millennium Meltdown: The year 2000 computer crisis," Frontier Research, (1998). Review/Order this book |
| Shaunti Feldhahn was a Federal Reserve analyst, and the author of
"Y2K: The Millennium Bug -- A Balanced Christian Response"
She polled fellow Christians and found that about:
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Leaders in promoting Y2K hysteria were Fundamentalist Christians James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Grant Jeffries, Jack Van Impe, Hal Lindsey, Gary North, and Pat Robertson. Their teachings continued to be highly alarmist even as the end of 1999 approached. At that time, evidence was generally known that industry, government and commerce were on target to slay the bug before 2000-JAN-1.
As of 2000-DEC-30, Gary North's web site was still accessible, apparently in its pre-2000 form "with what one journalist labels 'its laughable predictions of global chaos.' " 3,8 During 2001, the web site was removed. The essay is still available on some mirror sites. Most of the other alarmist webmasters and authors had long since counted their profits on the way to the bank, perhaps chuckling at how easy it was to make so much money by engender panic among conservative Christians.
The end result of alarmist publications was needless, widespread hysteria among Christian believers, and a great deal of profit in the pockets of the authors. Some commentators stated that conservative Christians deserved more responsible treatment from their leadership. One Evangelical commented "If the money changers of Jesus' time lived today, they would probably be selling Y2K supplies."
Sponsored link:
The potential for violence:
There is a potential for violence, both short term and longer term: | FBI director Louis Freeh warned on 1999-FEB-4 that: "With the coming of the next millennium, some religious/apocalyptic groups or individuals may turn to violence as they seek to achieve dramatic effects to fulfill their prophecies." He also talked about another disturbing religious trend: "Many white supremacist groups adhere to the Christian Identity belief system, which holds that the world is on the verge of a final apocalyptic struggle... and teaches that the white race is the chosen race of God." He warned that in late 1999, some Christian Identity members might prepare for their anticipated Armageddon by committing robberies to finance their activities. The government, Jews and non-whites are said to be likely targets. 4 These fears did not materialize. |
| There is a remote potential of longer term violence in North America, starting perhaps around 2002. Large numbers of people expect the end of the world and the return of Christ in the year 2000, or 2001. If, as most commentators expect, the world continues as normal, there will be a truly massive disappointment, affecting tens of millions of Christians. Some may be terribly disillusioned, and will start searching for reasons why the end times did not happen. There is the possibility that some religious leaders might return to preaching a widespread belief that was held in the 19th century: that Jesus' second coming is being delayed until many more people are converted to Christianity. Those same leaders might point to the rise in popularity among minority religions, and the decline of Christianity in North America as a major factor which is delaying Christ's return. The result could be violence by a very small percentage of Christians directed against small religious groups in North America: Jews, Muslims, followers of the New Age, Wiccans, other Neopagans, etc. There is also the possibility of Christians turning against their own leaders and groups who had raised end-time anticipation to a fever pitch. We might see a replication of the events in the year 1000 when many disillusioned people in Western Europe attacked the established church. |
Confidence in the Millennium
There were signs during 1999 that some are viewing the Millennium as an unremarkable event:
| There was a rise of rational belief, that the year 2,000 is simply a year that has three zeros. i.e. it is in no way special. After all, if humans had been born with 8 fingers on each hand, then our numbering system would be based on 16 (hexadecimal), not 10 (decimal). And our year 2,000 would then just be year 8D0 in hexadecimal. Nothing special; just another year with an unremarkable number. |
| Harvard professor of zoology and geology Stephen Jay Gould pointed out that the word millennium was originally a Biblical apocalyptic term linked to the second coming of Jesus. It is evolving into a matter-of-fact designation for the end of a 1000 year period. "The basic reason for 'millennium' switching from a description of the future to a counting in the present stems from the failure of this expected future to materialize." 5 |
| Michael R LeGault, a journal editor and reviewer of science books noted: "The millennial message would appear to be that knowledge based on experience has won out over knowledge based on doctrine...this knowledge is a record of both our intellectual and moral progress. And that only in rational pursuit and use of this knowledge is our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being ensured." 6 |
| The banking industry had been working on the Y2K problem for years. The problem first materialized for them when they started issuing mortgages in the 1970's which matured in the 21st century. Since then, they have had to modify their computer code to handle credit card expiry dates in the year 2000 and beyond. They took the Y2K problem in stride. |
| Large companies had also been working on this problem for many years and were in good shape when the year 2000 arrived. |
Events in the months leading up to Y2K: 3
As the year 2000 approached, news was relatively comforting: | Overall: Senator Robert F. Bennett, (R-UT) headed a Senate committee examining the issue. He felt that disruptions would be minor: "I'm very optimistic that this is not the end of Western civilization as we know it." | ||||||
