Re: Y2K: Am I paranoid?

Paul Hughes (planetp@aci.net)
Wed, 10 Feb 1999 17:25:45 -0800

"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:

> > 3) Meanwhile the power outage hinders the entire economic
> > infrastructure - with the most critical being food and
> > water. Since most people do not have stashes of food for
> > such occasions, they will grow *very* desperate and begin
> > roaming and perhaps robbing other people for food and
> > water. This in turn precipitates widespread rioting,
> > looting and general mayhem.
>
> I very much doubt this unless it goes on a for a good while. If you
> recall during the gas crunches in the 70's people were, outside of a few
> small incidents, very calm and organized about handling things. They
> patiently waited for hours in line for gasoline ( I remember sitting in
> my parents car waiting in line in Massachusetts), and what day of the
> week you could get gas depended on the numbers on your license plate...

Yes, but the difference here is possible widespread power outages or even a total power outage. Since this could lead to a lot of mayhem, it may make it very difficult for the skilled people to coordinate long enough to get the whole thing up and running again. So if a power outage does last more

than 4-6 weeks, most of us could be in serious trouble.  We shouldn't forget
that last year, Auckland, New Zealand's power grid was down for six weeks!
Lucky for them, the rest of their country and the world was doing fine, so
they were able to coordinate safely in order to get it back up again - and it still took them six weeks to do it! That scenario has made me really wonder about all this.

> I also doubt that they will do this as part of y2k panics. They may do
> this as part of a general anti-gun sweep once they've killed off the gun
> manufacturers, but I doubt very much that much of the military will
> agree to go along with such a stupid idea. It will fall to the FBI,
> BATF, etc. who won't have the manpower, and will try to deputize local
> law enforcement.

I hope your right about this. But why is it that the ex-military boys I know are the ones saying the military *will* do this? Perhaps the ex-military people I know are skewed from the norm in their assessment of this?

> > 7) Once this all sweeping Martial Law is instituted, why
> > would they reverse it? Since they now have the control they
> > have long sought, they will not give it up without a fight.
> > Since the majority of the population will now be under their
> > control, such an organized "revolution" will *not* likely
> > materialize in any reasonable period of time - we may be
> > stuck in a totalitarian hell for decades or longer.
> >
>
> Nah, I don't see this, unless something really bad happens like some
> Chinese or Russian nuke missiles get launched in the panic....

Are you saying they won't or they can't? And for their purposes, why not? Can't they just manufacture their own artificial panic by detonating one of their nukes in the US? But of course, now I am getting off topic! :-)

Paul