We are a knee-jerk society. That’s why it’s against the law in most areas to scream “Fire!” in a crowded area if there isn’t a fire. It can be very damaging. The Y2K scare wasn’t exactly that, in hind sight, I say it really didn’t amount to much but mass hysteria.
As the Internet became more popular in the latter half of the 1990s, there came a growing concern about what would happen on at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2000. As computers became popular in the latter half of the 20h Century, most were very big and very expensive. To save money, corners were cut. One of those was to have the code that read dates just include the last two digits. You didn’t have to tell anyone it was 1978, they knew what you meant when you said, “Back in ’78.” So, why not have the computers understand the same way?
The problem was it was one of those things the bean counters forced the computer guys to keep putting off and putting off until it almost got to late. And that is the basis for Time Bomb Y2K, a documentary made by Brian Becker and Marley Mcdonald that just assembles archival footage together. There’s no talking heads to explain anything or to look back at what was going on. I particularly don’t like this type of filmmaking. It’s only about 80 minutes long but feels a lot longer.
There already was concern from religious groups that the end of the decade and the start of a new century was going to basically spell the end of human civilization. It didn’t help that there was the Alfred P. Murrah Building firebombing in Oklahoma City that killed 169 people followed by the rise of active shooters, mostly in schools at the time. Then there was the Kosovo War in eastern Europe.
To all conspiracy theorists and nutjobs, it looked like the world was ending. And then there’s Peter de Jager, an engineer who had worked for IBM in the 1970s, but now in the 1990s running around telling people that computers might fail if they read the wrong dates. As it spread, especially on the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, people began to get more concerned. But de Jager was basically Chicken Little running around saying the sky is falling. He even went on TV shows to tell people to calm down toward the end of the decade. But Frankenstein’s Monster had already been unleashed.
Militia groups and Doomsday Preppers were becoming more famous. John Trouchmann, the co-founder of Militia of Montana, is shown in a very creepy and crazy collection of footage. The militia group ended up disbanded after how Y2K scare turned out to be minor. But others grew in its place. I believe it led to a more distrust in our society as conspiracy theorists and other paramilitary groups grew. I think we really can look at all the nutbars talking about how vaccines give kids autism or how remote-controlled jets fired lasers into the World Trade Center mere seconds before hitting them.
Unless you’re in the mood for a little of nostalgia, I would recommended skipping this entirely.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 