The Hippy Survival Guide to Y2K

This book, authored in 1998 as speculation about the impending Y2K computer bug crisis was reaching its peak, asked a question: Could it be that, 30 years after they formed the vanguard of the American social revolution, the "hippies" of the 1960s could offer a pathway to safety in the event of a social crisis?

Author, college lecturer and unabashed hippy Mike Oehler’s answer was a resounding, ‘Yes, they can." He’s a ’60s holdout who holds dear the philosophies that led him to a back-to-the-land lifestyle in an underground home he built outside Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

This book is in three parts; the first, "The Countdown" is a chronicle of his growing awareness of the Y2K bug controversy, and reads like a daily diary that recaps his efforts to alert his small rural community to the possible threat. The second is "Survival Strategies," a handbook of recommendations and advice for surviving potentially catastrophic disruptions in social services, based upon his years of living a self-sufficient lifestyle – strategies that would prove valuable in any disaster. Oehler provides information on how to:
- Get clean water if water systems fail
- Stay warm in January if the heat goes off
- Find free food at any time, in the city or the country
- Find the safest places to live
- Build a shelter that will take you through anything
- And more.

And a final section is "Silver Bullet Solutions," Oehler’s own philosophies for leading an intentional and fulfilling life in harmony with the Earth.

In retrospect we know that fears of the Y2K computer bug were vastly overblown. This book stands now as a cultural classic on the Y2K fever that gripped the nation for almost two years – but one larded with practical advice for modern self-sufficiency and a philosophy for living.

About the author

Mike Oehler lives in a hand-built, solar-electrified underground house on his 40-acre homestead in the mountains of Idaho. He is also author of "The $50 and Up Underground House Book" and "One Mexican Sunday" and is a frequent university lecturer and radio and TV guest on sheltering and self-sufficiency topics.