Observe and Report

I started doing astrology for customers in March, and let me tell ya, if you think astrology is cool and interesting as tweeting material, you should check out actually doing it.

I did not go in skeptical, but I wasn’t expecting it to work like THIS.

When I started, I was like, “oh haha if it’s less than 51% accurate you should just flip a coin instead of paying me haha,” but then I did it for three months, and my accuracy is nearly 80%, and it’s the dicey ones that resolve first.

It has gotten to the point where I am confident enough to tell people in person in polite company that I’m a practicing astrologer and confront their skepticism head on. They often come off looking like an asshole because they’re unable to meet me in a substantive conversation.

It’s not unlike talking to biblical literalists. Some people just do not have the flexibility to incorporate people who experience reality differently from them into their world.

That doesn’t bode well for their ability to experience the world differently themselves. But to me, that defensive posture is tantamount to death. What is the point of living like that?

It’s a lot like that mindset of just living for the afterlife, which is the gravest sin from a Jewish POV.

It’s weird how “materialism” is actually the deadest form of idealism there is. It’s living in the idea of a dead, unresponsive world.

You know, one of the unfortunate realities of posting online is that it’s hard to have a coherent presence without a bad guy to focus on. I give rationalists a hard time because they’re, you know, around. But that’s not really the problem. Thinking style feels like it’s grounded in something more immutable in a person. Just how they work. Should be embraced.

The real problem is ideology. That’s what materialism is.

Materialism is the same as any other form of objectification. It gives one an emotional distance from the object, severing the critical human link that gives rise to moral feeling, sympathy.

If you cannot extend subjectivity to something, you will eventually try to kill it.

Think about it however you need to. That doesn’t need to lead to conclusive beliefs.

The world is alive and changing. See for yourself. Drawing conclusions about The Inconclusive is the mark of a fool.

All you can do is observe and report.