Out of all the most ridiculous conspiracy theories that have surfaced over the past few years, the one that seemed plausible at the time was the Y2K bug. If you can bring yourself back to the late '90s, when President Clinton was embroiled in a lurid sex scandal and the millennium still seemed far far away, there was a real fear the machines would turn against us. Yet most of us continued on with life, oblivious to the Armageddon that would unleash upon us unsuspecting souls.
Well, that never happened, and eight years since January 1, 2000 came and went without as much as a light bulb going out, the premise behind the Y2K conspiracy seems silly. As more disturbing things happened throughout the world in the 2000s, conspiracy theorists moved on, searching for a new government-backed plot to destroy civilization.
The End As I Know It by Kevin Shay is the first book I've encountered that takes the absurdity of the Y2K computer bug and uses it to great effect in a hilarious work of fiction. Taking place in 1998, Shay's novel follows Randall Knight, a former elementary school music teacher turned puppeteer, as he embarks on a journey of his own: to warn whoever he encounters of the end of the world as we know it (or, in his own internet lingo, TEOTWAWKI). Randall ends up selling his possessions and living out of his car while he catches up with old friends and family members to warn them about Y2K.
Of course, they only half-listen to Randall, and the longer he goes without convincing the masses to protect themselves and prepare for a meltdown, the more fervent he becomes in his beliefs. In one scene early in the book, Randall tries to convince his ex-College roommate about the Y2K threat, eliciting this response: "'Dude, I gotta lake a leak.' Damien gets up. Mission unaccomplished."
It continues like this throughout the novel, and Randall can't even convince his own family of the threat that faces them. When Randall visits his uncle and his family in Colorado, he is shocked to see them embroiled in an Amway pyramid scheme, yet when he gets the chance to talk to them about Y2K, they use it as an opportunity to improve their Amway sales spiel. Even Randall's mother isn't convinced that the world is coming to an end, and in their online conversations, she frequently gives Randall a motherly "that's nice dear" response.
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