TWI to the Rescue - "Once again, our believing has saved the world!"

[ChasUFarley]

TWI leadership, especially VPW and LCM, seemed to love doomsday predictions.

None of them ever came true.

Was it because they were misinformed or drew illogical conclusions? Or did they really lead the collective body of believers to keep evil events from happening and truly save the world?

My experience of this came from the dreaded Y2K preparation. There were lists a mile long about what to get, how much to get, what to do, where to go when the poop hit the propeller, etc. It was mind-boggling. Personally, I sort of shut down with these sorts of plans. I was lucky enough to be living alone when this happened, so I think I filled up the car a couple of days before, took $40 out of the ATM, bought a few extra grocery items (wine!), and that was about it! (I came no where near completing what the checklist said to do - HA!)

I happened to be working for an international company, with an engineering division. The guys I worked with were very smart and well connected. I remember asking them what they thought would happen. They all responded with, "Nothing - unless people really flip out and cause a crisis by buying up everything!" (Which was what TWI was advocating.)

I started watching Y2K roll in across the world that day and night. When Russia got thru it without a hitch, I figured we'd be fine. And we were - but that was because the believing believers of Zion were holding forth the light of the Word in a wicked and perverse nation, and staying the hand of the adversary. Right?

To say the least, I was highly annoyed with TWI for those teachings - I can't imagine how people felt who had actually bought generators, wiped out their savings accounts by taking all the cash out because they thought the banks would fail, etc. - What a pain! What a waste of time!

What are your experiences with TWI and doomsday predictions? What were the outcomes?

[Bramble]

One of the guidelines was to have a month and a half wages in cash. Yeah, we had it--not. Another suggestion was to get you doctor to prewrite prescriptions, including prescriptions for antibiotics you didn't currently need. Even if the doc would write it, we couldn't stockpile it with out spending a ton of money, because our prescription plan wouldn't approve more than a month's worth of meds at a time.

And I hated--hated-- having to turn the home inventory list over to our HFC, so he could know what cupboard we kept the pillow cases in, and how many we owned.

Then there was the great canned tomato debate. Tomato, being acidic would eat through cans in time. But were we stockpiling for a month or for years? No one knew.

I was all for the end of life as we knew it, because I pretty much had my hubby talked into moving to Montana, with my mountain folk relatives. Sounded alot safer than trying to stay in the Big City with all the automatic weapon owning gangs--if what LCM was saying was even true.

Heck, my relatives had gun cabinets full of hunting rifles, one of my brother's is a heck of a bow hunter, they can butcher their own elks, can their own huckleberries and salmon, make jerky, chop wood, the river water could be cleaned easily enough...

We left before Y2K didn't hit, though, so no exciting homesteading for us.

[johniam]

The only "doomsday prediction" I can remember as being taken seriously was that on Oct. 17, 1979 there would be an attempt to take over the government (make slaves out of all believers). I started hearing about this in the spring of that year. something about a GM labor strike that year being part of the plan. I wasn't at AC '79 but the atmosphere there was heavy I heard. Then at the ROA that year, on Wed. of that week VP had everybody go to the main tent at 10AM and made a big deal out of the kidnapping/attempted deprogramming of 7th corps guy Monte Pelto and how he was preparing for "the worst" as far as the government going after TWI. Then on Friday of that week he announced that the FBI were there. He said, "You didn't have to sneak in; I would have sold you a ticket! They think we got guns. Go ahead, tear up all 147 acres if you want. You don't need guns if you got GOD!!!" Cheers erupted.

Then shortly after the ROA every twig was told to have a 6 month supply of grain food and no less than a half tank of gas at all times and that we would be given 24 hours of advance notice as to when and where to go.

Never happened. My twig leader from that time still has some of the grain food.

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

boy do i remember that

we bought 50# of white rice

brown rice

corn wheat berries{ which i ground myself} the celler looked like a grocery store!!

we ate it all but the dry goods had little crawley things in it by the time the "diaster" passed

[Mike]

The y2k doomsday was a joke to anyone who had hands on experience with the kind of electronics that had the embedded computer chips that were supposed to bring down the infrastructure.

Every single such piece of equipment SOMEWHERE had in it what is called a “Manual Override” button, switch, or circuitry, or something with a similar name. These manual overrides were put there so that if the computer chip were to blow out from a lighting strike, or old age, or a dropped wrench, then the equipment could be operated manually until a replacement chip was installed.

