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How to Protect Yourself from the Year 2000 Crisis Chapter 6. Communications and Other Ways to Burn Juice |
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How to Protect Yourself from the Year-2000 Crisis
Part 7 - After Y2K Season Chapter 30: The Spiritual Side of Y2K - AFTERWORD This book is about figuring out how to survive under difficult circumstances. Religion is only relevant in this context as it helps / hurts your chances for individual / group / community survival. The race, religion, nationality, or ethnic heritage of a corpse is irrelevant. At the very least, a religion can be a source of emotional strength and comfort. This is true no matter Who or What you believe in. Contacts made through your religious group can be useful in terms of practical preparation for year-2000 problems. Your local church could be helpful in organizing bulk purchases, classes teaching information about year-2000 survival, etc. No religion gives you a better chance of escaping the effects of the year 2000 problem. The mistakes that have been fed into computers don't care about our age, sex, sexual preference, race, religion, or political ideology. Put off religious hostility until after the recovery and we have the economic surplus to make hatred affordable. We've all got work to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. It's time to take a break from judging people based on their religion or political opinion or race or ethnic heritage, survival means finding common ground. Survival in comfort and safety means finding things to cooperate about. We don't have to live happily together, but living unhappily beats not living at all, and these are the choices open to you. It's time to forget our religious differences, whatever they happen to be. You don't have to *LOVE* your neighbor. Hate him, if it pleases you. But do it in your spare time, your first responsibility to society and to any children you might have at this point is to survive and to help others to survive. If this means being nice to somebody whose place of business you have considered burning for political reasons, so be it. If that business survives Y2K season and your regular one doesn't, that might be the only place for quite a few miles that sells that good or service if you need it. We're all in this together. The neighbor you despise because he's evangelical Christian and because you don't like his religious politics may have learned about solar panels from friends of his in the militia group he carefully avoids mentioning . . . and be willing to pass along what he knows for the asking. That couple down the street you suspect of holding Satanic rites is guilty. . . of knowing a place on the Internet that isn't backordered on the survival food you wanted to buy, and knows herbal medicines that might help your allergy condition right now. Of course, there are limits. Following my advice doesn't mean that you are morally obligated to be nice to child molesters or to spammers. There are a few kinds of people we don't want to survive year-2000 problems. We all have our different resources of information, supplies, knowing how to do things. We can't take for granted that "the government" is going to be taking care of things. Make friends with your local Mormons, that they be willing to take you to the nearest local Mormon cannery. You've got a small business and you need somebody to show you how to follow the directions in this book on protecting your computers. . . and the local computer shops aren't taking any more new 2000 repair-related business until 2001. Are you going to turn down an offer of free or low-cost help because that person wears a pentacle? While neighborhood programs have strong advantages in areas where there actually is a sense of community, you probably don't live in one of these areas. I'm suggesting that you network with whoever is closest (friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives. . .) that seems reasonably trustworthy and interested in helping get ready. . . The fact that a person isn't of your religion doesn't necessarily mean that he can't be trusted. Of course, this it's not necessarily a point in that person's favor, either. There are decent and honest people in all religions, and the other kind of people, too. The kinds of supplies you're looking for are cheaper in quantity, and the larger network you can assemble to put in money for this purpose, the more all concerned will get for their money. Even if you, like most people, plan to prepare on an individual basis, if you know somebody else who's interested in Y2K preparation, consider a joint order. If you head for the hills under the circumstances that worst case scenarios suggest is reasonable, you really need good neighbors, ones who will pool supplies (better you be able to throw some in) and watch your back if you happen to be around their property as you watch theirs when they are around yours. The sheriff may be an hour away even under normal circumstances, remember, you bought into an isolated spot on purpose. If the worst case really happens, there may not be a sheriff or other constituted authority. Another advantage is the ability to pool money to purchase items that everybody needs occasional access to but are too expensive for an individual household. If all else fails, there is abundant testimony that a call upon a Deity for help in times of trouble is sometimes answered, sometimes in unbelievable ways, though one of the oldest proverbs dealing with the relationship between humans and their Deities goes, "Be careful what you ask the [God or Goddess of your choice] for, you might get it!" However, the proverb "The [God of Goddess of your choice] helps those who help themselves." also is believed in most religious traditions. Don't call upon your Deity for help unless you've done everything you can possibly do to get out of whatever mess you're in yourself or with the help of whoever you're networked with. We all need all the help we can get. I wish you good luck and survival. I hope my book has increased your chances of getting through Y2K season. A.Lizard |
