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Framstegets obönhörliga fortgång

Vad är progressivt? Inte socialism i alla fall, menar en skribent för det relativt nya partiet Medborgerlig Samling.

Medborgerlig Samling (MED) är ett intressant parti om inte annat för att de andas progressivism samtidigt som de står tydligt till höger - de kallar sig liberal-konservativa och även "blågröna". De profilerar sig i frågor som identitetspolitik (som de vill ha mindre av), fördjupad demokrati, reformerad grundskola (större fokus på kunskap, tidigare betyg etc), begränsad migration, satsningar på försvaret och på polisen. De kallar sig kulturellt konservativa, men tar samtidigt strid mot hedersförtryck och upprör sig över försäljning av burkinis på sportbutiker. Kanske ett exempel på den oklarhet som råder på temat konservatism kopplat till kön (det har inte alltid varit legio med bikini i Västvärlden för den som glömt det: https://www.svd.se/badklader-som-upprort-genom-tiderna).

Vad gäller den historiska sexualupplysaren Elise Ottesen-Jensen då - var hon progressiv? Frågan infinner sig eftersom SVT sänder en dokumentär om henne just ikväll. Och det slår mig att svaret på frågan är ja, om inte annat så för att historien gav henne rätt - de höga herrarna som försökte förbjuda allt tal om kondomer har idag förpassats till historiens avskrädeshög, medan hennes gärning lever vidare. Och RFSU som betraktar sig själva som hennes arvtagare hyllar henne gärna, med undantag för hennes omfamnande av tvångssteriliseringar, som de beklagar. Och ändå får man väl förmoda att hon såg även detta som ett led i det mänskliga framstegets obönhörliga fortgång, alltså att hon själv betraktade det som progressivt.

Och hur är det med Xi Jinping, ledaren för folkrepubliken Kina? "Folkrepublik" låter ju progressivt, och om det var någon som inbillade sig att karln inte är marxist så får ni nog tänka om. Och Kina leder ju världens utveckling nu, inte sant? Världsledande inte bara i ekonomisk tillväxt och fattigdomsbekämpning utan också i internationell handel, tvångsinternering av uigurer ("omskolning"), klimatåtgärder och kolkraft. När Västvärlden inte längre har så många nyheter att erbjuda bortsett från skränande populister så omformar Kina världen efter en helt ny samhällsvision, inklusive det här med att alla medborgare i framtiden kommer att kunna poängsättas beroende på hur väl de sköter sig och så kommer deras möjligheter i det kinesiska samhället att påverkas därefter - det låter väl modernt och innovativt (progressivt)?

Som någon skrev: är du pessimistisk om Kina, så är du också pessimistisk om världen.

Och kanske även om själva Framsteget och dess hisnande slutstation.

Jupiter in Scorpio, Jordan Peterson and the Me too-movement

So Jupiter was in the sign of Scorpio between October 10th last year and November 8th a week ago. It has since moved on to Sagittarius, whereby many astrologers are now predicting plenty of good luck and spiritual and personal growth. Me, I just started studying transits, so I don't feel especially inclined to join the argument - but let's have a look at the past position of Jupiter in Scorpio, shall we? A couple of things do strike me as fitting here: the rise of Jordan Peterson and the Me too-movement.

First, let's have a look at what this astrologer writes:

On the edge of Jupiter’s ingress into Scorpio, on the morning of October 5th Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment story was published in the New York Times [i]. Over the following days more actresses came forward to speak of their experiences of Weinstein’s predatory behavior.

On the heels of this story came the social media hashtag #MeToo that women are using to self-identify as victims of sexual harassment and making consciousness [ii]. Scrolling down the #MeToo page my heart ached and I wanted to hug each woman, look her in the eye and say, “I know, me too”.The widespread culture of male abuse of power and serial sexual misconduct and abuse has been outed.

[...]

There is an astrological correspondence or coincidence of Jupiter moving into Scorpio and the exposing of these issues of power and sex in our culture. These stories of sexual harassment may be understood as the opening gambit of Jupiter in Scorpio. 

ASTROLOGICAL OPENINGS AND INSIGHTS

Scorpio has to do with the taboo subjects of power, sex and shared resources (other people’s money and how we use it).Jupiter is the planetary archetype related to the principles of expansion, growth, increase. Jupiter magnifies and illumines. When things grow, they become more obvious. Jupiter in Scorpio exposes what has been hidden. The shadow of male power has been outed.

Interesting, no? Granted, one should not simply google around until one finds something that concurs with one's own beliefs. It is bad methodology. So let me move ahead to a suggestion that is entirely my own, and see if I can back it up with some solid astrological literature: 2018 was the year that Jordan Peterson, the much-hyped, loved and hated Canadian psychologist released his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. 

Two questions: 1) What is this book about? 2) How does it relate to Jupiter in Scorpio?

1) For those of you who haven't read it, 12 Rules for Life is a work that tries to offer spiritual guidelines for how to lead a meaningful life, while avoiding the pitfalls of simplistic ideology. Peterson does not attempt to great a totalizing vision for how society should be changed - the horrors of the 20th century are fresh in his mind - but rather scales down to the individual, the family, the immediate society. So you will not be surprised that the titles to one of his chapters (sadly, the shortest one) reads Put Your House in Perfect Order Before You Criticize The World. We are many from my own generation who would have needed that advice just a little bit sooner. Some other rules (one per chapter) are Don't Let Your Children Do Things That Makes You Dislike Them, Treat Yourself As a Person Worthy of Helping and Pet a Cat When You Encounter One On The Street. Peterson attempts to navigate the narrow waters between postmodern nihilism and modernist ideology, and in this I believe he succeeds fairly well. That being said, his critique of "postmodernism" is simplistic and his depiction of environmentalists as "anti-human" is to a large extent unfair. Sure, there is a vulgar kind of environmentalism that does paint humanity as the problem, but many of the real activists I have met would never do that: being passionate leftists, they blame the system, the wealthy, capitalism, but never the poor, never the Global South, never "humanity".

But it is equally unfair to accuse Peterson of political extremism. The Swedish commentator Joel Halldorf put it neatly: While Peterson as a culture warrior is accused of fascism, Peterson as a moral philosopher is disregarded as banal. Neither is true, and I quote:

The modern university [...] detests each claim to normativity. This means that academics today are not trained to discuss Peterson's ambitious ethical program - nor even less offer any alternatives. The consequence is that we do not have a discussion about worldviews and their moral consequences, but rather a debate characterized by mockery. This is a part of what is called the Crisis of the Humanities: the inability to discuss normative ethical and religious claims sadly makes the field irrelevant.

But I digress.

In summary, Peterson's world is a harsh one, and you better toughen up, stand straight with your shoulders back, claim your place in this world or people will use you and abuse you. Humanity has a terrible capacity for evil, and - you guessed it - the Christian heritage, the original sin and the fallen state of Man hangs heavily over Peterson's exposition.

2) So how does this all tie in with Jupiter's transit through Scorpio? My basic astrological knowledge tells me the following: Jupiter is the planet of expansion, philosophy, wisdom and self-betterment, while Scorpio is a sign of power, suspicion, existential themes (life, death, sex), the awakening of occult (literally hidden) powers as well as the ability to discriminate and cut off the sick branch in order to save the tree. To a large extent, Peterson's really is a philosophy of Scorpio.* 

*It seems that he does not have any natal planets in Scorpio though except for Neptune. It also would seem that astrologers are struggling to get their hands on his exact birth time - ascendant in Scorpio? Aries? Any 8th house placements? I rest my case.