Re: Year 2000 Supply/Production Risks

["Christopher Byrne" <cbyrne98@hotmail.com>]

Thanks Vicente - 

I think you sensed my post was a bit of a frustration rant. I do get a
bit worried though when I see the same rather narrow set of
perspectives on Y2K pop up time and again. Many people do seem to be
making the same journey through the Y2k cyber landscape. This bothers
me because I get suspicious when I find myself sharing too many
beliefs, too many anecdotes, the same language as so many others -
especially on an issue which can be so impressionable, so persuasive,
so totalitarian, as Y2K. It isn't simply a flight to denial, more of
an intellectual alarm bell ringing.

What makes the frustration and boxed-in feeling worse is that I can't
find any of the usual reference points that have sustained me in my
critical thinking about social issues in the past. I've yet to find
any serious left-wing, socialist or radical review of wha Y2K means -
at least not framed in the way I can relate to. I know there are
voices on this board that are trying get a grip from a radical
perspective, but there's something in me that needs to reconcile this
new thinking with my old political and intellectual paradigm. I need
to hear the voices that made sense to me in the past, even if they are
changed voices, chastised by Y2K perhaps - anything just to hear them.

I've written to members of parliament, people with whom I've shared a
bit of radical history with in earlier days. Nothing. No reply.
Deafening silence from the political left, the trade union movement,
from liberal academia. I can't even find any sustained argument
against taking Y2K seriously.

The level of knowledge of the debates and discussions that have been
raging online for the last couple of years have passed them by
completely.

The only other situation I can think of in recent history where the
entire 'informed' world was caught by surprise on an issue of global
importance was the fall of the Berlin wall and the toppling of
Gorbachov. Nobody predicted how quickly these events would take place
- the entire media, academic and political class, as well as the rest
of us, were taken by surprise. The same thing seems to be happening
with Y2K.

Vicente, I guess if truth be told I am looking for progressive
continuity despite my rant. It just seems so unattainable in the time
available. I work for a UN organisation, UNICEF (full disclosure is
the name of the game!). For 9 months I've tried to raise awareness in
my little pocket of the organisation - written articles for our
in-house magazine, made presentations to senior management, brought
the issue up at every open agenda meeting and with as many colleagues
as possible. I've posted links and all sorts of stuff (from
'accountable authorities', not just media) around the organisation and
on our intranet. I've spammed the organisation's directors a New Year
spam, an article by Margaret Wheatley on how to lead in the
uncertainties of Y2K (available at http://www.berkana.org). I believe
my organisation has to do more than just fix its own internal systems
- it has to be part of (perhaps an initiator of) global emergency
contingency plans. The net result of these efforts? - 10 months of
ridicule and a written warning to lay off the subject. I don't expect
my contract to be renewed at the end of this year, after 10 years with
the UN. The situation today, as far as I can tell, is that there are
no visible signs of continuity or contingency planning, no visible
signs that the problem is recognised for what it is and what it could
be and the opportunities it might offer. I'll carry on in my awareness
raising efforts and try to shift the focus from the problem to the
solutions/workarounds/learnings (in Carmichael mode now). Losing my
job will be a pain (I'm a lower level grunt in UN terms) and I want to
hang in there as long as possible to be useful - which I know I can be
(Y2K newbies are going to have to move fast, educationally,
psychologically and maybe physically - something I help with).

Sorry to 'personalise' the discourse on this group, but I can't
believe that even the most abstract theoreticians amongst us can't
feel this issue on their bodies, in their dreams. Feelings and their
expression - even mixed up and ranty at times - are also part of the
jigsaw puzzle we have to piece together.