What Can We Hope For? December 30th 2023

      I was in my mid 40's when we entered the millennial.  It was the difficult time that wasn't.   Mostly because of the promise of failing technology.  I didn't go back and do a lot of research here so I will go from memory.     Although computers were not yet in every pocket,  they pretty much owned us.  And when IBM and Texas Instruments and the gang manufactured the computer that regulated everything in our power grids and stored all our data on just about everything,  they installed the date with a 19__.   

     A couple of years before the Apple dropped in Times Square to bring in the year 2000,  those who should know suggested that when the AI that controlled everything would have no where to go when it reached the end of 1999,  it simply shut down. 

     I was employed with the national police force back then.  I had a friend who worked in Head Quarters at the time.  He spent a year working on the special Y2K team.   Those teams existed in every government, and in every corporation around the world.  Our team not only worked on finding ways to save our data, but came up with policies that would dictate how our police force would handle the impending panic and national riots to follow.  All leave for the thousands of employees across my home and native land was cancelled for the first six months of the year 2000.  Extra man power was scheduled to cover just about everywhere.

    And what happened?  Well just about nothing.   If there was any danger of the world grid shutting down,  it was head off at the pass.  There were no riots, no looting, no stampedes, no loss of information.   People stuck with mounds of toilet paper, gallons of fuel, tons of dehydrated food stuffs,  rounds of ammunition.   If the computer date turnover was going to be a problem, it was fixed.  Quietly fixed.   Ya think?

     In the fall of 1999, I owned an IBM.  Eight megs of ram and a one geg hard drive.  More memory than I would ever need, and outdated before I got it out of the box.   I bought it in 1995 and it was pretty well obsolete by the end of the nineties.  So one autumn morning and for no apparent reason,  I adjusted the time on my PC to 23:59 December 31st. 1999, and crossed my fingers.  A minute later nothing happened. On a global level, my little experiment meant nothing.  But I was pretty sure we were free and clear at midnight January 1st 2000.    And as far as the predicted disasters were concerned,  the world was free and clear too.  

     But there was damage.  So much damage.  Damage to the credibility of the authorities.  The Millennial gaff,  if it was a gaff.  No doubt some of the rich got richer because of the impending doom that wasn't.  Maybe it was just over caution.   What ever it was, it had some serious consequences.  While destroying the credibility of those in authority, it seemingly gave power to those who crave it.  It resulted in us trusting those who tell us not to trust.  It paved the way for the polarization that is currently the way of the world.   

    I am not naive.  I am well aware that those who lead in any given country have let us down.  That eventually their own interests are going to take precedence over the collective good.  Suddenly anyone with access to a PC can find someone somewhere who will verify that vaccines are a plot by Bill Gates and every left of centre politician in the world to ruin their respective countries economies.   A global pandemic is a conspiracy involving China and Scott Tissues.  Global warming is a farce.  That windmills are slaughtering millions of endangered birds.  That refugees, and immigrants are a drain on economies when after all we were here first.  (There's another "Ya Right" moment." ) 

   Come to misinformation,  there are no good guys.  There is no right side verse wrong side.  There is instead right side verse left side.  And we all seem satisfied just to find the information that we desperately want to believe.  And misinformation will continue to make us vulnerable.  It will keep us angry, disgusted with those who don't follow the same misinformation we do.   It will ensure we  spend our time electing officials who spend their time erasing any steps taken by those they replaced.  

    But more importantly, it will politicize individual relationships.  It will cause ordinary regular people to distrust one another.  To dislike one another.  To feel superior to friends and family because your side is the financially responsible, or the humanitarian side.   Yup.  We have come a long way since Y2K.   It just may have been the wrong direction.  

    Back in the day I was trained in methods of alternative dispute resolution.   The word compromise was never used in dispute resolution.  Compromise suggests that both sides agree to terms that usually leaves them unhappy.  What is needed to settle disputes are both parties identifying what exactly they need and don't need out of the negotiation.   When any or either party comes to the table only armed with demands of what the other side of the table give up?  Well there is no resolution.  

     I think that is where we are now.  And I think we have to demand more from our leaders.  But rather than making demands on those we oppose,  we should be making demands on those we support.  We should be demanding real solutions to our economic and environmental problems.  We should be insisting on cooperation that will unite rather than separate us.  We should be supporting our family, our neighbours, our communities regardless of our political or religious leanings.  And those two things should most certainly be separated.  Well that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.   Certainly not this year.  Of course this year will be over tomorrow night.  

     In the interim,  let me say that I have a life surrounded by people who do the right thing more often than not.   I have family that I never imagined would be as strong and unselfish as anyone could possibly be.  I won't pretend there is anything special about me, about us, about those with whom we socialize.  Cooperation isn't rocket science.  And perhaps the way most of us live our lives should be the example our leaders need to work for the greater good.   To start building rather than tearing down.

Come to 2024?  Well that's about all we can hope for.    HAPPY NEW YEAR.