Saturday & Sundry thoughts on Fascism & Astrology

The suggestion that the USA is drifting into fascism is frequently thrown around in online articles and in conversations in comment threads. It's not an idea that emerged with Donald Trump's ascendancy to the Presidency, it has been around for decades. This thought led me to an old, 2011, post of mine, one that has a different focus on fascism. I'm copying it here, dusted down, with some of the comments from that time included.

It's weird how Google sometimes manages to lure a person who is looking for a specific fact into something fascinatingly related, yet not exactly what one was seeking.

In trying to find the birth date of Bertram M. Gross, author of Friendly Fascism, the New Face of Power in America(1980), didn't find what I searched for but stumbled into Dennis Dutton's 1995 review of a book The Stars Down to Earth, and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture, by Theodor W. Adorno.

Now...don't laugh...Adorno wrote that astrology is akin to fascism!
Some paragraphs extracted from the review are below. It does us no harm at all to read such views from time to time - if only to consider our motives and check that our integrity remains intact...or anyway, if only to laugh at an arrogant self important writer who verges on fascisistic tendencies himself....reviewer isn't too friendly either.

To be sure, there are many intriguing observations throughout this mostly readable essay. In a passage perhaps even more true today than when it was written, Adorno says that a “climate of semi-erudition is the fertile breeding ground for astrology.” He refers to people who have gone just beyond the naive acceptance of the authority of science, but who don’t know enough, or who have not sufficiently developed “the power of thinking,” that they can replace such acceptance with anything better: “The semi-erudite vaguely wants to understand and is also driven by the narcissistic wish to prove superior to the plain people but he is not in a position to carry through complicated and detached intellectual operations.” In other words, quantum mechanics is pretty tough, but astrology offers sophisticated understanding of all reality in a few easy steps. Besides, astronomy is about those remote stars and planets out there — rather cold and impersonal. In Adorno’s apt title phrase, astrology brings it all down to earth, because it’s about the single most important thing in the universe: me.

In an analogy that isn’t too far-fetched, he says that to the semi-erudite individual “astrology, just as other irrational creeds like racism, provides a short-cut by bringing the complex to a handy formula and offering at the same time the pleasant gratification that he who feels excluded from educational privileges nevertheless belongs to the minority of those who are ‘in the know’.” Someone once remarked that Scientology boosts self-esteem largely by giving semi-educated, degreeless persons impressive certificates to hang on their walls, and Adorno is right that there’s a similar syndrome at work with most New Age esoterica, including astrology. (In literary theory, there are no certificates, of course — you just have to learn the jargon.)

Hey - I object to being called semi-erudite Adorno, unless you accept that you can be described as semi-bigoted.

Here's the kicker: (And I do not repeat NOT have a dependent mind! That accessory is reserved for skeptics - dependent upon their own addictive skepticism - their only route to a feeling of superiority).

It is not only capitalism that is embodied in astrology as part of the culture industry, but fascism as well: the “astrological ideology resembles, in all its major characteristics, the mentality of the ‘high scorers’ of the Authoritarian Personality’.” In fact, Adorno says, it was this realization that induced him to begin the study of Righter in the first place. (Refers to an American astrologer: Caroll Righter) The sucker for astrology is a dependent mind. “Moreover, by strengthening the sense of fatality, dependence, and obedience, [astrology] paralyses the will to change objective conditions in any respect and relegates all worries to a private plane promising a cure-all by the very same compliance which prevents a change of conditions. It can easily be seen how well this suits the overall purpose of the prevailing ideology of today’s cultural industry; to reproduce the status quo within the mind of the people.”

So for Adorno it all ties together, rather too neatly, in my opinion: late capitalism, irrationalism, and weak, dependent, fascism-prone personalities in need of the authority of astrology — and all these factors lying at the very heart of so-called enlightened modernity.

Adorno is at pains to deny that the appeal of astrology is basically mystical. It’s not that it supplies a new sort of religion but that it makes the alienated individual more at home in the world of consumerism and the “drabness of a commodity society.” In this respect more than in any other, “astrology resembles . . . other mass media such as movies: its messages appear to be something metaphysically meaningful, something where the spontaneity of life is being restored while actually reflecting the very same reified conditions which seem to be dispensed with through an appeal to the ‘absolute’.” In the division of labor of the culture industry, astrology has, to use a cliché Adorno avoids, its special job in the general provision of opium for the masses.

