TOPIC: Y2K: It's Just a Bug, Not the Apocalypse
SOURCE: Tina Pippin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Agnes Scott College, (404) 471-6227
DATE: March 2, 1999
It's hard to imagine two little digits in a computer chip causing global chaos, but many people are predicting exactly that as a result of the Y2K computer bug. The report released today by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem does little to ease the fears of many Americans, warning of potential problems in everything from health care to transportation systems. The fact that the Y2K bug coincides with the year 2000 exacerbates the problem, causing more than a few people to worry that the end of the world might finally be upon us.
Nonsense, says Tina Pippin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, GA. Pippin has done extensive research on religion and culture, with a particular focus on apocalyptic literature. She argues that many people simply need something to worry about, and the synergy between the millenium and the Y2K bug gives them a convenient excuse to panic. As for the Y2K bug, Pippin says, "there's nothing apocalyptic about it, except that some people are catching 'apocalypse fever.' We were able to function before computers, and we'll be able to function in 2000. Some people need to view the coming millenium as the end of the world, and if they're not concerned about Y2K, then they'll find something else."
The Y2K bug is, after all, a fixable problem. Any errant computer chips which crash on New Year's Day will be fixed or replaced, and any problems they cause will be solved, sooner or later. What may be harder to fix is the rapidly-spreading mindset that we should all be very, very afraid. Y2K is a case in which the dog's bark could be much more serious than its bite.
Tina Pippin is the author of Death and Desire: the Rhetoric of Gender in the Apocalypse of John (1992), Apocalyptic Bodies: The Biblical End of the World in Text and Image (1999), and a co-author of The Postmodern Bible (1995). She can be reached in her office at (404) 471-6227, or by contacting Dolly Purvis, Manager of News Services at Agnes Scott College at (404) 471-5451 or [email protected].
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