The Bunker Millennium
Shiflett, Dave
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...Her assumptions about a media/corporate conspiracy went over well with the Nashville audience, especially when delivered by Michael Hyatt, a bestselling Y2K author and popular lecturer...
...Over a vegetarian lunch, Nell explained that corporations are playing down the problem because they are afraid of citizen panic, which would not only hugely alter consuming habits but cause a run on banks and send the stock market into a deadly tailspin...
...No water...
...Save copies of your financial records...
...Bates is co-author (along with mother Dorothy) of the widely admired Y2K Survival Guide and Cookbook, a slender tome that is packed with recipes for vegetarian feasts such as Shiitake Joes and TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) sausage along with tips on "Coping with Emotions...
...We have the capability to sustain ourselves pretty much forever, and we can shelter an additional 300 people, with Red Cross support," Bates said at the commune's Ecovillage, a somewhat ramshackle collection of buildings, gardens, solar-powered outdoor showers, and a hostel capable of housing 6o...
...How reliable will stocks and mutual funds be if the banking system has closed down...
...North could not confirm this because he did not respond to an interview request, explaining on his Web page that he rations his interviews by not giving any...
...Riches have not lulled Hyatt into serenity...
...People who have placed their retirement hopes in stocks and mutual funds will see their dreams vanish...
...They home school their two sons, and bumper stickers on the family sedan support "Alan Keyes in 2000" and Don's Russian Orthodox faith: "Orthodoxy—Proclaiming the Truth Since 33 AD...
...Both Wileys fear that an unprepared public will turn to government for rescue, thus strengthening the hand of a force they already hold in great suspicion...
...Unlike most preparers interviewed for this story, the Wileys were willing to both meet in person and allow the use of their full names...
...We simply wanted to advance public discussions of this issue and we think it's important for the church to take part...
...Nonetheless, they add, "even if the millennium bug turns out to be no big deal, even just a false scare, making preparations is not a bad thing to do...
...Besides that, "I personally recommend either of two guns...
...But what if scoffing neighbors show 27 A LOT OF IN TERESTING TENNESSEE FOLKS OF BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT PERSUASIONS ARE PLANNING TO GREET THE Y2K CRASH WELL STOCKED AND WELL ARMED...
...We will try to feed as many people as we can," says Don...
...They agreed to meet at a local brewpub to discuss their preparation efforts...
...But others are moving to remote areas, stockpiling food, water, money, and in some cases powder and shot should the sneering majority suddenly show up looking for a sandwich...
...How will governments get paid...
...New Year's Day will see the initial crash of the weakest systems, which will in turn tax and perhaps bring down allied systems until the modern world finally perishes in a fit of negative interdependency...
...You can get a crowd for Beanie Babies," says Julianne, "but not for Y2K...
...They installed an extra telephone line and answering machine to handle the calls...
...hiesiangs of a Cat, iiist ciccidudf, 1 doomsdai scenario 15 now iicil inside the goinputers—the very machines that diac so rapicilv tn...
...A t Logan's Roadhouse just off Interstate 81, Johnson City contractor Mick McDowell expressed few personal worries about Y2K...
...After offering Biblical support for defensive action—"He that bath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one" (Luke 22: 36) Hyatt provides profiles of various types of handguns, including his "personal favorite," the Baretta .40 caliber pistol...
...Don offered no firm answer, though he later mentioned a long line at a local gun shop...
...Nothing appeared to be marked down, though Bates noted the red tags would be out soon enough...
...Clinton has mentioned Y2K only three times publicly...
...You could probably trade a bottle of Jack Daniels for a load of wood," Rob figures...
...F or full-blown Armageddon thunder, however, the bankers don't begin to match Gary North, a major Internet presence who calls z000 A.D...
...Among other items for sale: The U.S...
...And I'm thinking there are going to be a lot of generators to be had for cheap by the middle of January...
...He is also something of a professional hippie who lives on The Farm, one of the last operating communes in the U.S., located in Summertown, Tennessee (about 8o miles southwest of Nashville...
...He is among the better-prepared Americans, as he has two Arks: The one he usually resides in, on top of a mountain 25 or so miles west of Nashville, plus a cabin ten miles deeper in the countryside...
...How will your employer get paid...
...But Mac has bigger worries...