Last sentence of the review, and as fair a summing up as one could expect from this reviewer:

If Adorno doesn’t like something, no matter how inane or innocuous, it isn’t long before he begins to detect in it the seeds of fascism. The Stars Down to Earth seems now and again almost as obsessive as the astrology it analyzes.

Fascists, opium providers ?..."It takes one to know one" - as my old Gran used to say.

COMMENTS

Christina said: Wow - what a hoot.
Fascistic astrology is not…but don't you think he makes a few good points that we, as astrologers, should keep in mind.

I hate to say it, but I recognize the "climate of semi-erudition". Not on this blog, of course. And this is familiar too, the guy sitting next to you at a conference who has "the narcissistic wish to prove superior to the plain people but he is not in a position to carry through complicated and detached intellectual operations."
Aside from that we're all absolutely blooming marvellous.

Twilight responded...
Christina ~~ I appreciate your point about the narcissistic wish to appear superior. Yes. That's to be found in at least one member of a group in most fields I guess - and in most groups of any kind, social or professional. It must be a potential hard-wiring fault in some of us (all of us?) So why should astrologers be any different. ;-)
I see Adorno as a guy chasing a buck from a book using a spin on astrology nobody had yet thought of in exactly those terms.

Astrology Unboxed said... Kudos to Mr. Adorno for originality! I have yet to be called a fascist, especially since my own inclination is to the opposite side.
Since I started as an astrologer, I heard many epithets(crook, fraud, delusional, psychic, naive being the kindest one) but not this one.

I agree with Christina, that Adorno has a point in the need for us astrologer to be not only more scientifically inclined but also intellectually. Some of the research done by astrologers in recent years has not really helped our field except to boost the egos of those same researchers. We - astrologers- need more people like Rob Hand. Unfortunately, I do not have the chops for it.
I can't wait to pass Mr. Adorno's opinion of us to one of my Facebook astrology groups. It's bound to promote a lively discussion. Thanks, T.


Twilight responded... Astrology Unboxed (Fabienne) ~~
Yay for Robert Hand!!! And his ilk, if he has any, and for astrology bloggers like us who are, of course, impeccable on all fronts...LOL!!
Hope it generates some chat on FB.


Wisewebwoman said...I had to laugh at this one, T. I mean, seriously? I would never have put fascism and astrology in the same breath, not to mention a book!
Twilight said...WWW ~~~ I know...quite ridiculous. And insulting to boot.

Anon and Ever said... Oh yes, you are right, there is not only the right wing imbecility but also the left wing imbecility and even if the right wing imbecility is what we can easily find today we have never to forget the left wing imbecility, in which anything an author did not like or did not agree was compared to “fascism” not well defined and not properly described...

Twilight said...Anon & Ever ~~~ Agreed. Fascism, socialism, and other terms are thrown around willy-nilly, they have already lost their meaning - apart from their now seeming to be on a level with profanity, in the USA at least.

Je Suis C...oncerned

The "Je suis Charlie" thing must have surely run its course. The issue has been debated, written about, conspiracised and generally chewed to a pulp over past days. There's little more that can be said on the events themselves. I feel a little uneasy (to say the least) about what could spring from them. Millions marching in Paris at the weekend?

There have been reports and commentary about a growing right-wing, fascist-like element in European politics for a while now, long before the Charlie Hebdo killings were international front-page news. I don't know which way Hebdo leaned politically. Those in the know claim it was well to the left. If this were so, though, wouldn't their satire have been more conducive to encouraging rank and file French people to support their Muslim neighbours and workmates? I cannot possibly see how the obscene caricatures of the Muslim religious figure head would help in that regard.

I don't for a moment think Hebdo was an outright fascist outfit, akin to Germany's Der Sturmer in the 1930s, whose anti-Semitic cartoons must have aided acceptance of mass deaths in Germany, and were preceded by the dehumanising of whole groups through caricature. What we've seen recently indicates that Charlie Hebdo has at least been lending a (possibly inadvertent) hand to the growing right's National Front party in France, led by Marine le Pen.

