Re: questioning Y2K

Mike Linksvayer (ml@justintime.com)
Mon, 26 Oct 1998 09:54:19 -0800

den Otter wrote:
> Even during normal
> blackouts there's usually riots complete with arson, pillage, rape
> and murder, especially in poorer parts of big cities, and this time
> blackouts will last longer and they'll be accompanied by all sorts
> of other technical mishaps and no doubt some year 2000 hysteria.
> LA, get ready for a rough time...

Usually? The only instance of blackout looting that I recall hearing about happened July 1977 in New York City. Certainly there have been a large number of blackouts in the last twenty years, and a number of riots. I don't see a high correlation between the two.

I've lived in a poorer neighborhood in San Francisco for five years and noticed no riots, arson, pillage, rape, murder, or looting during two multi-day power outages. Again, no blackout/riot correlation.

I occasionally take a gander at comp.software.year-2000 (mostly to read Timothy C May's writing), and it seems that people are less worried about the proles rioting than about do gooders and authoritarians using the occasion to confiscate property from "hoarders", force people into "community service", etc.

Note: I don't think Y2K will be the end of the world as we know it, or anything close.

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