Adjustment and Individuality
The nucleus of the bi-phasic approach is the maintenance of the division of work and pleasure subjecting the latter to the former's rule. However, the bi-phasic compulsion seems to expand over many other areas analogous to bureaucratic setups that have, as was pointed out by Max Weber, an inherent tendency to expand. This pertains particularly to the problem of adjustment to which the handling of pleasure by the column leads. While the relation between the individual and his environment is in continuous interaction with the conflict between pleasure and duty, the antagonism between the individual and the universal cannot be altogether reduced to instinctual dynamics but pertains also to the objective sociological dimension. The bi-phasic is applied to this dimension as well as to psychology in a typical pattern of advice. At times, the readers are encouraged to be strong, rugged individuals, at other times, to adjust themselves, not to be stubborn, but rather to comply with requirements from outside. The classical liberal ideas of unlimited individual activity, freedom, and ruggedness are incompatible with the present developmental phase in which the individual is more and more required to obey strict organizational demands made by society. The same person can hardly be expected to be thoroughly adjusted and strongly individualistic at the same time. Yet, the individualistic ideology is maintained the more strongly, the less adequate it becomes to actual conditions. The conflicts thus induced must be taken care of by the column. It takes the individual apart as it were, into adaptive and autonomous components, thus implicitly endorsing the actual impossibility of the much-praised »integration.«
However, in order to get the right perspective, the underlying contradiction should not be oversimplified. In fact, the two requirements not only contradict each other, but are continuously intertwined. Thus, even today success is contingent upon individual qualities which, though utterly different from the old ones, are by no means unequivocally defined by the often stressed ego weakness24 only, but require at the same time considerable strength, namely the capacity of sacrificing oneself, as it were, for the sake of maintaining oneself. Adjustment calls for individuality. Conversely, individual qualities themselves are a priori measured today in terms of potential success. Thus it is taken for granted that an »original idea« is something that will »sell« and prove itself on the market.
In fact the psychological situation is rather paradoxical. He who wants to adjust himself to a competitive pattern of society or to its more hierarchical successor has to pursue his own particularistic individual interests rather ruthlessly in order to find recognition – he has, so to speak, to adjust through non-adjustment, through unwavering emphasis on his limited self-interests and their concomitant psychological limitations. Conversely the development of spontaneous individuality implies by necessity some degree of adjustment. Henri Bergson has pointed out in his Laughter, that the psychological calcifications which make an individual comical in an esthetic sense indicate some failure in his maturity and are bound up with his incapacity to cope with changing social situations, going as far as stating that, in a way, the concept of »character« denoting a rigidified personality pattern impervious to life experience is comical per se. Thus, the emphasis on individuality in abstracto, its severance from contacts with the outside world results in a way in its maladjustment. It induces compulsive behavior which we are tempted usually to attribute only to the opposite, to the pressure of an alienated and conventionalized reality. It is therefore dangerous, though easily understandable, in a social setup in which a fetish is made of the concept of adjustment to isolate the concepts of individuality and adjustment and to play up undialectically one against the other. It is this complex structure which provides the column with the opportunity to somehow find a common denominator for the contradictory requirements of being a personality and being, as it is called euphemistically, »cooperative.« The fact that one of the contradictory requirements often fulfills the other unwittingly is skillfully exploited.
The encouragement of direct adjustment to outside forces often takes the form of glorifying, to use once again the terminology of popular psychology, the extrovert at the expense of the introvert.25 It often seems that the column really does not expect an integration of social norms with the personality but rather wants the addressees to obey requirements from outside to the extent to which it has to be done while at the same time being led to fall back ruthlessly on a kind of anarchic ruggedness as soon as they can get away with it – the configuration of rigid obedience and lack of true introjection of norms being itself a symptom of something wrong underneath. People are continuously reminded that they should not brood, but should seize their opportunity when it is time to act, that they should be »pleasant« to others, avoid quarreling and be »sensible.«
... be very considerate at home where tension mounts if you display nervousness ...
(November 19, 1952, Taurus)
... control desire to let fly with choice sarcastic comments.