Bearing in mind how the world is now so easily connected, second by second, via internet's social media, it doesn't take much imagination to see how European countries, whose large immigrant Muslim populations are causing some native born individuals and groups to worry about losing their national identity in the future, might jump on the "Je suis Charlie" bandwagon. Their intent could be to infiltrate and use it, not to uphold free speech, but for their own political ends - to de-humanise, mock and pillory immigrant groups, deter further immigration, and in turn foster growth of what would become a fascist following. Things are not the same as events in the 1930s, fears and reasons for them are different. There was no fear of Jewish terrorism then. The "pieces" are different, but the "game" is related. I think the astrology is related also, as it happens - a time of Uranus-Pluto square aspects, the earlier one waning, current one waxing.

Whatever else most of the "Je Suis Charlie" mob with their constant, and no doubt well-meaning, emphasis on free speech want to see, one hopes fervently that they do not inadvertently become caught up in achieving the opposite, slipping into a new version of the Europe of 1937-1945, with Muslims as targets instead of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and others. A side effect of this would be to see free speech hurtling rapidly down the drain.

Slippery slopes are not always obvious - early on.

The Other "F" Word

I'm no expert on such matters (or on any matters), but I don't equate fascism with totalitarianism. Maybe I'm mistaken. I see fascism as totalitarianism's younger brother, who comes up behind, with potential to overtake his sibling, given time. I have to thank Cannonfire, once again, for a link last wekend to this article by Patrick Walker (no, not the late Patrick Walker, astrologer!) It's a longish essay on fascism and totalitarianism, and comes to the conclusion that: "the political dysfunction Americans now face is really a form of fascism".


A few snips from Patrick Walker's essay at OpEd News.com:

I do not regard fascism and totalitarianism as synonyms. The proper way to view matters is that a very pernicious form of fascism (and of course, the word fascism implies it's pernicious) can exist without totalitarian control; if totalitarianism implies near-total government control over people's lives, it strikes me that government can do a particular sort of grievous harm to its subject population--harm that fully merits the term fascism-- while still falling short of totalitarian dominance.

The alarming part is that fascism can fool a nation's people and have them deeply in its grip before they've even noticed--largely because they've confused fascism with totalitarianism, and falsely conclude they're fascism-free because daily life isn't (yet) totally under their government's thumb. The hopeful part is that because fascism can exist for some time without totalitarianism, people can (if sufficiently awakened) still retain enough freedom to fight back and reverse their nation's fascist course. I think ALL these characteristics--except, scarily, the sufficient awakening--exist in today's United States.

So a key part of modernity is that the vast masses of humanity believe (at some level) in democracy, so even the most tyrannical governments must somehow fake it. So fascism is essentially a cancer on democracy, and would not exist without its modern democratic host. Which brings us to the quintessentially modern means by which the fascist spreads: mass propaganda, as enabled by modern communications media.

It's in its absolutely central reliance on mass propaganda that fascism proves its incestuously close relationship with democracy, for a weakened democratic body is the only kind fascism's cancer can grow in. (Not that there aren't truly awful regimes that were never in any sense democratic; my point is that they're simply not fascist.)

Our long brainwashing by electronic media advertising has in many ways been our grade school for graduation to fascism, and it's especially sobering to realize that Goebbels learned much of his satanic bag of tricks from American advertisers.

Quite simply, it's too potentially dangerous--and too disreputably messy--to control large modern populations (especially ones that believe in democracy) by force, so mind control through mass propaganda (and its Siamese twin, censorship) has become the preferred modern means of tyranny.

So, based on my careful analysis, U.S. citizens presently live under a dangerous form of fascism, but not yet under totalitarianism. Let's use the precious freedoms still remaining to us to assure we don't get there, that our leaders don't continue to overreach. We must, for example, drastically cut back on government spying, and we must protect the precious right of all citizens to vote. But for now, we must above all stop Obama from approving the XL pipeline, for its construction will require a savage crackdown on civil disobedience from which our Constitutional freedoms may never recover.

It's a very good essay, well worth a read in full. Exactly what those individuals who agree with Mr Walker's view can do isn't set out though. It sounds, kind of, do-able to "assure that... our leaders don't continue to overreach. We must, for example, drastically cut back on government spying, and we must protect the precious right of all citizens to vote. But for now, we must above all stop Obama from approving the XL pipeline...."

I hope that there will be an essay to follow, with information on exactly how these things are still within reach of "we", the ordinary people in the USA.

We've been over similar ground before on this blog, last June: -
New Fashion Fascism. I guess it does no harm to keep it at the forefront of our minds.

