what astronomers are saying in their backhanded way is that we would have more credibility if we practiced sidereal astrology.
which is hilarious because it’s based on the exact same principles.
2 thoughts on “Two lines to Rick”
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Dianae, yes to the Big Brother aside, plus:
What I remember about science in the Academy is that it has to attract the grant, Federal or private, therefore must in some way present itself as a fine upstanding member of the Market. A strangely insidious system, onethat seems to have an enantiodromal movement: It must *appear* to facilitate Humanism, while reducing anything authentically human to an exchange value. Having entered, last Spring, the world of Chasing the Dollar for Dollarsake, I am stunned by how consistently other things (ideas, persons, activities) begin to appear tiny and suspect next to this all-consuming pursuit.
Within a matter of days after beginning this sojourn, I knew I was going to be inducted into the state of consciousness suffered by millions: Never-enough-itis. I figured I could always use my mantra to dig a way out, but lordy, this shit is *thick*.
It seems like the glaze on the shitmountain is sarcasm. Just as money (or the acquisition thereof) becomes the substitute for experience, so sarcasm becomes a substitute for thinking. It has a certain shine, but can’t really pass for ‘light.’
Hence the curious spectacle of astronomers casting around for a way to communicate with the world-at-large – “Oh wait, we haven’t picked on our venerable ancestor in a while, somebody say something snarky about astrology. Thus a momentary flicker of ‘intelligence.’ Only it’s not.
I think astronomers shy at anything smacking of metaphysical and Western tropical astrology deals more in the concept of a sign without the constellation being physically involved like a decal to spray paint over. God forbid we use ideas not extracted from a telescope or smeared on a slide under a microscope.
Any ya know they’re a little scared of big Brother. 😉