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There are 2 types of people in the world...What are they? UChicago supplement. [9]
Hey guys...Please critique the last of my chicago essays,it's really urgent!Thanks:)
University of Chicago
Supplemental essay.
"Dog and cat. Coffee and tea .Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?"
There are two types of people in the world. Those who thought the world would end in the year 2000 and those who didn't.
It was the year 1999.Apart from being preoccupied with sky-blue Levi's/Guess jeans, mullets, tie and dye shirts and the sitcom "friends", the world was also nervously contemplating the unspeakable. The world, as we knew it, would logically have to come to an end. Two thousand, being the round figure it was, and indeed being divisible exactly by ten (a widely held analysis) was a sure sign that the time had come for us to perish. Dim the lights. Cue the tension music. Thunder and lightning.
So the world was split into two kinds of people .Camp" It's all over!" and camp" We shall live." The two groups had two completely different ideologies. Over on camp "It's all over", speculation was the fuel for the death train. Because death was now imminent, people went to the extremes to squeeze every modicum of worldly pleasure out of the few remaining moments on the planet. Inheritances were cashed and the proceeds pumped into island holidays. More straws were plunged into coconuts than ever before. Precious art was sold for a pittance or even given away." We won't need these we we're going! "I remember my aunt saying of her beautiful granite sculptures. Scores were settled, hatchets were buried and fearsome confessions uttered. It was all over.
Meanwhile on camp" We shall live", the atmosphere was noticeably more relaxed. Until, of course, it was discovered that computers, as we knew them, would go berserk. Experts concluded in no uncertain terms that due to the Dot com /http: serial downgrade|#en source&##Port, it was imperative and urgent that computers be loaded with a cutting edge software to guard against the cyber onslaught of Armageddon.Otherwise, they would have to be thrown away or burnt en masse.Many like myself in Zimbabwe who did not own computers at the time secretly wondered whether our digital watches would succumb to the same fate. We had to wait to wait and see.
On the morning of January 1st, 2000, the sun was shining brightly, the birds were chirping happily and the clouds were as crisp as ever. And umm...No. No we had not died in our sleep and yes, the tedium of Y2K compliance had generally been both futile and unnecessary. Diaphragms worldwide heaved a mighty sigh of relief." It was a miscalculation!" declared the Y2K guys."Oh, sorry, we made a mistake. So the world must end in 2100 then!" the end-of-the -world -guys announced. Both camps were wrong. No need for alarm. Both arguments had fallen flat. There was no winner. It was a stalemate. We could all relax.
So there you have it. There are two types of people in the world, those who thought the world would end in the year 2000 and those who didn't .We all thought one thing or the other: Either death, or life without the PC.Ten years later, we're still around. In the end, I'm glad both groups lived.
