(…Climbs onto soapbox…)
I have been so busy with other stuff that newsworthy items have almost gone completely by the board. I didn’t learn of the events in Arizona, for instance, until a day after they happened. I had no idea the President made a speech the other night until I saw someone mention it on Facebook the next day. And I learn today of the shakeup in astrological circles over the procession of the equinoxes that seems to have the country in a panic.
I suppose that is to be expected. After all, horoscopes are printed daily in just about every newspaper in the country and their collective column inches outstrip science columns by untold orders of magnitude. People have invested a lot money in professional readings that may not be valid if the procession of the equinoxes isn’t taken into consideration. Forget the fact that time and again, double-blind studies of horoscopes have shown it’s predictions to be no better than chance, a change in sign could introduce complications into that age-old pick-up line, “Baby, what’s your sign?’
While it is amusing to see the momentary panic of people trying to understand what the precession of the equinoxes is, let alone how it affects their horoscope, the fact of the matter is that there will be swift rationalizations for how this was all anticipated and works perfectly into the scheme for divining the future already well-established. And of course, they are right: nonsense begets nonsense.
Or as a computer science professor once put it: garbage in, garbage out.
(…Steps of soapbox and crawls back into warm, comfortable media blackout.)
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