However, none of the technical people with access to the media would ever effectually explain this to their media contacts. If the media were to explain all this to the people and especially to the non-technical CEO’s of thousands of companies, then those companies would not feel the need to pay the same technical people huge consulting fees to get them through the “crisis.”

The media people hadn’t a clue of the manual overrides on every piece of important infrastructure equipment. I listened and waited for years for that idea of the ubiquitous manual override buttons to be mentioned on the media and NEVER ONCE heard it.

Actually, the media ALSO had a financial motivation to keep the hype rolling. Any media outlet that put a damper on the crisis story stood to lose in ratings to the OTHER outlets that did made a big deal about it.

I tried to tell some people this in the last months of the 90’s, but they all insisted that if the manual overrides actually existed then it would surely be on the news.

***

I myself had written a computer program for my business scheduling and accounting in 1985, and I knew totally well that it was going to fail when 2000 hit, but all I had to do is set the clock back to a year somewhere in the 80’s that happened to be identical to the year 2000. Now six years later I STILL have not corrected my y2k doomed program.

Every so often I have to tweak the clock again to keep it on a year that is identical to the current one. This year it’s 1995 that is identical to 2006.

Setting my clock back was a vastly more simple AND quick fix than re-writing the code. Almost all of the infrastructure equipment managers could have done the same thing, at least temporarily to buy some time, if they didn’t have the personnel to manually operate the equipment. So even the notion that they had to hurry to fix everything was a technical hoax.

There NEVER was a crisis. It was just a lot of re-tooling work, and it was very much more lucrative work for those dishonest electronics experts and media people who hyped up the situation way beyond what it really was. Too bad NO ONE in the ministry leadership got revelation that it was a simple case of the love of money. If I can explain it here to you folks now, then SOMEONE could have explained it to the leadership back then. But no one seemed to know even the 5-senses manual override angle and to get it through to leadership.

***

Now, the 1970’s were much different.

From 1968 on through 1980 this country was going down a set of steep spirals in MANY categories, almost ALL categories. THAT crisis was real and it was imo MUCH worse than most people perceived it to be. I happened to be young and with a lot of time on my hands, so I usually read 3 newspapers per day back then. I was a devoted political junkie then. By the time Nixon was forced out I was convinced that ANY day we could wake up to soldiers at every city corner, and not necessarily our own.

I’m convinced we barely squeaked through that perilous twelve year span. I prayed about it lot then. I think it was miraculous that we survived. Does anyone here remember 17% inflation and gas lines? They were just the tips of many icebergs. We were teetering right on the edge yet somehow made it through. I credit God. I thank God.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Mike

[dmiller]

Every so often I have to tweak the clock again to keep it on a year that is identical to the current one. This year it’s 1995 that is identical to 2006.

Hmmmm. Interesting.

[Mike]

Yes, both quick fixes were were totally absent from the collective consciousness. It still gets me angry to see the sham of it.

Some years I have to tweak my clock twice due to a leap year, sometimes it sails through for a few years with no tweaks. I had no tweak this January 1st, because 1994 was identical to 2005.

Anyone can see this with Microsoft Windows. Just double click on the time located on the task bar to pull up the calendar program. Then roll the year register back on calendar clock program. HOWEVER, DON'T FORGET TO RE-SET BACK TO 2006. That's important!

Nowadays I have to put a note on my screen to re-set the clock to the proper year after I'm done with my chores on the ancient program I wrote. Not re-setting the calendar back to 2006 can cause problems with some other programs. I only have to do all this once a month. For the longest time I ran my program on a very old machine in a DOS environment like the one I wrote it for, but the modern machine I have now with Windows can be crippled if run too long on the wrong year.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Mike

[WordWolf]

The y2k doomsday was a joke to anyone who had hands on experience with the kind of electronics that had the embedded computer chips that were supposed to bring down the infrastructure.

To most people that even had a passing familiarity with it, too.

Me, I just made sure my fridge was full and that I would

need to go to the bank for a few days.

My concerns were panicking people.

When I saw India made it fine, that was the final confirmation I needed.

However, none of the technical people with access to the media would ever effectually explain this to their media contacts. If the media were to explain all this to the people and especially to the non-technical CEO’s of thousands of companies, then those companies would not feel the need to pay the same technical people huge consulting fees to get them through the “crisis.”

Actually, I heard on various media that this was nothing to worry about

and why. It was uneducated people NOT in the media that kept

sounding the alarm. Like George Wallace said, there were people

thinking their TOASTERS would stop working...