New Fashion Fascism?

Very little in the news is uplifting these days, the best at present is that Edward Snowden has not yet been arrested and was reported yesterday to be en route to a country where he could be granted political asylum. We'll discover exactly where he's headed soon enough, but where are we, as a country, headed? Although, as has been acknowledged before here in posts and comments, blanket surveillance of the population of the USA and elsewhere by our government didn't come as an absolute surprise; recent re-revelations have opened up valuable new conversations on the topic and have kick-started more writings on "where we'll be headed" if nothing changes.

Is there a "new fascism" either already in place or on the rise here in the USA? Our view of what fascism means is coloured by what we know of history, comparatively recent history from the 1930s onward. I've seen, from time to time around the net lists of "symptoms" of fascism - many are easily identifiable in today's USA, but I'm certainly not qualified to make a confident diagnosis. As in physical disease, certain symptoms can mask other problems, or the same set of symptoms combined in different proportions might be evidence of some other, still serious, ailment.

A good, reliable, starting point to understanding what's what is investigative journalist John Pilger's article: There's a New Fascism on the Rise, and the NSA Leaks Show Us What It Looks Like: The power of truth-tellers like Edward Snowden is that they dispel a whole mythology carefully constructed by the corporate cinema, the corporate academy and the corporate media.

Snowden’s revelation that Washington has used Google, Facebook, Apple and other giants of consumer technology to spy on almost everyone, is further evidence of modern form of fascism – that is the "abyss". Having nurtured old-fashioned fascists around the world – from Latin America to Africa and Indonesia – the genie has risen at home. Understanding this is as important as understanding the criminal abuse of technology.

I liked this comment from the long thread beneath Pilger's excellent piece - it's from William W. Haywood:

The US form of fascism does not look exactly like any thing we have seen so far, and why should it? There has never been a nation like the US. There is no exact form of fascism, either! Fascism is based on taking control of a nation's economy like an aids virus compromises an immune system. The fascists mutate into a form we don't readily recognize to get their work done. It doesn't attack from the outside but learns how to unlock the defenses of our democratic system using the power of wealth. This is what you see when a fascist form of government has taken control: first, it starts to prey on the citizens and institutions that once kept it democratic, and then it reverts to a full blown disease that destroys its host. This is the phase we are entering now.

An offshoot - and a dangerous one - is brought to our attention by a article from "Digby"

This Really is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed

SNIP: Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.....................President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.
The program could make it easier for the government to stifle the flow of unclassified and potentially vital information to the public, while creating toxic work environments poisoned by unfounded suspicions and spurious investigations of loyal Americans, according to these current and former officials and experts. Some non-intelligence agencies already are urging employees to watch their co-workers for “indicators” that include stress, divorce and financial problems.

And, from Bernie Sanders:



I found, among my drafts a list a commenter at Common Dreams, some months ago, provided on a topic touching on fascism in the USA - this is a list of "symptoms" by commenter "Jimbo.  "Jimbo"   set out to illustrate to readers that in the USA we are on the edge of a precipice, likely at any time to fall into a 21st century version of a fascist nation, albeit fascist with a pretty bow on top, a smartphone, i-pad, and a large-screen TV attached - initially. The commenter presented a list of evidential facts to support the premise. (I'm confident that the author of the comment would not object to my spreading the word, blanket permission was given another individual to do so.)

The List (slightly condensed here, for brevity's sake)

Some of the achievements during Obama's "Lesser Evilism Reign of Terror Traveling Road Show." The list is not exhaustive and covers only recent history:

Obama and the Democrats' Fascist Maneuverings:

Executive Order to create a Cat Food Commission stacked with anti-Social Security / Social Program corporatists.

White House opposed bringing back Glass Steagall.

WARS fully funded and EXPANDING- see AFRICOM.

Trillion dollars given to friends and campaign contributors on Wall Street.

Military Spending INCREASED.

Trillion+Dollars given to the Health Insurance Industry.

Killed possibility for a REAL “Public Option” or REAL Universal Health Care for at least another generation, and begin the “Entitlement Reform” defunding of Medicare (-$500 Billion).

Blocked ANY re-regulation of BIG BANKS and Credit Cards.

Protected the Bush War Criminals and Torturers from JUSTICE.

Expanded Drone Assasinations.

Reinforced the worst Police State provisions of the Patriot Act.

Expanded government surveillance.

EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) killed in the crib

Free Trade Job Off-shoring.

Supports De-regulation (see: Clinton & Death of Glass-Steagal)

NDAA / Expansion of Government Power.

Bernanke, Geithner. Holder.

Monsanto @ FDA.

Linking Social Security to the Deficit via the Payroll Tax “Holiday”

Crackdown on Occupy movement via Homeland Security.

Whistleblowers, a-la Bradley Manning & WikiLeaks attacked

Shielded BP for its Gulf Disaster

Pushed through the Trans Pacific Partnership

Expanded Military Involvement in Africa

Education plan boosts privatization, victimizes teachers

Put Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations.

Indefinitely imprisons detainees without charges

Promotes the Militarization of Mexico

Supports the Permanent War Budget

20,000 Airstrikes in President Obama's First Term Cause Death and Destruction From Iraq to Somalia.

Signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial.

Initiated, and personally oversees a 'Secret Kill List'.

Waged war on Libya without congressional approval.

Started a covert, drone war in Yemen.

Escalated the proxy war in Somalia.

Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan.

Maintained a presence in Iraq even after "ending" the war.

Sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan.

Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries.

Sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia.

Signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia.

Opened a military base in Chile.

Signed the Patriot Act extension into law.

Deported a modern-record 1.5 million immigrants.

Continued Bush's rendition program.

Sent U.S. troops to Niger to set up drone base

Warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, Indefinite detention
without charge or trial, Targeted killings of suspects by drone,
without any pretense of due process (even if they are US citizens).
These are not opinions these are ordinary facts- if it smells like fascism.............


From elsewhere a down-to-earth view of our plight and the difficulties we face in addressing it, by commenter "Nevada Liberal" (I've stupidly lost the source)

You would have to elect 218 Alan Graysons to the House. 60 Bernie Sanders' to the Senate. And Elect Dennis Kucinich as President in order to stop this thing you profess not to like. Off the top, 50% of the Nation would vehemently disagree with me. And, even if you could do that, it would still take you.....????.....10 - 20 years to turn the Supreme Court to that ideology, if you could maintain power that long???? You starting to kinda sorta get a feel for where we are at folks. Until then, keep calm and carry on.
(Nevada Liberal)

OR....if an opportunity should arise the more pro-active route would be
:

If fascism is indeed the disease we face, it will prove to be terminal to our way of life. Whereas socialism and capitalism might prove, with much sincere and determined effort from both sides, to become workable bedfellows in government, that other "ism" - fascism - is good for nothing and nobody in any civilised and humane society.

Of Fishes, Fascists and Forbidden Fotos.

You know that little "fishy" symbol commonly seen on cars and trucks in this part of the USA? It's carried, I think, as a symbol relating to Jesus Christ. In fact its proper title is vesica piscis/pisces (being translated that means fish bladder). It's a formation found in sacred geometry. There's a very good write-up by Dr. Dan Sewell Ward at his website Library of Halexandria.




Also, Charles Gilchrist, mandala artist, explains with illustration:





And an enterprising You-Tuber has created a video attempting to link the shape of vesica piscis/pisces to parts of the human body (eye, ear, mouth, vagina.....). Whether this is valid linkage, bearing in mind the sign's esoteric meanings other than as a Christian symbol, I'm not certain, here's a link - see what you think:






Does anything in this brief extract ring any bells? There are similarities around in the USA these days. (If nothing rings bells for you see HERE.) The excerpt comes from They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer, a book published in 1955 about ordinary Germans during the period 1933-1945. These words from the chapter headed
But Then It Was Too Late. See Info Clearinghouse HERE.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it. This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."

Earlier this week I read about a guy who was thrown off a United Airways flight (before take-off I hasten to add) for taking a photograph of a seat. It seems that since 9/11 flight attendants on United Airways (one of their planes was part of the tragedy, remember) have certain instructions to be ultra-watchful and aware of potential dangers. On this occasion things went a wee bit too far. The guy involved is a blogger who specialises in travel articles, and he's a frequent flyer with UA. Impressed by the new aircraft he found himself on, and just before take-off, he was taking a photograph of the back of seat in front of him (showing embedded TV screen), using his phone. The flight attendant noticed and told him to stop, as it is against regulations to photograph the inside of a plane. He tried to explain that he's a professional travel blogger, handed her his business card. Unfortunately, in his explanation he stated, "I'm not a terrorist". YIKES! That t-word can no longer be uttered on a plane, or in an airport. Upshot: Captain was called. He, naturally, sided with his crew member. Passenger was sent off and re-booked on a non-through flight to his destination (a 3 legged journey instead of the straight-through flight). That does seem like a daft outcome - if they suspected him of terrorism, even slightly! Anyway, here's a link to full detail of the story; lots of comments follow the article.

***************************

Forbidden photograph-taking brought to mind one of our experiences; 2005 it was, when in Oklahoma City we were taken to task for taking a photograph of our double-reflection in a rather peculiarly positioned window.
Said photo is at at one of my husband's Flickr pages.
Caption:

Reflections in a forbidden building. As we were standing there doing this shot of our double reflection, a security guard came out of the building and told us to move along, that taking pictures of the building was not permitted since the bombing. The guard was referring to the tragedy at the Murrah Building which stood a few blocks away...a few years ago...

Comments follow, indicating that we were, in truth, breaking no regulation......As if!!

"History is a vast early warning system"

I try hard not to fall for conspiracy theories. Series of events which lend themselves to be woven into such theories are fairly common. Like an optical illusion picture which looks like one thing viewed one way, a squinting of the eye brings something else entirely into view. Sometimes though, a series of events, conversations or coincidental reading of something quite unrelated to the original topic, link up and one thinks...."HUH?....Hmmm!" Synchronicity - or something.

This happened to me a few days ago. Following the debt ceiling debacle in Washington DC, reading some comments on an article at at Common Dreams, I came across this from commenter "Diana" (I've added dates):

The SuperCongress is the most frightening act of governance I've heard about in my lifetime, the final phase of the coup (coup d'etat.)
Phase I could be any number of timepoints, but starting with contemporary politics, I'd say it is:

Phase I = the Supremes giving the presidency to Bush (2000)

Phase II = 9/11 (2001)

Phase III = Neoliberals/corportists install the perfect trojan horse obama into office (2008)

Phase IV = Citizens' United (2010)

Phase Out = SuperCongress (2011)

I responded:
"Diana ~ The Super Congress is the thing that started loud alarm bells ringing for me too. I hadn't yet linked it to the progression you suggest, but it all fits; and one doesn't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see it."
(This "super congress" was mentioned in Wednesday 3 August's post.)

A little later, while looking for something quite unrelated, among entries on a page of quotes, I saw this:

"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. ...Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . . .Each act. . . (was) worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.” -- Excerpted From Milton Mayer’s book, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)

I felt a cold shiver. I haven't read that book, a study of the lives of a group of ordinary Germans under the Third Reich, but intend to seek it out.

Deciding to investigate any astrological similarities between Germany in the years around 1933 and USA in the 21st century, Google led me to an archived post (Feb. 2011) of fellow astrology blogger Jude Cowell at Stars Over Washington Jude has set out the situation better than I ever could:
I'll copy a few lines here, but a reading of the post in full is necessary to get the whole astro picture:

The spiritual emphasis of the events and social conditions of 1933 resonate with those of 2011 through the sharing of a generational Uranus/Pluto square (to be discussed more fully below) and which undergirds the upheavals and protests now occurring throughout the world, and made easier to organize with the tech aid of Twitter and FaceBook.............................................................

As a message to us in 2011, 1933's Uranus to Neptune (in Aries, sign of uprisings, riots, strikes, protests, and pioneers - tr Uranus approaches the Aries Point as I type) transit typifies an era when a spiritually-inspired aspiration to fulfill high ideals is needed by the people, yet the freedom to express social, political, religious, artistic, musical, divine, and/or other ideals is suppressed, potentially disappearing altogether.

Neptunian circumstances of loss and grief were a long time coming (then as now) as traditions and bonds of family, church, communal sense/commonwealth, marriage, partnership, etc, were slowly eroded making them easier to topple (then as now; Hitler's desire to establish a worldwide 'new world order' shows him as the military arm of a long-standing movement toward global fascism and one-world-government - as you have noticed, they're baa-a-a-ack... - never having really gone away.)

I'm not sure how to wrap this up, except to finish, as I started, with the heading:

History is a vast early warning system.
~Norman Cousins

ASTRO-FASCISM ???