...Hyatt urged a small printing and the book took off...
...Most Americans have no ears for these worries...
...Others fear the possibility that Russia's creaky military computers will issue themselves a false alarm of incoming American missiles, thus launching a nuclear counter-attack and unleashing Armageddon...
...Wide-scale unemployment...
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...There are lots of scapegoats around: Judaism, Wiccan and other Neopagan religions, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc...
...A worldwide run on the banks will create havoc in the investment markets...
...They met at an Operation Rescue event...
...Panic in the general population, perhaps leading to massive violence...
...We need to learn to leave a smaller footprint...
...Mick didn't recommend an on-site interview, but did pass along my e-mail address, and Mac soon contacted me...
...Having visited with several individuals and families of the fearful disposition, this investigator advises that, in the event of a true emergency, don't go tramping around in America's mountains or hill country looking for a handout...
...But some Americans actually see a sunny side to Y2K...
...The only nourishment some of the folks will be offering is lead—straight up...
...Like Noah and company, they will wait out the flood of human misery, perhaps eventually reentering an America vastly different from the one they left—one with something resembling a nineteenth century economy...
...Why, he asked his audience, should anyone believe corporate types who promise any Y2K problems will be minor and repaired within days of January i? "Are we really supposed to believe that problems will be fixed in three days, over a holiday weekend, when they haven't been able to fix them over the course of several years prior to New Year's Day...
...There's another benefit as well...
...Those wishing to purchase the video could do so for $13...
...The legendary Remington 870 Express ("about $22o at most retailers") is the other preferred option...
...As a result, "only about 20 percent of Americans have made any preparations...
...adults who expect some major event in the near future, like Jesus Christ's second coming...
...31...
...I know you think I'm crazy," he said, "but I've got a guy in our church from the government who is convinced that things are going to be really bad...
...He replies that on a scale of one to five, with one being no problems and five being cannibalism in the streets, he is comfortably in the middle...
...Bnt I do have a friend named Mac who is definitely dug in...
...Most people will stay in denial, including the business managers 28 December r999/January 2000 • The American Spectator whose companies are totally vulnerable to a computer failure...
...Like modern day Noahs, they set out to prepare their neighbors for possible regression into want and privation...
...Trust God...
...a 1.5 pound can of "Millennium Gourmet Red Beans and Rice" ($42.50...
...Two of those were hostile...
...Mac illustrates an interesting aspect of the Y2K phenomenon: Those most worried about this computer-based crisis depend almost entirely on computers for the latest crisis information and for staving in touch with one another...
...Cannibalism...
...I'm betting my life on it...
...Army Special Forces' "Hand to Hand Fighting" manual ($6...
...I say bring it on...
...30 December 1999/January z000 • The American Spectator What about Al Gore, founder of the Internet and the Paul Revere of environmental catastrophe...
...And some of them are going to look for scapegoats...
...If things really go to hell, he will take his final stand at the cabin...
...They believe Americans will be better off if our steady stream of oatmeal stouts and prime rib dries up, taking with it our sense of heroic individualism...
...He'd he a real asset down here," he said...
...He is fairly stoic about the possibility of an early and perhaps savage demise...
...A stock market crash...
...Originally collectivist, that changed in 1983 when the enterprise could no longer sustain itself...
...If Hyatt's criticism of corporations and government is pleasing to liberal members of the Y2K watch committee, his Personal Survival Guide is bound to find more resonance among those on the right...
...They want the neighbors to take care of themselves—on their own dime...
...T here's a common belief among the Y2K Faithful: The way you prepare tells a great deal about the sort of person you are...
...His follow-up, The Y2K Personal Survival Guide, has been augmented by about too lectures a year, all of which has surely made Hyatt a very wealthy man...
...While his "survival guide" does begin on a breathless note — "This is dedicated to the hundreds of individuals who risked their careers, reputations and safety to put out the warning" —it quickly relaxes...
...1, 2000, do what you can...
...It is suggested that, for an agnostic, Hyatt wags an alarmed tongue...
...The sparse attendance at her meeting was proof of that, she said...
...He quickly informed me that e-mail was not the most secure way to communicate, but did consent to a phone interview...
...Anyone who goes snooping around the Hyatt household in case of emergency may soon be meeting the Almighty...
