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Y2K survival guide offers fatalism, optimism

People need answers. Whether it be the perfect diet that causes one to lose 10 pounds in two weeks or something as simple as, say, transglobal survival hints. People want to be told what to do. Fortunately, there is no loss of gurus popping up like so many Jack-in-the-Boxes holding the ubiquitous solution. But whom to believe?

The Y2K situation has proved to be a boon to these theorists and prophets, and perhaps the most original contribution to this field of argument and panic is Mike Oehler's "The Hippie Survival Guide to Y2K." Why not? Everyone else is throwing in their two cents, so why can't some old hippie? But Oehler predicts this question and addresses it immediately.

"Whatever can that unwashed, sex-obsessed, dope-crazed bunch of dropout do-littles and misbegotten misfits know about surviving anything, much less surviving the Great Computer Glitch of the Year 2000?"

Part One begins April 2, 1998, 638 days before the year 2000 with Oehler learning of the dire nature of the problem. Written almost like a diary and counting down to December 31, 1999 we observe Oehler on the one hand coming across more damning evidence, and on the other hand presenting this to an apathetic and even resistant population. That's not much information to survive on. However, if interested, one can learn what the I Ching tells Oehler about Y2K.

Part Two gets into the meat of the matter, and this hippie knows his skills better than any Eagle Scout. In clear sections he focuses on emergency shelter, food and water collection and storage, sanitation and financial strategies to name a few. Keeping in mind that most of the people reading this are city folk who believe "roughing it" is a picnic at the city park, his language is clear enough for anyone to follow should the need arise. Whether or not this book becomes a lifesaving manual or instantaneously obsolete as 2000 begins without a hitch remains to be seen.

As fatalistic as this book can be, it is also optimistic. Whether simply an inconvenience or something deadly, Y2K will affect us, and this may be the catalyst for the spiritual social change humanity is starving for. It's a good theory, but isn't that what he's supposed to believe? After all, he is a hippie.