Since January, I have noticed an alarming trend by the government & media. There is a serious marketing plan in motion right now to scapegoat all of us. ALL OF US...I don't care what your opinion is of the severity of y2k...and I'm not imagining these orchestrated scare tactics.

Pay attention to the content of ads & speeches. I heard a gentleman on CNN last week from Univ. of Georgia (position unknown) say, "Y2K isn't a technical problem, it's a people problem"! WHAT?????

Over and Over, I'm hearing that YOU HAVE CAUSED Y2K if you do either/both of the following:

(1) withdraw money (2) isolate yourself from your neighbors

Guess what Kosky? I'm doing BOTH. Don't point your finger at me too long, I just might stick it in the barrel of my 12 gauge and...

-- I'm (with@titude.now), August 31, 1999

Answers

Simply put, the Federal government will do every thing in it's power to shift the blame for y2k to anything and everything outside of it's perimeter of authority.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 31, 1999.

In every crisis governments find someone to blame. I WW2 a lot of people blamed Japanes Americans- they must be spies!- and sent them to internment camps.

The authorities know that if there are serious problems after they have lulled everyone with happy-face, there will be intense public anger. They are dflecting it in advance.

America is a very classist society, and we blame classes of people for our problems. Hence "the Rich" were blamed for the Depression, and their gold confiscated, Whites are blamed for the problems of Blacks, the Hippies made us lose the Vietnam war, the Left has destroyed morality, the Right caused Clinton's problems, and on and on it goes. It's human nature- blame somebody else. All you can do is realise what is happening and forge ahead based on your own best judgements. Trust yourself, you are the only one you have to account for.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), August 31, 1999.

Speaking as a bureaucrat, that's the way you play the game. I watched someone go to prison who worked for the same governmental department I do (not y2k related), simply because he was at the end of the blame chain.

This isn't conspiracy...shifting blame is as natural to bureaucrats as breathing.

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), August 31, 1999.

I am definitely not screaming *conspiracy*...I am fully aware that fingerpointing is politics as usual. It just really became clear to me over the last few weeks that I keep hearing the same phrases uttered that will eventually implicate all of us, no matter what you did or didn't do to prepare.

-- I'm (with@titude.now), August 31, 1999.

You are forgetting about two very significant sub-groups who will, IMO, be arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed.

The two groups: The evil "hoarders", without whom EVERYONE would have had enough "stuff", and the evil programmers (after all THEY'RE the ones who CAUSED the Y2K problem in the first place!)

I wouldn't be a bit surprised (IF...) to see hundreds, if not thousands, of programmers rounded up and shot by a gov't-enraged public.

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), August 31, 1999.

Perhaps the "horders, ect." can be made to wear a little badge sort of like the Star of David the last time a large group was blamed.

-- Goldbug (Goldbug@mint.com), August 31, 1999.

It doesn't matter who gets blamed, as long as the end result is a decimated population, that is the overall 'plan'.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), August 31, 1999.