| Telephones: AT&T had fixed and tested all of its phone and data systems. They expected that any unexpected glitches will materialize in billing and network-management problems, not in actual transmission difficulties. | ||||||
| Airplanes: Boeing found only three Y2K bugs in its planes' software. | ||||||
| Medicare: Medicare renovated, tested and validated its 25 most critical computer systems. | ||||||
| Overall: John A. Koskinen, chief Y2K advisor to President Clinton likened the effect of the bugs to a powerful winter storm: producing minor problems for some and severe but short-term disruptions for others. "We still don't know how many storms there will be, but the risk is localized storms, not national debacles." He predicted that 85 to 90% of U.S. Federal government conversion work will be completed by the deadline of 1999-MAR-31. In retrospect, his predictions appear to have been unduly pessimistic. | ||||||
| Banks: The Federal Reserve had given U.S. banks a 1999-OCT deadline to have removed any Y2K bugs, and to have verified that their programs will survive the year end. | ||||||
| Money: An extra 50 to 75 billion worth of bank notes of all denominations were made available late in 1999 to handle an expected large drain on bank accounts. | ||||||
| Industry: Chase Manhattan Corp. expected to pay $363 million to fix their Y2K bugs. E.I. DuPont de Nemours expected to spend $400 million. The worldwide cost was expected to be between $300 and $600 billion dollars. Litigation and insurance costs are expected to boost this to over $1 trillion dollars. Relatively few disruptions were experienced at the end of 1999. The trillion dollar estimate is probably excessive. | ||||||
| Government: As of mid 1999-JAN, two states planned to mobilize the National Guard for 2000-JAN-1. However, they did not call it a mobilization, because that might alarm folks. They are calling it a training exercise. | ||||||
| Foreign Governments:
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| Airlines: The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) predicted that the world's airlines will spend about $2.3 billion (U.S. funds) to wipe out the bug. | ||||||
| Electricity: There had been a number of tests of the electrical
grid during 1999:
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| Airplanes: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration tested the air traffic control facilities in Denver, CO on 1999-APR-11. No problems were noted. | ||||||
| Governments: The start of the fiscal year in Japan, Canada and New York State passed on 1999-APR-1 without incident. APR-6 marked the start of Britain's fiscal year. Again, the date passed uneventfully. | ||||||
| Airplanes: The U.S. Transportation Department lacked sufficient data to predict whether 17 international destinations will be Y2K ready. They stated: "Prudence...dictates that travelers electing to fly in the civil aviation system of [these destinations] during the period immediately before and after the New Year should plan their itinerary carefully." They maintain a web site to help keep travelers informed. 7 |
When New Year 2000 finally arrived, few systems failures were observed.
Y2K Definitions:
A new series of terms has been created to cover the Y2k problem:
| Clean management: Making certain that replacement software and hardware for Y2K compliant computers are themselves compliant. |
| Embedded systems: Electronic circuitry within electrical and electronic equipment that contains microprocessors. These are small computing devices with limited functionality. They are not programmable by the end user and are often not even known about. But they have some of the functionality of regular computers and may fail due to a Y2K bug. |
| Millennium bug: An inability of computer software or hardware to handle the transition from the year 1999 to 2000. |
| Mission-critical systems: Computer systems whose failure would greatly impact an organization's ability to function. Process control systems are perhaps the best example of this; they control manufacturing systems on a minute-by-minute basis. Their failure could shut down a plant, electrical generator, communication system, etc. |
| Rip-and-replace: Rather that repairing the hardware and software of a computer system to make it Y2k compliant, the hardware and/or software is discarded and replaced with more modern equivalents. |
| Y2K: an abbreviation of the year 2000. One wag noticed that this sort of abbreviation is the type of shorthand that got us into the original mess. |
| Y2K compliant: The status of a computer system that is either unaffected by the millennium bug or has been fixed so that it can handle the transition from the year 1999 to 2000 without failing. |
References:
- Shaunti Feldhahn, "Y2K: The Millennium Bug -- A Balanced Christian Response" Multinornah Publ., (1998) Read a review or buy this book
- "Y2K authors still advising Christians to prepare," Baptist Press. Online at Maranatha Christian Journal, at: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3408.htm
- "Midnight of the 'real' millennium approaches: Less hoopla, panic -- but 'end times' cultural angst still in vogue," AANEWS, 2000-DEC-29
- Patricia Wilson, "FBI Director Freeh Warns of Millennium Violence," Excite News/Reuters, 1999-FEB-4.
- June Bearzi, "Millennium computer fear is a scam," The Star, 1997-AUG-4, at: http://www2.inc.co.za/Archives/Jan97toAug97/
- R. Chandrasekaran and S. Barr, "Major U.S. firms, agencies seem to have Y2K bug well in hand," Detroit News, at: http://detnews.com/1999/technology/9901/02/01020106.htm
- "International Civil Aviation Y2K Information Review," U.S. Department of Transportation, at: http://www.y2ktransport.dot.gov/fly2k
- "Gary North's Y2K links and forums: The Year 2000 problem: The year the earth stands still." This was at: http://www.garynorth.com. The URL has since been taken over by an unrelated site. However, mirror copies of the original essay are available at: http://www.dishangel.com/y2k/ and http://www.swikull.com/north/
Copyright © 1998 to 2001 incl. by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2001-DEC-15
Author: B.A. Robinson
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