Excuse Me for Being an Optimist in “The End Times” of Our Current World

The internet is

on my nerves

today. Crabbing at people via comments in dying conversations where few people will see my minor hissy fit is inadeqate satisfaction, so I feel the need to get my rant on.

Welcome to My Rant.

Maybe you have heard of Y2K? No, maybe not. Maybe are you too young to remember it.

When computers first came out, they had very limited storage. It made a big difference if you used two digits or four to record the year. So they used two digits because the extra two were such a hardship.

As the turn of the century approached -- the year 2000 (abbreviated

Y2K

) -- people began predicting that our global banking system would melt down. Some people became what we now call Preppers. They had five years of flour in the basement and guns at the ready for a post-apocalyptic world.

And then midnight came that New Year's Eve and the world did not melt down because old programmers who wrote old programming languages had quietly been fixing the problem for several years.

Mostly, you could no longer program your VCR ahead of time to record stuff, which didn't matter that much because most people didn't know how to program their VCR anyway. They just pushed the "record" button when the show started if they wanted it recorded.

No one wakes up these days and says "Thank god! I'm not living in the Y2K Post Apocalypse! ATMs work and the global banking system still works and VCRs have long since been replaced!"

Except maybe me and my sons. We occasionally say things like that. But no one else does.

Instead, there are people who mock the idea that this was ever a problem, like "Can you believe those idiots ever thought it would become a global banking meltdown! Ha!"

Similarly, when Iraq

set fire to hundreds of oil wells

on its way out of Kuwait, experts predicted it would burn for years and be a global environmental disaster. Then crack teams from around the world converged on Kuwait, invented new techniques on the spot and wrapped up the job in a mere six months.

There was no media storm celebrating this amazing victory on par with the dire warnings we heard about endlessly when this disaster was being predicted. This triumph became a minor footnote in more exciting news stories.

We don't run around today thanking our lucky stars that the Kuwaiti Oil Fires failed to become the global catastrophe it was expected to be.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

One of my favorite things about the movie

War Games

is that after

they talk to the guy

that designed the computer that is about to kill everyone and he lectures them about how pointless the whole thing is and he isn't going to help, the two teens kiss:

No, he didn't "turn them in." It's actually a positive plot point.

That's sort of the nutshell version of why I survived my medical sentence of death. I began passing the time pleasantly online with other people -- mostly men, but not always -- and it was a germ-free means to help me make it to dawn without slashing both wrists.

I'm a former military wife with a serious medical condition who raised two special-needs kids. My life is typically pretty stressful, sometimes more than others.

My general policy is "bread and circus" during really bad stress. I try to keep everyone fed and entertained and calm so that stress doesn't turn into stupid fights and stupid decisions that make things go from bad to worse.

And when I'm not doing that, I'm problem solving. And I don't have a lot of patience for people whinging about how we are all doomed.

We aren't all doomed and, please, kindly, stop wasting my valuable and limited time and energy on listening to your crap about how we are all doomed, as if the world has never had serious problems before. Either roll your sleeves up and be part of the solution or at least get out of my way.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.
-- Helen Keller

My future's so bright I gotta wear shades

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/3liVNGv