NYT op-ed about Y2K, AGW, and other cataclysmic prophesies
Eric Gisin
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/opinion/01dutton.html?pagewanted=all [read]
The New York Times printed an excellent op-ed by Denis Dutton, a philosophy professor in New
Zealand:
It's always the end of the world as we know it
He discusses the Y2K fiasco as a template for global warming and other movements obsessed with the
end of the world and "cosmic justice" that will destroy the sinful civilization. These movements,
as he argues, simply recycle the old religious instincts that have fascinated the mankind for
thousands of years.
His detailed memories about the Y2K problem would be kind of amazing if I didn't remember they were
really told by influential sources all the time. While 1999 - with its booming economy and subdued
terrorism - should have been viewed as the ultimate happy year, journalists, pop-scientists, and
the rest of pundits loved the Y2K meme.
The end of the world was coming once again. The elevators, cars, airplanes, banks etc. would crash,
we were told. About 300 billion U.S. dollars were wasted for this "problem".
Of course, nothing happened. The first countries entering the 2000s such as New Zealand celebrated
their great investments to avoid the looming catastrophe. Except that in countries that spent
almost nothing, such as South Korea (or Ukraine), nothing worth noticing happened, either. ;-)
The Y2K problem also had its deniers. The most prominent Y2K denier, Bill Gates, even dared to
criticize the prophets for spreading the fear! Contemplate about his cosmic blasphemy. ;-)
The Y2K problem fits into a long sequence of stories spread by the people who are simply fascinated
with the global cataclysm: Nostradamus, asteroids, aliens, weapons of mass destruction, bird flu,
swine flu, you name it. Today, the loudest one is global warming. The hysteria in the media exceeds
that of the Y2K problem by one or two orders of magnitude. So one shouldn't be shocked that instead
of 300 billion dollars, people are expected to spend proportionally more money, namely trillions or
tens of trillions of dollars.
Of course, it's no longer a story about the religious instincts only. Many people also have very
rational, egotistic reasons to help the alarm. But that's a different story.