While it has always been true – in politics and life – that people tend to agree with views/facts that confirm what they already believe and discount those which run counter, it is a phenomenon (confirmation bias) which seems to be turning into the pathology of the 21st Century.
There is some astrology at the bottom but it’s worth pondering on these quotes from Katherine Viner on how technology is disrupting the truth.
“We’re getting countries where one half just doesn’t know anything at all about the other.”
“We are caught in a series of confusing battles between opposing forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and rumour, kindness and cruelty; between the few and the many, the connected and the alienated — between an informed public and a misguided mob.”
“Social media hasn’t just swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything. It has swallowed political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry, retail, even government and security.”
“Instead of strengthening social bonds, or creating an informed public, or the idea of news as a civic good, a democratic necessity, it creates gangs, which spread instant falsehoods that fit their views, reinforcing each other’s beliefs, driving each other deeper into shared opinions, rather than established facts.”
“Our news ecosystem has changed more dramatically in the past five years than perhaps at any time in the past 500.”
So what happened 500 years ago? The Gutenberg printing press was invented which started a process whereby books and pamphlets could be copied out to the general population (those who could read). At that point Pluto was in Cancer and Neptune in Virgo – the exact opposite of the present Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces.
What happened five years ago? Neptune moved into Pisces staying till 2026. Neptune in Pisces has in the past coincided with high points for poetry, socially-aware fiction (Dickens etc), religion and hospitals. Karl Marx and Engels were around, and the establishment of theoretical communism took hold last time round of Neptune in Pisces in the mid 19th Century. But feet-on-the-ground, facing-facts is not its strength. Indeed it can be thoroughly loony-tunes in its beliefs, spiralling off into weird delusions.
Maybe part of the ‘post-fact’ era we are in can be attributed to Neptune in Pisces. In the UK we have the inept but highly popular, far-left Corbyn, darling of the proletariat; and the Brexit campaign which admitted to lying the day after it won. In the US there’s Trump, whose interface with the truth (and decency) seems tenuous at best. Yet nothing critical that’s said makes a dent on their supporters. No one believes experts, politicians or the media, so most opt for the comfort of their own ‘echo chamber’ where they are soothed by like-minded opinions – the Daily Mail and Fox news on the right; and the Guardianistas on the left.
Neptune was also highlighted when the expression ‘Yellow Press’ first emerged in the 1890s with the Hearst newspapers, which went for scandal-mongering sensationalism – eye-catching headlines and no fact-checking. Neptune was conjunct Pluto then in communication-oriented Gemini, which can inflate fantasies. So it’s not a new phenomenon, but it is a great deal worse nowadays.
Not sure there’s any great astro-conclusions from all of this. Maybe it’s worse this year with Saturn square Neptune, inducing paranoia on top of Neptune in Pisces’s tendency to wing off onto the cloud tops. No one can distinguish truth from fantasy, so they cling onto what feels familiar and safe, no matter ‘evidence’ to the contrary.
Along a similar vein, those who control a media will control the present and the future. Eventually, the past is re-written by the same controllers. What **is** truth? Are your truths the same as mine?
Regardless of origin, media truth (electronic, printed, voice, radio, television…) is relative.
I agree with you about the way technology has warped things. Charlie Booker’s series Black Mirror was only on about 5 years ago and it looks scarily like the modern world already. I suppose people have lost faith in experts, media and politicians (authorities) because of things like the “dodgy dossier” on weapons of mass destruction, the phone hacking scandal, the Hillsborough tragedy where the authorities said the ordinary football fans were liars, thieves and worse etc.. Them the experts even say astrology is a load of cobblers and that Pluto is a planet, and then it isn’t 😉
My own personal confusion; “fat is now good for you, you should cook with animal fats with high smoke point rather then plant oils and it’s carbs and sugar, even too much fruit, you should have been avoiding (yeah we’ve been telling you something else for 50 years, but never mind)”. So it now turns out my Irish, Piscean grandmother, born 1913, who I rolled my eyes at “ahhh quit fussing, eat the fat it’s good for you”, was absolutely right after all. Are you disillusioned with anything that you always though to be true, but has turned out not to be?
Larry c
So well said. I’m very worried and I’m in the UK.
Marjorie – I encounter these difficulties as a technical consultant. “Everyone” knows such-and-such but come down to the fine print…”it just does’t say that”. In hi-tech, I’m faced with a bumper crop of so-called technical experts, young at best, foolhardy and dangerous at the other end. If their advice is not heeded, these online experts become fanatical and violent in their comments and actions. I’ve moved on from that arena…hoping to remain under the radar and tend to immediate business. My cousin will swear with her last breath that Trump will save our country…when quite the opposite will occur. The comfort coccoon existed in the 50’s and 60’s when child abuse was becoming a visible epidemic: kids coming into grade school covered with bruises. Nothing was (overtly) done about it. “Nah, you’re just mistaken…”
Great post. Was thinking along similar lines especially about noone believing experts anymore. Love the echo chamber idea. I have personal experience of this ie 30 years as a psychologist but get shouted down for knowing nothing. O..K…
Thank you for all your work.