...No electricity...
...As Christians, we must try to ameliorate pain and suffering as much as possible," Don said over prime rib and oatmeal stouts...
...North's sense of certitude may reflect his religious bearings...
...If it's a prescription medicine that you're required to take, put aside enough for a few weeks...
...As for herself, Levin—an excellent fiddle player—will spend New Year's Eve with close friends, not playing music but meditating in preparation for what she expects could be a very rough year...
...Julianne, a Roman Catholic, has made a name for herself as a writer for various pro-life publications...
...A global financial collapse...
...Everyone in authority will deny that time has run out to get this fixed, right up until December 31, 1999...
...The Year the Earth Stands Still...
...But I also have an obligation to protect my family...
...A break in the food supply...
...Speaking of which, an increasing number of Americans openly speculate that Bill Clinton will take advantage of the chaos to declare martial law, thus keeping himself in public housing an extra term or two, perhaps while Hillary sharpens her legislative skills...
...A successful Nashville businessman, he attended the town meeting and invited me out to see his lair...
...It has an eight-shot capacity, making it perfect for self-defense...
...Only about a fifth, according to polls, are making any preparations at all...
...And while Hyatt calls for community cooperation, he includes a vivid chapter on selfThe American Spectator December I 999 /January 2000 defense which begins with a quote from Daniel Webster — "God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to defend it...
...Right-wingers, one soon discovers, opt for an individualistic response, stockpiling food, water, and ammo...
...forme(' our planet — cinbedded chips soil 'civic a great leap and take us with them...
...low far biick is the big qui•iiiioni While the computers themselves should stop at 26 L)cLcsIIhCo 1999 11, d y 2000 ° The American Spectator 1900, society may be catapulted far deeper into the past—back to a grim era of fighting for personal survival in a world of limited resources...
...What are you doing New Year's Eve...
...A Y2K meeting held later in Johnson City drew no support, nor did a radio broadcast which attempted to develop community interest...
...Commander Nero is none too optimistic, either...
...I'm not as bad as some people...
...SO BE EXTRA CAREFUL WHEN YOU DROP IN ON THEM COME NEW YEAR'S DAY DAVE SHIFLETT up at the door demanding food...
...That policy also relieves him of having to explain why various predictions have not materialized, including his warning that computer programmers will flee to safe havens just ahead of 2000...
...As we write this, a year before the big event, we are significantly less pessimistic in our predictions...
...Both possibilities spell the end of America, and perhaps the end of Mac...
...Right now...
...She turns a nice phrase—at one point referring to public willingness to trade freedom for government-provided material security as "consensual totalitarianism...
...North, who has been stoking millennium fears for several years, is apparently not burdened by doubt...
...Be informed...
...Just prior to publication date, former Regnery executive Richard Vigilante phoned Hyatt and told him the initial orders for the book were so dismal the company was seriously thinking about not releasing it...
...The few politicians who have been out in front on this issue aren't saying much anymore," she replied, mentioning that Utah Republican Robert Bennett and Connecticut's Christopher Dodd were on to the threat early, but have lost their fire...
...YzK is the conversational gambit that can lead to discussions The American Spectator December r999/January 2000 29 that begin to knit webs of affiliation, care and mutual support...
...Mick later told me that Mac is sensible in that he keeps his armory in a safe...
...Then again, the scenario of weaker systems bringing down compliant larger systems appealed to him...
...What bothers us is the large percentage of U.S...
...And even if the problems are relatively small, we've got trouble...
...No one ever expected people to take this into the pulpit...
...Many of them work in computer-based industries, one of which boasts a $1 million Defense Department contract—a delicious development as the commune was branded a Communist cell by the Reagan administration, Bates proudly reports...
...Who is going to leave his money in his bank if he thinks his bank's computer is not reliable...
...As it was written (by the ABA's flacks): So in preparing for Jan...
...She adds that the cause has not been helped among her co-religionists by the Pope's declaration, as she puts it, that "this will be a wonderful Millennium...
...Because The Farm would be a logical flocking place for starving urbanites, I visited on a recent Saturday afternoon...
...One would think, she was asked, that if doom was indeed galloping our way, there would be at least a few warning voices in the government and media...
...Hyatt, a man of the right, cannot be accused of playing the role of corporate shill...
