Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA11788 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 19 May 2000 02:03:01 +0100 Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 18:01:03 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Useless memes In-Reply-To: <20000518223559.91842.qmail@hotmail.com> Message-ID: <Pine.WNT.4.21.0005181748580.-451915@Starship051.cbe.wwu.edu> X-X-Sender: market@voyager.cbe.wwu.edu Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Ah, my pet peeve about Dawkins here. He makes sweeping generalizations
about how bad astrology is. He is of course right that if one seriously
subscribes to the stuff about compatibility etc, that eliminating 1/12 of
or even 1/4 of the gene pool from consideration as potential mates is
pretty stupid.
However, astrology is useful in several ways, aside from the obvious one
that it generates income for astrolgers.
1) It is a tried and true pickup line/conversation starter, something that
people seem to need desparately.
2) The newspaper/magazine horoscope, as a vague bit of advice with lots of
hedges in it serves some people as the only trigger for introspection that
they ever have. People then project their own situation onto the
horoscope and sometimes it triggers them to do something they had planned
to do but hadn't gotten around to, to not do something they really knew
they shouldn't do. More often it is simply disregarded. It is
conversational fodder for conversations that are really social grooming
rituals. Rituals that let people know that they are connected.
3) Horoscopes in magazines that are more specific, with dates etc, can and
do set up self-fulfilling prophesies for days to make decisions, days to
go out on the town, days to get lucky etc. Some people may actually
believe that the events for which they were responsible were ordained by
the stars, but most would not.
Most people simply ignore the horoscope if they can't make any interesting
connections to their own lives. If they do make a strong connection, then
they are likely to report it to others, increasing the likelhood that
those others will also check their own horoscopes.
There may be other "utilitarian" aspects of astrology, but I haven't come
up with them.
TJ
-- TJ Olney Western Washington University - Not all those who wander are lost.
For the musical version of this thought: http://mp3.musicmatch.com/artists/artists.cgi?id=113&display=1
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