It's weird how Google sometimes manages to lure a person who is looking for a specific fact into something fascinatingly related, yet not exactly what one was seeking.

In trying to find the birth date of Bertram M. Gross, author of Friendly Fascism, the New Face of Power in America (1980), didn't find what I searched for but stumbled into Dennis Dutton's 1995 review of a book The Stars Down to Earth, and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture, by Theodor W. Adorno.

Now....don't laugh....Adorno wrote that astrology is akin to fascism!
Some paragraphs extracted from the review are below. It does us no harm at all to read such views from time to time - if only to consider our motives and check that our integrity remains intact.....or anyway, if only to laugh at an arrogant self important writer who verges on fascisistic tendencies himself....the reviewer isn't too friendly either.

To be sure, there are many intriguing observations throughout this mostly readable essay. In a passage perhaps even more true today than when it was written, Adorno says that a “climate of semi-erudition is the fertile breeding ground for astrology.” He refers to people who have gone just beyond the naive acceptance of the authority of science, but who don’t know enough, or who have not sufficiently developed “the power of thinking,” that they can replace such acceptance with anything better: “The semi-erudite vaguely wants to understand and is also driven by the narcissistic wish to prove superior to the plain people but he is not in a position to carry through complicated and detached intellectual operations.” In other words, quantum mechanics is pretty tough, but astrology offers sophisticated understanding of all reality in a few easy steps. Besides, astronomy is about those remote stars and planets out there — rather cold and impersonal. In Adorno’s apt title phrase, astrology brings it all down to earth, because it’s about the single most important thing in the universe: me.

In an analogy that isn’t too far-fetched, he says that to the semi-erudite individual “astrology, just as other irrational creeds like racism, provides a short-cut by bringing the complex to a handy formula and offering at the same time the pleasant gratification that he who feels excluded from educational privileges nevertheless belongs to the minority of those who are ‘in the know’.” Someone once remarked that Scientology boosts self-esteem largely by giving semi-educated, degreeless persons impressive certificates to hang on their walls, and Adorno is right that there’s a similar syndrome at work with most New Age esoterica, including astrology. (In literary theory, there are no certificates, of course — you just have to learn the jargon.)

Hey - I object to being called semi-erudite Adorno, unless you accept that you can be described as semi-bigoted.

Here's the kicker: (And I do not repeat NOT have a dependent mind! That accessory is reserved for skeptics - dependent upon their own addictive skepticism - their only route to a feeling of superiority).

It is not only capitalism that is embodied in astrology as part of the culture industry, but fascism as well: the “astrological ideology resembles, in all its major characteristics, the mentality of the ‘high scorers’ of the Authoritarian Personality’.” In fact, Adorno says, it was this realization that induced him to begin the study of Righter in the first place. (Refers to an American astrologer: Caroll Righter) The sucker for astrology is a dependent mind. “Moreover, by strengthening the sense of fatality, dependence, and obedience, [astrology] paralyses the will to change objective conditions in any respect and relegates all worries to a private plane promising a cure-all by the very same compliance which prevents a change of conditions. It can easily be seen how well this suits the overall purpose of the prevailing ideology of today’s cultural industry; to reproduce the status quo within the mind of the people.”

So for Adorno it all ties together, rather too neatly, in my opinion: late capitalism, irrationalism, and weak, dependent, fascism-prone personalities in need of the authority of astrology — and all these factors lying at the very heart of so-called enlightened modernity.

Adorno is at pains to deny that the appeal of astrology is basically mystical. It’s not that it supplies a new sort of religion but that it makes the alienated individual more at home in the world of consumerism and the “drabness of a commodity society.” In this respect more than in any other, “astrology resembles . . . other mass media such as movies: its messages appear to be something metaphysically meaningful, something where the spontaneity of life is being restored while actually reflecting the very same reified conditions which seem to be dispensed with through an appeal to the ‘absolute’.” In the division of labor of the culture industry, astrology has, to use a cliché Adorno avoids, its special job in the general provision of opium for the masses.

Last sentence of the review, and as fair a summing up as one could expect from this reviewer:

If Adorno doesn’t like something, no matter how inane or innocuous, it isn’t long before he begins to detect in it the seeds of fascism. The Stars Down to Earth seems now and again almost as obsessive as the astrology it analyzes.

Fascists, opium providers ?...."It takes one to know one" - as my old Gran used to say.