...If nothing is going to happen, preparers say, why take these steps...
...My book is going to be a very hard sell after New Year's Day...
...B esides acting as a stimulus for community organization, Y2K also provides political liberals with yet another illustration of corporate power and greed...
...In case of emergency, Nero's neighborhood is also best avoided...
...When it doesn't happen, a lot of people are going to be very disappointed...
...The Wileys proceeded on their own, buying emergency food and composting toilets, five rain barrels and oil lamps, and they may keep a few cases of whiskey to use in a barter economy...
...You should see this place when there's even a rumor of a snowstorm...
...Trust those you love...
...At a town meeting in Nashville in early September, a Y2K survival video narrated by Leonard Nimoy (Spock) warned a smallish crowd of maybe 120 middle-aged, middle-class people to put aside at least a month's supply of food and water for each family member (pets included) and to pursue sensible survival strategies, such as not using trash bags as temporary toilets...
...In a pleasant drawl he insisted he was just kidding about shooting his friend Mick...
...Eric Utne, founder of the Utne Reader, sums up this viewpoint in his introduction to the magazine's Y2K Citizen's Action Guide: Y2K is the excuse we've been waiting for to stop making so many compromises in how we know we should, and want to, live our lives...
...Town meeting organizer Nell Levin, a self-described "6o's radical" from Jerry Garcia's old San Francisco neighborhood, believes corporate America's dominion over government and the media has succeeded in lulling Americans into a false sense of security...
...The deer stands that surround his cabin could be converted to sniper stations, he agreed...
...YzK can bring a family feeling throughout the community Albert K. Bates hopes as much...
...The shelves are empty in a matter of hours...
...So the Wileys went door-to-door with 500 leaflets calling for an organizational meeting...
...But the posting, which has been widely circulated among the Y2K watchers, is held up as proof that the banking industry deep down believes there will be trouble in the New Year...
...While a few shadows of the old spirit survive — a slogan painted on a rusty shed roof advises "Wake Up And Live" while the dust-covered rear window of a sedan has been finger-etched not with the typical "Wash Me," but "Conserve Water"—only around 200 members remain...
...Or it could merely be that fear sells better than calm, and fear is clearly present on the front page of his new book, whose subtitle promises "Everything you need to know to get from this side of the crisis to the other...
...I don't have hand-grenades and machine guns...
...a supply of grain products that will feed a family of four for six months (S495...
...The Mossberg 50577 Model 500 is a pump action, 12- gauge shotgun with a zo-inch barrel...
...Not all of North's questions are so alarming...
...Hyatt also mentioned—"because it has now appeared in the mainstream press" — fears of Clinton declaring martial law, and various reports about the government preparing for civil unrest...
...An employee at Thomas Nelson Publishing, a religious house, his The Millennium Bug (Regnery) stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for seven months...
...Among other things, the scare may increase the communal impulse, encourage reliance on sustainable energy sources, and decrease consuming habits, says Bates...
...Keep a few days' worth of cash on you...
...Strangely enough, the safe has an electronic lock on it, and Mac believes that he could lose his power in a Y2K meltdown, which of course would mean he couldn't get to his guns...
...It has an interesting history...
...Mac retired to a farm some time back, and "he's got concertina wire and the whole hit...
...Terry Mattingly, a respected religion writer for Scripps Howard News Service, was assured by an ABA official that his organization was not trying to tell preachers how to conduct their business...
...They stood starkly against the slate morning sky as this reporter headed for points north, and Nero headed into town to pull his sizable holdings out of the stock market...
...While professing himself a Y2K "agnostic" during his Nashville address and a subsequent interview, Hyatt seems anything but...
...If you have a fireplace, put some dry wood aside...
...We got four responses," Julianne says...
...The Farm was established in the early 1970's by several busloads of roaming San Franciscans...
...In central Virginia, Poncho (last name withheld) said he was planning to move his family of four from their trailer to a West Virginia mountaintop just prior to January 1. Like many Y2K believers, Poncho expresses a deep religious faith, telling of his life as an alcoholic and drug dealer, before abandoning that path after experiencing a surprising and horrific vision of doomed souls writhing in hell...
...The Wileys are Christian people with a distinctly conservative leaning...
...How will you even get paid...
...Will they quit...
