Fill the Bath with Water, it's Nearly Y2K Day
by David Millikan
Zadok Perspectives Issue No. 63
Autumn 1999

The devil's in the digits

AT THE EDGES OF this confluence of alarm are a motley collection of community and religious groups who see the problem in ways peculiar to themselves. Many Christians, in particular, are obsessed over the darker side of the Y2K problems, always scanning the world for indications that the return of Christ is near. Not all of them are convinced that the Y2K bug is a crucial 'sign of the times', but those who are have a network of newsletters and sites where they exchange horror scenarios with smug anticipation. For them, Y2K is a sign that the internal contradictions or sin of this world are being finally manifest.

And these groups have their secular equivalents. One has an office in the Redfern shopping centre near where I live. They are what remains of the Trotskyites, an earnest and determined group who see the capitalist system as entering its 'end times'. Their philosophy of history predicts that the international capitalist system is predestined to collapse under the weight of its own corruption.
But, back to the Christians: there are a large number of groups who take an entirely different approach. These are the Christians who adhere to the 'prosperity gospel' of televangelists Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, and are more than comfortable in the capitalist system. Their television ministries, along with the thousands of charismatic churches which hover at the edges of this teaching, are based on the belief that the free enterprise system has God's complete blessing.
These people claim to have discovered the divine keys to unlocking the system's riches. In fact, it is something they do with remarkable efficiency. They take no joy from the impending problems of the Y2K bug and are praying that God will 'smite this devilish thing' and allow them to get on with reaping the harvest (for the Lord).

However, one of the more positive factors to emerge in this cultural moment are groups who see the Y2K computer problem as an opportunity for a reassessment of some basic issues which have to do with the place of technology in our lives. One such group is NewHeavens, NewEarth (http://dispatch. mail-list.com/ archives/nhnelist/) who put out one of the most comprehensive collections of news reports on Y2K around. In the last couple of months they have started organising community groups around the US to deal with the coming crisis. It has taken me some months to work out their approach. But they come down on the side of preparedness and information. They are extremely well-informed about the millennium bug, but they are intent on pressing towards a larger view of what this says about our reliance on technology. As their name would suggest, they see the coming crisis as a gift from God. They argue that Y2K will force communities to band together in ways that they have not done for generations. It will open the possibility of looking at more spiritual and holistic ways of living with each other. They see it as the last chance we have to loose the technological stranglehold on human society. If we miss this and head into the next millennium without responding, they deduce, then we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, but this time with more frightening consequences.

With Y2K day only a few months away now, I have decided to join my wise friend and live between the options of flight and tedium. But like him, if the information I am reading continues in the way it is going, I will fill the bath and get a supply of essential food into my cupboards. But my Australian laconicism shrinks from the very idea that I am saying this.

To: Perspectives Issue 63

Paul Mitchell Paul Mitchell is Associate Editor at Zadok and edits the e-zine www.shootthe messenger.com.au. (See Alan Gijspers' review of The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace)