The Stars in Our Phones
The Return of Astrology for a Hyperconnected Age
“I despise nothing, except judicial astrology,” wrote G. W. Leibniz, establishing himself as something like the Will Rogers of metaphysics. His statement has been, for some of us here at The Hinternet who were shaped mostly in the 20th century, a fairly good rule of thumb as to the limits of our own liberality of spirit. But those on our Masthead whose clay was still wet when social media came along are, we find, prepared even to dispense with that Leibnizian exception, to just go ahead and download those horoscope apps and see what they have to tell us about ourselves. The smarter young people, among whom we must of course count our own Managing Editor, Olivia Ward-Jackson, are however concerned not only with the manifest content of what the apps tell us, but also with the significance of their prognostications for our current cultural-technological conjuncture. Why has astrology come back with such a vengeance in the age of the smartphone? How is it different now than when Theodor Adorno bemoaned its enduring presence, in the Los Angeles Times of the 1950s, as a clear sign of the grip reactionary forces continued to have on capitalist media? Is it “fun”, or is it “fascism”, this time around? Let’s hear from Olivia. —The Hinternet
The sporadic disappearance of Saturn’s frosted rings has long been a source of unease. When the planet’s “ears” disappeared in 1612, a dismayed Galileo Galilei asked a fellow astronomer: “Has Saturn devoured his own sons?” When the same shady trick is played later this year, Generation Z could well grow even more unhinged. Astrology is back in favour among the youth, and only a fool would ignore such a celestial omen.
We have plain evidence that at least since deep antiquity, humanity has looked for answers in the night sky. At the dawn of the modern period, Galileo himself was still dabbling in horoscopy. More recently, Charles de Gaulle, François Mitterrand, and Ronald Reagan have all sought the wisdom of astrologers. Reagan even did so before his disarmament negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev.
Yet astrology has not been this red-hot since the early days of the scientific revolution, fuelled by a wealth of AI-based horoscope apps. If we’re to believe the soothsayers at Allied Market Research, spending on astrology-related products and services will reach $22.8 billion by 2031 — nearly double the 2021 rate. What is going on?