(November 21, 1952, Capricorn)
Replace mulling over troubles by new interests.
(December 9, 1952, Pisces)
Temptation to bawl out co-workers should be sternly repressed.
(December 9, 1952, Cancer)
Be considerate of others. Work all questions out in cooperative fashion.
(December 13, 1952, Scorpio)
A.M. brings many problems into open to test your self-control ...
(November 30, 1952, Aries)
You really are explosive during morning without any apparent reason. It's just the planets testing your self-control. Keep calm.
(December 31, 1952, Cancer)
... be more social ...
(November 12, 1952, Virgo)
Get out of yourself; make every new association possible ...
(November 13, 1952, Aquarius)
Much pleasure is yours by keeping around happy, cheerful personalities.
(December 14, 1952, Cancer)
Much happiness is easily yours now if you accept invitations ...
(January 12, 1953, Leo)
Attach yourself to all about you who are vital, dynamic and able to advance you quickly ...
(January 13, 1953, Virgo)
... get out in the world; meet all those who can show you more modern ways ...
(January 20, 1953, Scorpio)
You are eager to get those plans into execution. Fine. Lose no time; contact all friends able to help; expand into new outlets in all directions.
(January 3, 1953, Sagittarius)
... contact all possible and forcefully state your own desired aims in a charming manner. Discuss the future with practical friends. Act!
(January 9, 1953, Pisces)
Action!
(January 18, 1953, Scorpio)
Most of these devices express an awareness of some difficulties on the part of the addressee. Thus precisely the kind of compulsive and isolated elderly women who must provide a good part of the astrological audience are often afraid of any new contact, if not of any contacts at all. The column somehow comes to their aid. »Psychotic characters,« in spite of their overrealistic defenses and success in isolating their delusions, are still continuously threatened by the loss of any relationship to reality and it is one of the aims of the column, inasmuch as it tries to »help,« to maintain this relationship on a superficial level. Similar experiences stand behind other advices on the same dimension. »Being pleasant« refers to the petty quarrels particularly characteristic of cranky women from the lower middle-classes, »not brooding« to the psychological habit of »ruminating« to be found in obsessive-compulsive persons. While the column strengthens their neurotic attitudes in certain directions, it tries to channelize them or to isolate them from their everyday functioning, to remove overt symptoms which might hinder the reader's efficiency.
One specific advice promoting »extroverted« adjustment is the attack on the »inflated ego.« Reckoning with the narcissistic26 sensitivities of the addressee, the columnist is careful not to blame him for such a deformity, but rather refers to threatening higher-ups and officials in such terms. However, it may safely be assumed that the underlying idea is to warn the addressee himself against having such unrealistic ideas about his own person.
You feel dynamic, determined to put your plans in effect at all costs. However, do so cleverly without alienating others with big ego who resent other's success.
(December 14, 1952, Scorpio)
An executive or a government official with an inflated ego is likely to put a monkey wrench in your plans ...
(January 29, 1953, Leo)
So far as the higher-ups are concerned, the device attempts by reference to the »inflated ego« to mitigate the unpleasant impact of hierachical relationships. It is the higher-up, not the little man, who somehow appears unbalanced. His show of strength is presented as a symptom of inherent weakness in order to make it easier for the inferior to obey by suggesting that he is actually the stronger. The trivial psychological insight that pretentiousness is frequently a mere reaction formation to the popular inferiority complex is utilized in order to make it easier for the addressee to cope with his own social dependence. The idolized extrovert does not overassert himself, but rather accepts what the world thinks of him as the ultimate yardstick for his evaluation. Defamation of the »inflated ego« is all-pervasive in popular psychological literature, including the works of the late Miss Horney.27 Feeding upon reminiscences of the old psychiatric concept of delusions of grandeur, this stereotype comes pretty close to the idea expressed in nicknames such as »Café Größenwahn«: that the introvert, the retiring person is unjustifiedly haughty and that his withdrawal from the triviality and brutality of everyday life is actually indicative of weakness only and of a distorted picture of reality. The grain of truth contained in such notions is abused for conformist purposes. The world is right; the outsider wrong. Thus, as well as by the closely related pattern of anti-intellectualism, general leveling is promoted. According to this ideology nobody really should believe in himself and his intrinsic qualities, but should prove his metal by functioning within a given setup as well as the others do.
According to the bi-phasic technique, however, at other times the readers are encouraged to be »individual.« But here something analogous to the treatment of pleasure can be observed, somehow leading to the suspicion that individuality itself is regarded as a kind of luxury which some people sometimes can afford and which has to be exalted as »a cultural good,« but which should never seriously interfere with the smooth running of the social machinery.
Looking more closely at the individual qualities advocated by the column, we will discover that it practically never refers to the mature, experienced character defined by power of resistance against external pressure, never to a specific and strongly developed ego. Rather the supposedly positive aspects of individuality are isolated traits severed from the ego development – in fact, just the opposite of the ego, namely irrational gifts with a dash of the magical. The difficulty of stressing individuality in persons whose ego is assumed to be weak is overcome by substituting individuality with rudimentary archaic qualities which may be regarded as the »possession« of the individual independent of his ego formation. Just in as much as such qualities have little to do with the ego and his rationality, they are treated as though they were »unique« and individualized in an absolute sense. When the column appeals to the addressee's individuality, it mentions almost invariably blessings such as »charm,« »personal magnetism.«
... keep cheerful, exuding magnetism.
(November 14, 1952, Aquarius)
... improving your outlets and personal charm, unusually effective ...
(November 12, 1952, Taurus)
... keep cheerful, exuding magnetism.
(November 14, 1952, Aquarius)
Your own personal charm enhanced by supplies available.
(November 13, 1952, Libra)
... improve personal charm ...
(November 17, 1952, Sagittarius)
... every ounce of your magnetic charm is more evident ...
(November 18, 1952, Leo)
... bring out your magnetic charm ...
(November 19, 1952, Aries)
... bring out your magnetic charm ...
(November 19, 1952, Aries)
Exude magnetism.
(November 21, 1952, Libra)
Exude charm.
(November 27, 1952, Aries)
or even their »own intuition«:
... flash inspiration of brilliance shows method for improving joint undertaking.
(November 10, 1952, Sagittarius)
Use that fine mind in A.M. to bring into expression more workable plans in all departments of your affairs.
(November 16, 1952, Virgo)
Then your intuitions give you correct answers during afternoon.
(November 16, 1952, Scorpio)
Get that clever mind of yours busy early mapping big day to advance by threshing out ...
(November 20, 1952, Scorpio)
– the emphasis on irrational intuitiveness set against rational thinking being extremely popular in a rationalized world.28 It seems that the individualistic categories here involved are treated as what has come to be known in economics as »natural monopolies.« Thus they are characteristically called »assets,« subject to the measuring rod of success, of practicality, just as pleasure has been treated as a subfunction of work. If the individual lives up to the expectations of the column, he develops, stresses and shows off these qualities which he shares with no one else because their »rarity« gives them a sales value. Being different, thus, is integrated into the pattern of universal sameness as an object of barter. Individuality itself is submerged in the process of transformation of ends into means. The reader is incessantly encouraged to impress others with his individuality by making use of those »assets« which seem to be so highly coveted that everybody is prepared to attribute them to himself if he is given a chance to do so.
Even this is not a wild and unrealistic construction on the part of the column, but reflects something that has been observed long ago. Aldous Huxley has described in one of his early novels a person who can switch his charm on and off at will. This seems to be by no means a unique experience. When people learn, in a competitive world, that certain manifestations, originally quite involuntary and irrational, such as a smile or a particular tone of voice, impress people in a favorable way, they actually learn to convert such expressive qualities into an »asset« and to display »that famous grin« at every befitting occasion.
While the advice to be practical coincides with the idea of being realistic and in many respects actually amounts to realism, the underlying irrational mechanisms of compulsion manifest themselves in certain traits of the fostered sense of the practical which are irrational themselves and give a picture of what might be called a lack of sense of proportion, sometimes indicative of serious psychological deformities. These deformities usually follow the all-pervasive pattern of substituting ends for means. What is dubbed practical, sometimes assumes the weight of an »überwertige Idee« (an idea that plays in a person's stream of consciousness a disproportionate role determined by psychological factors). Viewed from reality, actions and attitudes are heavily emphasized, the effect and importance of which is actually of an extremely limited scope.
Thus advice, innocuous but trite, of taking care of one's appearance plays a surprisingly large role in the column.
Also improve personal appearance ...
(November 12, 1952, Virgo)
Rather, get your personal appearance, health in better shape.
(December 12, 1952, Aquarius)
More charm to self, improvement to car, etc. possible by taking approved methods for »face-lifting« treatments.
(November 13, 1952, Gemini)
Your own day to take those beauty treatments, get haircuts, do whatever increases your personal charm and sense of well-being ...
(November 13, 1952, Libra)
... get personal appearance improved to bring out your magnetic charm.
... YOUR personal appearance must be impeccable ...
(November 22, 1952, Taurus)
Incessant stress suggests the exaltation of cleanliness and health to the level of ideals, a well-known trait of the anal syndrome. The psychotic symptom of paying extreme attention to the patient's own body which somehow seems to be alienated from »himself« is also pertinent. Cranks fall as easily for astrology as for health food movements, natural healing and similar panaceas. The sociological value of cleanliness is tied up with the cultural heritage of puritanism, a fusion of the ideal of sexual purity with that of a neat body – mens sana in corpore sano. At the back of this is the repression of the sense of smelling.
All these irrational propensities are championed by the column's pseudorational pattern of externalization. What matters is what one looks like and not what one is; the means-for-ends idea has done away with the last vestige of anything existing for its own sake.
Closely related is the frequent advice to »arrange property matters or discuss finances with the family.« They are above all indicators of the anal cathexis to tangible, fixed property, as it is represented to the addressee, mainly in the sphere of his private life since probably only a minority of the addressees own any business. But apart from these well-known psychological features some specific sociological considerations also enter the picture. The possibility of acquiring money and property, or even the chance of making a start for it, is much more limited for most people today than it was rightly or wrongly supposed to be during the hayday of classical liberalism. Yet the Horatio Alger myth is continuously upheld as one of the most important stimuli that induce people's efforts. Here again, the column looks for a way out. If one cannot gain property as of old, it is suggestively implied that by clever disposition of what one has, by planning and scheduling in a manner appealing anyway to compulsive persons, the same success may be achieved that is now denied to expansive business enterprise. Making charts, time tables, schedules, and similar formalistic ventures serve as substitutes for the actual money making. This is why the idea of budgeting, making plans, and similar symptoms of unrealistic realism are favored by the column. It is as though the imaginary vice-president, since he is no vice-president after all, should at least playfully fulfill the latter's function, a device which by the way is also sometimes supplied in business education where office boys have to act symbolically as executives for one day.
You have imagination, vision which you can reduce to exact expression – find out how others invest, increase income; then apply to your own responsibilities; pay bills.
(November 13, 1952, Prices)
Look to new methods to add to present income, lop off unnecessary expenses; getting in huddle with serious workers brings new aspect to your present obligations.
(November 18, 1952, Scorpio)
... devise new avenues for making money ...
(November 19, 1952, Scorpio)
... arrange improved methods for securing more income, happiness by cooperative measures.
(November 20, 1952, Gemini)
Work all angles that bring you added money, possessions, good things of life.
(November 22, 1952, Capricorn)
Yet the old concept of unbridled acquisitiveness is so deeply embedded in a business culture that it cannot be discarded or entirely repressed by spurious pseudo-activity though the columnist is well aware that it is no longer adequate to present day economy. Here the columnist finds a rather ingenious way out, falling back to astrology's otherwise concealed basis of superstition. There are quite a few hints of substantial material gains, but they are rarely if ever attributed to the reader's own work or to business profits, but almost always to highly improbable and irrational providential acts of fate.
Unexpected help from hidden source makes all property conditions easier to solve ...
(November 23, 1952, Aries)
Persons, messages, calls from distance bring element of good fortune toward securing determined wish ...
(November 26, 1952, Aries)
Noon finds unexpected support secretly given you.
(December 6, 1952, Virgo)
Unexpected benefits are probable but whatever you force through yourself will boomerang.
(January 20, 1953, Aries)
Through taking recourse to the simple technique of the fortune teller and discarding the column's usual reserve, the reader is assured that at some particular time pecuniary affluence will be heaped upon him if he is born under a particular sign of the day, or by using mysterious »friends« as the agents who bestow fabulous benefactions upon him. He is neither expected to believe that he could earn it nor to accept that he can never have it. Thus he is spoken to and given unreasonable promises like a child. Obviously the columnist figures out that the reader's wishes in this direction are so strong that he can get away with even such unreasonable promises on account of the momentary gratifications they provide though the reader knows in the depth of his heart that the promise will never be fulfilled. At this point the column profits from the same mentality which draws people to gambling, horse betting, and similar devices for making easy money. Propensity for irrational material gain seems to be contingent upon the shrinking chances of making big money as a pioneer or on a rational basis of calculation.
Sometimes the wild promises made by the column take the form of referring to the addressee's »fondest« hopes or »deepest« desires.
Discuss your fondest hopes with relatives.
(January 27, Taurus)
Such references are »blanks« which can and probably will be filled in by each adept of the column according to his specific emotional requirements. Just because his »fondest hopes« are concerned, he is temporarily prepared to accept the most improbable promises. What appears to be simply a linguistic mannerism of the column reveals itself in its over-all context as a very clever device to catch the addressee. It may also be that the rather abstract form »your fondest hopes« is one of the ways in which real, uncensored instinctual urges of the addressees are sanctioned by the columnist without the possibility of his being put on the spot and having to take the responsibility for anything he might have said.
While nursing hopes for considerable gains outside of the limitation of normal business processes, »a stroke of luck,« the column is not satisfied with entirely irrational promises. Sometimes the addressee is, though utterly cautiously and indirectly, encouraged not simply to rely on his luck, but, to borrow the phrase of Lessing's Riccaut de la Marlinière, to »corriger la fortune.« The form in which this idea crops up is the use of expressions such as »behind scenes activities« reference to which is often made in a positive sense.
Behind-scenes huddle with personal expert with finances shows way to increase your assets.
(November 17, 1952, Sagittarius)
A.M. finds need for secret huddle with member of family to eliminate present worry.
(November 19, 1952, Virgo)
... plan future secretly.
(November 21, 1952, Capricorn)
... make quiet arrangements ...
(November 21, 1952, Aquarius)
This is your day to manipulate matters cleverly behind the scenes to improve your happiness ...
(January 3, 1953, Leo)
Much behind-the-scenes discussion can show intelligent ways to increase your revenue.
Behind-scenes activity to devise a better system for performing irksome chores will bring more contentment at home as well.
(January 13, 1953, Aquarius)
Apart from the constant advice »to strike a bargain,« to »improve property« and »make schedules,« the columnist fosters the idea that the addressee can get ahead in the business hierarchy only by finagling himself, by use of personal connections and sly diplomacy rather than by strict working activities. This has some rather evil implications. Within the pattern of modern mass delusions, the idea of conspiracies is always present – an idea doubtlessly of a projective nature. Encouraging »behind-the-scenes« activities is an inconspicuous form of conjuring up such tendencies usually projected upon out-groups. Those who persistently blame others for indulging in conspiracies have a strong tendency to engage in plots themselves and this is taken up and reproduced in the column. In view of the somewhat risky character of this admonition, the bi-phasic approach here proves especially valuable to the column. The advice to finagle is countered – undone in the psychoanalytic sense – by interspersed reminders to be law-abiding and always to keep within the realm of the permissible, an advice that chimes in with the column's outward attitude of over-all conventionality and conformity.
Strict adherence to the spirit as well as the letter of the law greatly please harassed higher-up ...
(November 14, 1952, Capricorn)
But morality too appears externalized: one has to account for one's actions to others, to wit, the higher-up, rather than to oneself. At the same time, the idea of accounting is not so much presented as a normal duty in business as it is pictured as a threat. The addressee is advised to behave in such a way that, when and if accounting comes, he will be spared by the thunderstorm with the undertone that by keeping his books either pedantically or cleverly things will blow over.
Use utmost care in handling funds involving others ...
(November 10, 1952, Gemini)
... see that every item of worldly affairs is exactly right so no criticism comes to you.
(November 17, 1952, Pisces)
Credit interests require more than usual care to prevent unintentional error that causes higher-up to look askance at your abilities; P.M. systematize joint concerns.
(November 18, 1952, Pisces)
... be sure you account exactly bank, tax, property obligations.
... arrange joint funds exactly.
(December 6, 1952, Taurus)
Your disinclination toward making present associations more lucrative necessitates careful approach to authority who would flare up unless exact picture is given.
(January 3, 1953, Pisces)
Take no chances with credit and career! When others demand accounting from you for present obligations, be grateful and give meticulous explanations.
(January 8, 1953, Capricorn)
An authority will demand an accounting if you take any chances.
(January 14, 1953, Capricorn)
The A.M. requires exactness in all matters connected with those in authority.
(January 15, 1953, Aries)
Your financial problems show need for more systematizing and wisdom in handling.
(January 21, 1953, Pisces)
While the column implicitly seems to agree to the very wide-spread, though unofficial ideology that everything is permitted as long as one is not caught, the periodical reminder to readers to remain within the limits of the law is also indicative of the fact that the columnist presupposes very strong inclinations for law-breaking and anarchy in his readers which are the reverse of that social integration and rigid conformity overtly upheld. Ever-present destructive urges are ready to smash the very same control mechanism by which they are engendered.
Carefully double check all your accounts, statements and joint obligations. That temptation to forsake duty for pleasure is not good.
(January 21, 1953, Gemini)
Use utmost care in handling funds involving others; postpone expensive pleasures until more propitious time; your security improves by finishing present obligations.
(November 10, 1952, Gemini)
One final irrational aspect of the idea of »being practical« emerging in the column may be mentioned. It is the idea that »your family background« will indicate to the addressee the right way.
Your inherited background gives answers for right attitude to assume toward higher-ups who question your ability, view point.
(November 23, 1952, Capricorn)
Inherited, family principles are to your advantage in A.M.
(December 7, 1952, Cancer)
Your family background provides answer to your deepest needs at moment.
(December 14, 1952, Libra)
Your background provides correct answer to A.M. preoccupations, glumness.
(December 21, 1952, Capricorn)
The solid principles of your background conflict with your desire for risky, adventurous pleasures; stick to your proven outlets.
(January 11, 1953, Scorpio)
In the A.M. your family background points the way to your advance in all directions.
(January 18, 1953, Aries)
Peace of mind today is attained through attention to practical problems and proven principles from your family background.
(January 25, 1953, Virgo)
This idea again is close to others being dealt with in this study, such as the treatment of personal qualities as natural monopolies or the bi-phasic idea of being modern and being conservative, the family background, of course, belonging to the conservative side.
But above all, this device is another attempt to cope with the threatening disappearance of free competitive activity. The notion of those who »belong« plays an increasing role sociologically linked to »closed societies« and particularly observable in totalitarian countries. Conjuring up the »family background« may possibly be an appeal to those who, being native, white, gentile Americans and whose families have lived in the States a long time may fancy themselves as the »right people« and expect certain privileges. The »family background« is supposed to function as reassuring narcissistically and also realistically in as far as people with such a background might be admitted more easily to influential positions. Behind the family background lurks the idea of numerus clausus. But the range of the device is by no means limited to the happy few, but the majority is treated as a privileged group in order to counteract feelings of atomization and personal insecurity as part of the technique of modern mass manipulation pointed out by Karl Mannheim in his book Man and Society.
