<nettime> Ccru datastream 9: The year 2000 will happen

[katasonix <data@katasonix.demon.co.uk>]

Ccru: Cybernetic culture research unit
http://www.ccru.demon.co.uk
it@ccru.demon.co.uk

Y2k+ datastream 9
KO99


THE YEAR 2000 WILL HAPPEN: 
Leaked Memo from the desk of Sir Christopher Stephens

All current indications suggest that our efforts to disappear so-called
Y2K+ activity from the mediascape have been entirely successful. As we
had hoped, the so-called Millennium Bug problem is generally being
treated as a merely technical matter, in no way involving issues of
calendrics and temporality.

Agents need hardly be reminded of the two principal Y2K + groupings and
their affinities. But since the threat they pose is highly significant,
it may be worth rehearsing their key commitments one more time. What is
at issue for both groups is what they insist upon calling a quote
cyberspace calendar. This is composed of the 2-digit dating system
which, if left uncorrected, is likely to produce all the delightful
disasters with which our anti-Y2K propaganda has familiarised us . But
the catastrophe both groups are interested in concerns time itself. They
treat the occupation and dissemination of the  computer calendar as a
quote chronopolitical matter, and contend that all attempts to fix the
Millennium Bug are to be considered acts of quote Gregorian restoration.
But the two groups differ radically in the set of doctrines they
extrapolate from the cyberspace calendar. One tendency, the so-called
continuists, claim that the cyberspace calendar establishes our year
1900 as Year Zero: our Year 2000, therefore, becomes their Year 100. The
other tendency, the so-called centients, make more mystical claims,
suggesting that the cyberspace calendar, beginning at 00 and ending at
99,  establishes that there is quote one true century, cycling around
for all time. For all their differences, however, both groups have a
common goal: the destruction of the Millennium. These time sorcerers are
seeking to undermine western chronology itself.

Naturally, this can't be allowed to happen.

Needless to say, it is not sufficient to oppose Y2K+ activity; the
position must be rendered unimaginable. Y2K must remain a disaster that
happens in time, not to time. I think I can say with some confidence
that The Year 2000 will happen. And our preparations have been thorough;
we are well-placed to ensure that any Y2K-produced devastation that does
occur will skew things very much in our favour. It will certainly allow
us to try out some interesting political arrangements pretty much
unimaginable given normal circumstances. It's difficult to imagine many
other contingencies that would allow us to usher in the new millennium
in conditions of martial law. 

We can't let apocalypse happen by accident. It has to be carefully
planned.

A final note. A particularly satisfying aspect of our counter-dissident
activity has been the disabling of the so-called "eso-terrorists", Ccru,
who have made it their business to propagate data about the chrono-
dissident cults. As usual, heavy-handed methods have not been required
on our part. Ccru's so-called hyperstitional sorcery has been contained,
not by outright suppression but by marginalisation. Standard spoiling
techniques have been employed, highly effectively. Whilst keeping our
handiwork hidden, we have ensured that Ccru has faced the maximum
possible obstruction at every level.  A virtual media black-out of  its
equinox festival earlier on this year is only the most obvious example
of our agents' work so far. Our operatives, some of whom have
infiltrated into positions very close to  Ccru, have kept Ccru under
constant psychic blockade. Their diligence is admirable. No detail has
been overlooked. They have arranged some particularly delicious nervous
breakdowns. Excellent work. Anyone about to run a demoralisation
campaign should take a look. It's copy book stuff.

As always, however, vigilance is to be maintained. The apparent crushing
of Ccru may be a temporary matter. Faced with time sorcery, of course,
one never knows quite when one has won.

Cs
-- 
ccru via katasonix

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net