...While the Ponchos and Macs are the butt of many jokes among Y2K scoffers, at least a portion of corporate America is taking them seriously...
...Utilities will fail...
...Who's to say how any of us would react in a pinch, and there is plenty of meat on the American hoof...
...They are paid to deny this...
...The unraveling could take time, mind you...
...I am concerned about violence against some benign faith groups...
...She appears to be the more alarmed of the two, at one point explaining over a lemonade a chain of events that would lead to a "mushroom cloud" over a power generating plant...
...That's not all: "Months before January 1,2000, the world's stock markets will have crashed...
...My two biggest fears are that a smaller country will lose control of its nuclear missile capability, and that Clinton will take this opportunity to make himself king...
...In its heyday it had around 1,700 residents, including Bates, who wandered in after a long trek down the Appalachian Trail...
...The American Spectator • December r999/January 2000 Julianne and Don Wiley of Johnson City, Tennessee, are an interesting combination of both responses...
...The American Banking Association posted on its Web-site a document meant to guide ministers who sermonize on the Y2K issue...
...Perhaps with the help of a shotgun...
...Early on, be set the stage for the coming collapse...
...Over numerous beers (New Castles and Michelobs), Nero said he isn't entirely certain of meltdown...
...Bird shot, he adds, is effective at in-house ranges and will not pass so easily through walls as slugs or buckshot, thus protecting family members or neighbors...
...It cannot be fixed...
...The Federal Reserve says U.S...
...Have a little extra food and water around the house if that makes you feel better...
...Mac originally invited Mick to come on down if things get too hot, vet "a couple of months ago he called back and said that if I came down he'd have to shoot me, though he promised he'd shoot me in the legs since I am his friend...
...Our first response when we hear this news is denial...
...He is equipped with a generator, immense water and food storage capability, a shotgun, a deer rifle, and he plans to have $10,0oo in cash on hand (the primary reason he would not allow his real name to be used...
...Keep some candles on hand...
...One tip-off is its chapter-leading epigrams, such as "No tickie— no shirtie" for a chapter telling readers to secure hard copies of financial and family documents...
...Agnosticism was on his lips, but Nero appears to believe disaster is afoot...
...But when asked if there are any Republicans living on the premises, the grinning Mr...
...Bruce Robinson, coordinator for a group called Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, informed me that "We are not particularly concerned about Y2K religious groups...
...Keep an adequate supply of medicines and over-the-counter drugs on hand...
...He convinced me...
...In case of major meltdown, the family is also prepared to flee to a safe haven deeper in the South...
...Gore hasn't been heard from...
...If things go bad, I say let's all go to heaven...
...Make sure there are fresh batteries in your flashlights...
...Mushroom clouds over nuclear plants...
...Left-wingers, meanwhile, see an opportunity for political and community organizing, and also for attacking corporate greed and political timidity...
...Bates says his cookbook "helped retire the mortgage on my girlfriend's farm," placing him in company with many entrepreneurs of the left and right who are making hay from Y2K...
...But I'm not expecting a disaster...
...he asks on his Website, then suggests, "How about joining us for a medieval holiday, away from it all in the Pyrenees, the South of France...
...This is why the problem will not be fixed...
...Bates finally answered, "None that would admit to it...
...And take a few practical steps...
...He is reportedly the son-in-law of Christian Reconstruction guru Rousas John Rushdoony, and himself a reconstructionist who reportedly believes, according to detractors, that Old Testament law should he enforced with public stonings...
...H yatt is probably the most respected of Y2K pundits...
...Y2K is our opportunity to stop our polluting and wasteful practices, and start living more sustainable, environmentally friendly lives...
...I'm saying that it's over...
...The exodus of programmers will begin no later than 1999...
...and a "Y2K Retreat" (11 acres, old home, outbuildings) out in the Tennessee countryside ($38,000...
...industry has spent at least $50 billion preparing for possible problems, and there's no telling how much individuals have spent on personal preparations...
...Nor does he consider himself especially well-armed...
...North has his left-wing counterparts...
...An agnostic, it seems, is a believer who merely hasn't decided whether only half the sky will fall...
...After all, at least some of the 500 people who got their fliers will deduce that the Wileys have been stockpiling staples for well over a year...
Vol. 32 • December 1999 • No. 12