In the column of December 21, those born under the sign of Capricorn are reassured that their background provides »correct answer to preoccupations, glumness.« On the surface this means that they can draw on their traditions in order to solve their problems – certainly not a very convincing promise. The real psychological message is rather »Think about the marvelous family you come from and you will feel elated and superior to those on whom you depend and who might have annoyed you.« It may be mentioned that a highly prejudiced subject studied in The Authoritarian Personality29 remarked: »All my friends are from marvelous families.«
Imaginativeness is often referred to. Here, however, something shows up that is indicative of subtle psychological changes reflecting rather drastic social ones. The old idea that money can only be made through originality and new ideas and that success on the market depends not only on meeting demands by offers, but in either creating new demands or in offering something better and cheaper than what is at the moment available, is still maintained. But the column must acknowledge that the opportunity for the implementation of innovations and original ideas is extremely limited today for most persons. Thus, again cleverly relying on compulsive patterns, the emphasis on imaginativeness is presented mostly in terms of business administration and business organization. While, of course, the opportunity for really essential changes on these levels is also severely restricted, they still seem to be more in line with the over-all organization of professional life within which people find themselves caught than the idea of an inventiveness which presupposes a much more individualistic setup. Thus, the addressees are encouraged to make changes within the given organizatory framework, by necessity more or less routine provisions, which we may assume fall within the very narrow range of their influence or their knowledge and which have presumably little influence upon the real course of events. The concept of originality seems to have shrunk to the ideal of each person's becoming an efficiency expert in his own circumscribed realm.
... you can replace by adopting unthought, untried new plan. Be open-minded.
(November 10, 1952, Scorpio)
You have imagination, vision which you can reduce to exact expression – find out how others invest, increase income; then apply to your own responsibilities; pay bills.
(November 13, 1952, Pisces)
... your creative ideas are fine, attend to investments, too.
(November 15, 1952, Gemini)
Creative expressions unusually appealing so use your sense of neat touch, the artistic, to attain more success.
(November 22, 1952, Libra)
Modifications such as that of the concept of originality, indicate that the worldly wisdom that steers the column is by no means limited to popular psychology, but includes also economics as might be expected of an approach dedicated to the very sphere where psychological and rational motivations are fused. Some of the »spread out« contradictory advice testifies to economic problems of old standing. Here belongs above all, the alternative advice to be »modern« and to be »conservative« related to, but not identical with the dimension of being »imaginative« and being »sensible.« Again both terms are introduced mostly with reference to business methods, techniques and improvements. Again individuality is involved. Only he who thinks by himself and offers something new is supposed to make good. On the other hand, it is traditionally accepted that those who have dared to make innovations but had only limited financial resources run the risk of being wiped out by financially stronger interests even if they think of some real novelty: the image of the starving inventor is well-known. Under present conditions the slogan »be modern« is apt to deteriorate into a mere sham. Real technological advancement is left to technological experts frequently far removed from the business setup whereas he who wants to make headway in a large scale business organization has generally to be »conservative« not so much perhaps, nowadays, for fear of bankruptcy, but for fear that as an employee one would appear as a crank, transgressing the place in the hierarchy if he continuously made or advocated innovations. While the column attempts to solve this impasse by simply demanding that the reader sometimes be »conservative,« sometimes »modern,« the real difficulty is dodged. Both advices which have their full meaning in the sphere of production only are transferred to the sphere of consumption which still gives the individual at least the illusion of a certain freedom of choice between what is advertized as excitingly modern and as cozily and quaintly old-fashioned. Even more often the term conservative is used in the loose meaning of pursuing a »conservative« financial policy, i.e., carefully avoiding unneccessary spending: frequently high-sounding statements of the column amount in practice to the recommendation of thriftiness. When the column advises the reader to be modern it seems almost imperative that he should buy modern equipment particularly for his home – an advice affiliated with gadgeteering. When he is advised to be conservative, it means that he should keep his expenditures under control. The relegation of the change between the modern and the conservative to the sphere of consumption, however, points itself to a somewhat self-contradictory situation. While the present huge offer of goods calls for modern minded people prepared to buy any novelty, the buyer's mentality thus built up destroys reserves, threatens those to whom buying becomes a compulsion and is often presented as though it would potentially endanger the whole economic structure by undermining buying capacity itself. In order to make it right, as a real conformist, to everyone, the column has to promote sales and sales resistance, an ungrateful task to be mastered only by again spreading the advice over different periods of time.
