does anybody remember the Y2K scare? there are, as far as I know, only two major lines of thought about it. one group, by far the largest, thinks it was anywhere from a total hoax to a totally overhyped scare tactic. the rest, primarily those in the software industry, know that it was all too real, but that vast resources were dedicated to mitigating it, starting way back in 1970 or so, when banks with 30-year mortgages first started seeing the problems surface. many of us (not I, though, as I recall) spent the last few weeks or months of 1999 poring over code, making sure nothing critical was missed. when the clock rolled over, many (from both camps, I'm sure) breathed a sigh of relief.
so will history likely view the coming Fourth Turning. those of us who see the parallels to Nazi Germany in today's overbearing governments, and who work to stop and perhaps even dismantle these tyrannies, will likely be seen as kooks and fear-mongerers. indeed, we already are. but if we succeed, many will be able to remain blissfully ignorant, look back on it and say "see? we told you so. nothing bad was ever going to happen." and we'll never be able to convince them otherwise.
of course, if we fail, then we'll be able to dish out the atojisos, but that won't be much satisfaction.
last updated 2015-02-08 23:45:57. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com