Mass Media – massage or message – Astroinform with Marjorie Orr

‘The medium is the message’ or ‘massage’ as Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the father of media studies, used to joke.  While the internet and before that television is blamed for negative social trends, there have often been periods of less than desirable effects from earlier mass communication, which has been around since the invention of the printing press in the mid 15th Century.

‘Sensationalism’ was the order of the day when Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World in 1883 and told his editors to use crusades against corruption, and lavish use of illustrations to boost readership. William Randolph Hearst retaliated with his rival New York Journal in 1895 resulting in an intense circulation war amongst the ’yellow press’.

John Logie Baird’s first television in 1926 took till after WW11 to become accessible to the public bringing drama and news into sitting rooms. Another phase started in the mid 1990s with the advent of cable and rolling 24 hour news. The 1990s also saw the worldwideweb kick off in 1991.

The 1990s saw the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn – and the combination of those two planets does seem to be a thread in the evolution of mass communication.  There was a Uranus Neptune conjunction in 1650 around the time newspapers started to appear. One conjunction before in 1478 printing presses were underway producing books and pamphlets. There was another conjunction in 1821 when the Manchester Guardian was founded. Marshall McLuhan was born with the Uranus opposition Neptune. The first public television demonstration by John Logie Baird on January 26, 1926 had a yod of Uranus sextile Mercury and South Node inconjunct Neptune.

The ‘yellow press’ wars of the 1890s seems to have been more a Neptune Pluto in Gemini outcome.

Uranus Neptune combines inventiveness and fantasy, insight and delusion. It can be creative, tinged with genius or off-the-wall. At a negative end it is associated with psychic confusion and neurosis, can be wilful and nervy, prone to intrigues and conspiracies, extremism, unreasonable attitudes even when faced with evidence to the contrary, scandal-prone.

William Randolph Hearst Sr, April 29, 1863 5.58am San Francisco, who developed America’s largest newspaper chain and media company. ‘His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism in violation of ethics and standards influenced the nation’s popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human-interest stories.’ He was a controlling Sun Pluto in Taurus in his 12^th with an emphasized Neptune opposition Saturn in a publicity-attracting square to Mars.

His Uranus/Neptune midpoint intriguingly was conjunct his 12^th house Pluto – and that is exactly the same as Trump with his Uranus/Neptune midpoint conjunct his 12^th house Pluto.  Pluto in the 12^th gives inner power as well as an inner raging storm, a tendency to wield power in secretive/devious ways – and all channelled into their Uranus Neptune tendencies.

Marshall McLuhan, 21 July 1911 Edmonton, Canada, was a Sun Neptune in Cancer opposition Uranus so tuned into the trends of the moment.

What follows is a psychological ramble. What strikes me as odd, and I am unsure whether it is a modern phenomenon, probably not, is the inability of people to manage complex thinking.  In very early baby psychological development (go read Melanie Klein) people are split into good and bad. Along the way of maturity, the penny drops that mom or dad are not perfect and have flaws, i.e. contain both good and bad, which causes temporary depression but later produces a realistic mindset.

Political polarization makes life easier – I  like the GOP or the Democrats and everything they do and will treat with hostility the smallest criticism of them.   There is a hint of Pluto in the do-or-die desperation to block out the alternative view. As if admitting a flaw in the politician of your choice would —– what? Dent your over-idealized image? Or give hostages to fortune and hand ammunition to your enemies?

It is in part what Rahm Emmanuel referred to when he said the Democrats had been talking to themselves and not listening to the electorate.

For example: The Joe Biden camp (and centrist/left wing media) were wrong not to admit his mental deterioration much earlier. His subsequent anointment of Kamala Harris, whom no one thought much of before, was an act of petty spite. Trump is a deranged narcissist who will do damage but he has earned the startled respect of women alarmed by the inroads the trans-mania was making into their safety and status. Is it so hard?

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.” Winston S. Churchill. And equally even the brightest make mistakes.