The media people hadn’t a clue of the manual overrides on every piece of important infrastructure equipment. I listened and waited for years for that idea of the ubiquitous manual override buttons to be mentioned on the media and NEVER ONCE heard it.

Well, people seemed to think that anything where the date rolled

over would just keel over and die. Now, the media announced THAT

wouldn't happen-and had to KEEP mentioning it because some people

wouldn't listen.

Actually, the media ALSO had a financial motivation to keep the hype rolling. Any media outlet that put a damper on the crisis story stood to lose in ratings to the OTHER outlets that did made a big deal about it.

The media are JUST as fine when they're informing a crisis is AVERTED

as when they have to sound an alarm.

"Blame the media! It's their fault!"

Sounds like you're a "shoot the messenger" type.

I myself had written a computer program for my business scheduling and accounting in 1985, and I knew totally well that it was going to fail when 2000 hit, but all I had to do is set the clock back to a year somewhere in the 80’s that happened to be identical to the year 2000. Now six years later I STILL have not corrected my y2k doomed program.

So, the program isn't programmed for 4 digits yet?

I notice that your computer and business wouldn't have shut down

as soon as it hit midnite-which was what people were predicting.

"People will starve because supermarket stock is done electronically,

so they won't know what to send out!"

I said "Nonsense. The company WITH the stock isn't going to

just give up. They will send one dweeb with a hardhat and a clipboard.

He will see what they have in stock, and write it down.

Then they will get on the phone-which won't shut down at midnite-

and call a supermarket, and say "We have this is stock.

Do you want it shipped?"

This will take LONGER, but it's not like the food currently in stock

will suddenly vanish at midnite.

(Unless you count people buying it all-but then, of course, that

person HAS food and won't be SHOPPING soon!)

Every so often I have to tweak the clock again to keep it on a year that is identical to the current one. This year it’s 1995 that is identical to 2006.

Setting my clock back was a vastly more simple AND quick fix than re-writing the code. Almost all of the infrastructure equipment managers could have done the same thing, at least temporarily to buy some time, if they didn’t have the personnel to manually operate the equipment. So even the notion that they had to hurry to fix everything was a technical hoax.

Actually, all over the city, state and country,

people DID rewrite a lot of code.

I spoke to several of them.

There NEVER was a crisis. It was just a lot of re-tooling work, and it was very much more lucrative work for those dishonest electronics experts and media people who hyped up the situation way beyond what it really was.

Actually, the people doing the work found it to be a nuisance and boring.

They complained about the panic of the companies, all of whom were

hyperventilating. One guy was peeved about his New Year's plans.

His entire technical division was required to stay in town close to their

job in case everything crashed-even AFTER the code was rewritten.

So, they hung out and threw their own party-but that WAS

"making lemonade from lemons".

Too bad NO ONE in the ministry leadership got revelation that it was a simple case of the love of money. If I can explain it here to you folks now, then SOMEONE could have explained it to the leadership back then. But no one seemed to know even the 5-senses manual override angle and to get it through to leadership.

It was almost incidental with all the OTHER panicks of the decade.

lcm was getting his news from some famous paranoid conspiracy sites

*coughLibertyLobbycough* that had served vpw for the panicks of the 70s.

(Those never came to fruition, either.)

So, we had the "Pope Aircraft Carrier" and the

"Pope will declare martial law" and the

"Pope will force conversion at weapon-point" crap,

along with

"oh, BTW, the government and civilization will collapse in 5 years.

Better stock up on canned food and shotguns."

They've been sounding variations on that alarm for longer

than I'm aware of,

and they're either sounding it now or are making PLANS to

sound it again.

That's how the "paranoid conspiracy information sources"

like the Liberty Lobby STAY IN BUSINESS.

Fools PAY THEM to deliver consistently INCORRECT information

that they can then use to panic their constituencies.

***

Now, the 1970’s were much different.

Yeah, more actual news sounded pessimistic too,

so the Paranoia Newswire didn't sound like the nonsense-peddlers

they still were and always were.

From 1968 on through 1980 this country was going down a set of steep spirals in MANY categories, almost ALL categories.

Well, the economy sucked and gas prices sucked,

but it was hardly The Great Depression,

nor the Spanish Flu Outbreak.

Now, THOSE were emergencies of the 20th century United States.

THAT crisis was real and it was imo MUCH worse than most people perceived it to be. I happened to be young and with a lot of time on my hands, so I usually read 3 newspapers per day back then. I was a devoted political junkie then. By the time Nixon was forced out I was convinced that ANY day we could wake up to soldiers at every city corner, and not necessarily our own.