Your own ideas need revitalizing to keep up with present worldly conditions; fine for studying modern systems; a progressive associate helps greatly if asked.
(November 16, 1952, Capricorn)
Your associates all seem to be at sixes and sevens, nothing seems to make sense. Stick to tried, proven principles, then all goes along very smoothly.
(December 4, 1952, Aries)
Nothing seems easy to do, you can't find right articles of goods, foods, or other supplies. Be very conservative. Then you avoid mistakes that others, unaware it is a difficult day, are making.
(December 4, 1952, Leo)
Adopting more up-to-date attitude brings you protection.
(December 9, 1952, Scorpio)
... use much care in all property matters, joint ventures; your hunches are poor.
(January 6, 1953, Pisces)
The term »modern« as used by the column, is frequently the equivalent of »scientific«:
Forget past, worn-out systems, interests; look to modern trends in educational and scientific fields vital to your needs.
(January 5, 1953, Capricorn)
Getting down to brass tacks in an up-to-date scientific manner improving your outlets and personal charm unusually effective.
(November 12, 1952, Taurus)
This is your day to get out from your conservative, conventional outlets; see how rest of world lives, take to yourself modern methods that improve your efficiency.
(November 12, 1952, Capricorn)
Some of our long-standing views need to be brought up-to-date for present workableness.
(November 16, 1952, Aries)
Adopting more modern spiritual, educational, scientific principles gives more happiness, success in creative interests.
(November 23, 1952, Gemini)
This involves the idea that one saves money by introducing innovations rather than running any risk. At the same time the admonition to be »scientific« airs a peculiar concern of the column. Astrology and occultism as a whole have, as indicated before, a strong urge to overcome suspicions of magical practices in a rationalized business culture. Science is the bad conscience of occultism and the more irrational the justification of its pretenses, the more it is stressed that there is nothing phony about it. While the column avoids controversies on the merits of astrology, but for good psychological reasons takes its authority for granted, it indirectly follows this urge by its studious bows to science in general.30
Viewed psychoanalytically, the interpretation of astrological ambition to present an apocryphal cult as scientific in order to assuage a bad conscience probably does not go deep enough. The ideal of security, the conquest of anxiety, seems to be involved. There exists a compulsive fear of committing an error and, as a correlate, a high gratification in being »absolutely right« even if irreproachability may be obtained only by complete triviality and meaninglessness – a philosophy reminiscent of the pedantry of the anal character. The more dubious the statements craved for, the stronger the need for this type of protection. On top of early fixations, this attitude is reinforced in the Oedipal phase31 by the fear of the father who discourages sexual curiosity and teaches the child that it is too stupid to understand and should confine itself to what is conventionally done and known rather than embark on any exploratory ventures – an attitude reflected by the column inasmuch as it always refers to fixed unalterable necessities and never goes beyond what is made to appear as »positive.« The reader of the column is always supposed to act according to prescriptions. The feeling that nothing can happen after withdrawal from sexual longing, related to castration fear,32 replaces the enjoyment originally longed for: security itself may become a sexual substitute. Yet the irrationality of this displacement is never lost sight of entirely. This is mirrored rather exactly in viewing astrology as a science which promises absolute and unchallengable security (mainly because it cannot be put to the test) while the ultimate source of the security – the threat – is hidden and utterly unrecognizable. The hints of impending danger may be the last of heavily censored traces of castration fear. Certainly among the truly unconscious messages of the column, one of the most effective should read »safety first,« a slogan which itself is to be regarded, apart from its rational merits, as a psychological hieroglyph.