The Parson's Page
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Sermons
  • C David Hess
    • A Raging Moderate
  • About

Y2K: Where's the Hysteria?  

11/29/1999

 
NBC aired Y2K: The Movie on Sunday, November 21. It was a fictional account of what might happen on January 1, 2000 if the direst predictions become reality. In the movie, planes fall from the sky. Electrical power fails worldwide. The financial system collapses. Civil chaos reigns

According to one of the members of our church who works in a bank, she and other bank employees were cautioned to prepare for a possible run on the bank the day after the movie aired. It turned out to be just a normal banking day.

A couple of days later, the Democrat and Chronicle carried an editorial by Charles Krauthammer under the headline, "Y2K isn’t producing the expected hysteria." Krauthammer asked "Where is the panic Where is the hysteria? ...Why is the widely anticipated turn of the calendar being greeted with such apparent equanimity?"

He thinks one big reason may be that we had our millenium crisis early. We had our "apocalyptic dread" in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Bad times are required for millennial stirrings. Times are good now. Two decades ago we had an oil crisis, stagflation, Three Mile Island, and fear of nuclear war. On the religious front, Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth predicted the imminent return of Christ and was the No. 1 nonfiction best seller for the entire decade of the ‘70s.

Krauthammer speculated, "Perhaps every generation only has one millennial panic in it, and we’ve already shot our wad."

He raised an even more intriguing possibility. He suggests that the Y2K computer problem itself might be having a dampening effect on millennial fever. He suggests that the computer problem focuses our anxiety. He writes, "With everyone racing to fix their computers, there is very little time for idle speculation about the apocalypse." It keeps us "sane and focused on the plumbing."

I think there may be something to what he says, but my personal lack of anxiety is not due to the fact that I am focused on the plumbing (but thank goodness the plumbing is being fixed). Nor am I focused on what the future might hold. I am focused on the One who holds the future. I am not concerned about what might come at the end of the world, for I know Who will come. In Him, "the hopes and fears of all the years are met..."

©1999 C. David Hess

    Parsonally Speaking

    Categories

    All
    Current Events/Hot Issues
    Other Articles
    Personal Confessions
    The Bible & Christianity
    The Church
    The Darker Side
    The Lighter Side
    The Movies

    Archives

    September 2014
    October 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    April 2011
    December 2010
    June 2010
    April 2010
    December 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    September 2008
    June 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    May 2007
    March 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    September 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    September 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    November 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    December 2003
    October 2003
    September 2003
    May 2003
    March 2003
    January 2003
    September 2002
    August 2002
    April 2002
    October 2001
    September 2001
    July 2001
    March 2001
    December 2000
    November 2000
    September 2000
    August 2000
    May 2000
    March 2000
    January 2000
    November 1999
    April 1999
    March 1999
    December 1998
    September 1998
    August 1998
    May 1998
    April 1998
    March 1998
    February 1998
    January 1998
    December 1997
    August 1997
    June 1997
    May 1997
    April 1997
    January 1997
    December 1996
    November 1996
    October 1996
    September 1996
    August 1996
    July 1996
    June 1996
    May 1996
    April 1996
    March 1996
    February 1996
    January 1996
    December 1995
    November 1995
    August 1995
    April 1995
    January 1994
    February 1993
    January 1993


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.