If you believed that, then your information was MUCH worse

than the REALITY was.

I’m convinced we barely squeaked through that perilous twelve year span. I prayed about it lot then. I think it was miraculous that we survived. Does anyone here remember 17% inflation and gas lines? They were just the tips of many icebergs. We were teetering right on the edge yet somehow made it through. I credit God. I thank God.

Most of us-through 20/20 hindsight- can see that it was hardly

as bad as many thought then. The gas lines were the worst,

but that was as much bad planning on the part of the government

and big business that was passed down to the consumer.

(Which is an old story.)

If there had been a more sensible plan that involved more

hybrid cars and hybrid fuels, there would have been

gas lines for people with unconverted cars, and business as

usual for those who kept up.

I mean, one half-assed measure was a move to more

fuel-efficient cars for some in the 80s and 90s, and THAT

would have made a BIG difference as well...

Edited March 14, 2006 by pawtucket

[oldiesman]

We were told that the Illuminati's goal was to implement the Newstates Constitution on July 4, 1976, exactly 200 years after Independence Day of 1776.

Another time, I vaguely remember a large poster or something that everyone signed and was to be sent to President Carter, asking God to bless us in the U.S. and keep us free.

Was that at PFAL '77?

[Clifhanger]

We were told that the Illuminati's goal was to implement the Newstates Constitution on July 4, 1976, exactly 200 years after Independence Day of 1776.

Another time, I vaguely remember a large poster or something that everyone signed and was to be sent to President Carter, asking God to bless us in the U.S. and keep us free.

Was that at PFAL '77?

'76 was the year I started fellowshipping with believers. I lived and worked in the DC area and had, for several years prior, heard of work being done on a new constitution. The political slant was that the existing Constitution was outdated. There was very little press on the subject, less if any outside of the capitol area. Though there was call to pray for our country, there was hardly the pending doom and gloom attitude of '79 (MAL-PACKs, et al), at least not in the DC area.

[Mike]

I agree that there was some genuine concern for y2k involving panic. I’m also sure there were many variations on what I saw and reported, but the two quick fixes I knew and mentioned above were never heard over a two year span by this reporter.

I’m sure there were honest electronics and media professionals trying t help, but in general they seemed to be ineffective. Yes, there was a lot of work to be done, but the panic was not handled nearly as well as it could have been.

***

The period of 1968 to 1980 was far worse than the economic woes of gas lines and inflation. I mentioned they were only the tips of MANY icebergs.

To name a few others, we had in that span the shaming and resignation of BOTH the vice-President and then the President. We had the escalation and the “relative” loss of the Viet Nam War. Civil unrest was massive on several fronts: racial, moral, political. The generation gap was wider than ever before. I remember the hippies degenerating into the violent Weathermen or sympathizers thereof. The Pentagon Papers being released added greatly to the growing national shame. Nixon, for all his successes, did cast a huge cloud of suspicion on government when his secret tapes came out as just one aspect of the long lasting Watergate drama. The Carter malaise was far more than economic, remembering the Iran hostage situation and then the military rescue fiasco that added to it. This is just from memory, and I know there was more.

I think that time was a genuine crisis that had great potential of erupting into all kinds of worse case scenarios.

I don’t want to get into any kid of political debate about it, but I will say my information did not come from the Liberty Lobby or anything like that. I simply read a lot of newspapers. Nowadays, the left leaning historians of academia think of that period as the good old days, and I see that period’s crisis being re-written for future generations as totally different than what I saw.

[MountainTopCO]

I’m convinced we barely squeaked through that perilous twelve year span. I prayed about it lot then. I think it was miraculous that we survived. Does anyone here remember 17% inflation and gas lines? They were just the tips of many icebergs. We were teetering right on the edge yet somehow made it through. I credit God. I thank God.

Mike,

Be sure and keep away from the kool-aid.

[MountainTopCO]

Another time, I vaguely remember a large poster or something that everyone signed and was to be sent to President Carter, asking God to bless us in the U.S. and keep us free.

VPW was really tapped into God and must have really got revelation on that. What a waist of time and resourses. Sending a "God Bless America" poster to Jimmy Carter. The only use he would find for that is toilet paper on the peanut farm. What a joke!!!

[oldiesman]

'76 was the year I started fellowshipping with believers. I lived and worked in the DC area and had, for several years prior, heard of work being done on a new constitution. The political slant was that the existing Constitution was outdated. There was very little press on the subject, less if any outside of the capitol area. Though there was call to pray for our country, there was hardly the pending doom and gloom attitude of '79 (MAL-PACKs, et al), at least not in the DC area.

Golly, that's interesting about work on a new constitution.

My memory could be failing me, but I have no recollection whatever of the 1979 survival stuff.

I went out WOW that year (79-80)... perhaps they withheld that stuff from the WOWs?

[Mike]

I remember the Constitution re-write stuff well. It's gone relatively underground, but is still a happening thing in some circles.

Far from drinking Kool-Aid, for both situations I prayed a lot. Because the ministry was strong in the 70's, with lots of united believers, I did absolutely nothing involving hoarding or stocking supplies. For the y2k I only kept a few extra bags of trailmix on my shelves and rotated my stock, plus some extra water. We're often reminded in SoCal to do that much just for earthquakes.

***

Off topic, but often wondered: What is the Kool-Aid Company doing about the constant and prolific public airways use of it's name in extreme cultist and negative situations? What has happened to that company's stock in these decades since Jonestown?

Edited March 13, 2006 by Mike

[Belle]

And in September 1996 you can thank my ex and I for that hurricane not coming anywhere near land so that we could enjoy the cruise we took for our honeymoon. We laughed and said, "you're welcome" to the other passengers since we knew that the beautiful weather and hurricane blowing away from land was because God wanted us, the righteous newlyweds, to have a perfect honeymoon. ;)

It was a perfect honeymoon, too bad the marriage wasn't. :(

[MountainTopCO]

Off topic, but often wondered: What is the Kool-Aid Company doing about the constant and prolific public airways use of it's name in extreme cultist and negative situations? What has happened to that company's stock in these decades since Jonestown?

Probably has no effect on Kool-Aid stock just like VPW/LCM has no effect for whipping up support during a crisis (real or made up) and saying they prevented it from happening so they could get the glory. The fact that God would limit himself to VPW and LCM to determine the existence of all of mankind is a bit of a stretch.

I do agree with the power of prayer and due diligence but not so sure about VPW/LCM getting the lion’s share of the credit for either?

Stoking the flames of fear is a very effective way to control people.

The Kool-Aid tag has become a humorous reference referring to people who cannot see the truth due to blind allegiance. It seldom references extreme cults or negative situations. However, it may seem negative to the person it is refering to.

[penguin]

Well, I am sure that twi believes they are holding off bin laden and his crew as well since they still have an emergency what to have list in case of terrorist attacks. Have since 2001. Don't forget to have plastic covering or pre-cut to cover your windows in case of a chemical attack!!!

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

oh i know i am going to get slammed but here goes anyway

the only thing that holds this country together today is prayer

God respects prayer

and who prays the most??

ok here it is the roman catholic church

only because of thier numbers

ducking now

[topoftheworld]

At least somebody is, Cool.

Penquin: Yeah, that's probably how they are thinking. I can't help wondering where that armour plated believing was on Sept 11. How did they justify that?

Crazy as it may sounds, and long before finding Greasespot, it did occur to me to wonder during that horrific time if our "hedge of protection" was gone since TWI was fading into obscurity.

I know, I know, it was "Waybrain" thinking. But still.....

[J0nny Ling0]

I was a Mal Pack Platoon Leader. We saved the world back then in '79...

[outandabout]

Yeah, I remember all that Mal Pak stuff. We were also supposed to have the cars all with a tank full of gas.

OK, so we all take off from Emporia with our tank of gas because "they" were going to strike us there. And then we use up the tank of gas, and since the world is ending, there are no more gas stations working, and then what???

It made no sense, but at the time I dared not question.

[ChasUFarley]

Okay... I'll bite...

What's a Mal Pack?

[topoftheworld]

Survival gear: military packs: a way for people who had money to prove their loyalty to the Corps by forking it all over when asked....of course, it was given willingly.

I really felt bad later for the folks who bought into the hype and liquidated their assets to get this stuff together. I seem to remember one of the couples who did this, and they had wonderful hearts.

Edited March 14, 2006 by topoftheworld

[I Love Bagpipes]

Chas U Farley,

MAL was an anacronym for More Abundant Living pack which was the survival pack topoftheworld posted about. I remember a book that was used entitled "Survival with Style" about wilderness living with some comforts.

Along this same topic, it would bug me when TWI troubles were explained as TWI being attacked by the adversary because of its stand on the Word. When ex/non-wayfer groups or people had troubles it was because they weren't in the household. Huh?

I bought that lie for way too long.