Personality and The Stars
Joel (who is making a lot of appearances on this blog as of late. Too bad he doesn't read it) sent me an article, years ago, about how the Milky Way is "eating" the Sagittarius galaxy with the comment "even my galaxy hates me." He went on to ask if the whole "science" of astrology would have to be redefined if one of the signs of the Zodiac were to disappear.
My response to this was the following:
Joel asked if this was a bit (well, duh) and went on to make his general reply about astrology which is that it makes no sense that gigantic flaming balls of gas would have an opinion about our futures. Which I happen to agree with although I like astrology and find it helpful in that it provides a window into how a person views themself. Obviously, I can't believe that every Aquarius out there will have a day like mine (unless you all dislocated your elbow Sunday), but I do expect there to be some affinity among us, if only because we all have birthdays within four weeks of one another and we have all grown up being told what sort of personality traits we are supposed to have because of our astrological sign. We've been told which signs we are supposed to have a connection with and which signs will conflict with us. Surely hearing the same things about ourselves over the years would start to affect us similarly, don't you think?
Far more telling, I would think, would be a personality test.
My Personal Dna Report
Thank you to The Welblog for finding and disseminating this test.
I like it a lot because it allows for nuanced answers with sliding scales, grids, and buckets to be filled. Too often, a personality test asks for "yes or no" (or "agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly") when the real answer isn't quite so clear cut and simple.
I like taking tests on the web (I know, this shocks you all). When I had a day job and would get all my work done, I would take IQ tests to pass the time; constantly being told by a computer that one is a genius is one way of making an administrative job bearable, but one runs the risk of ending up like Marvin from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: "Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't." Which, as you can imagine, does not endear one to those one works for, especially when they expect one to type letters without correcting their misuse of the English language.
I am not one hundred percent sure what these tests are meant to show one, what we are meant to learn about ourselves based on test results. I mean, I am sure they may be able to weed out he psychotic, but what about the sociopaths? One would imagine that a brilliant sociopath would know how to manipulate these tests in order to get less sociopathic results. Of course, maybe the tests control for that? Is a personality test anything more than a much more detailed astrological chart?
My response to this was the following:
Well, yeah, if you want to be TECHNICAL about it, but I would assume that the Milky Way has been chowing down on Sagittarius for millennia, but only now are we puny humans capable of realizing this. The stars have probably been complaining about this for years. In fact, maybe now astrology will accurately interpret what the stars have been telling us.
Instead of:
"If the old adage that you reap what you sow is true, dear Sagittarius, you are in for a great harvest in the months to come. Your hard work and focus will start to pay off handsomely with promotions and raises just when you may have given up ever being acknowledged for all you do. Hang onto your great energy, passion and enthusiasm. Doors are about to open for you. Get ready to walk on through them."
It might more accurately be:
"Oh man, we TOLD you to get out of the Milky Way's way. Now look what it is doing to you. That's just not right."
or
"Hello, um, I would like to report an emergency. See, my neighbor, he has been getting very close to me and has been eyeing my outer star systems quite, well, I hesitate to say this because it sounds silly, but hungrily. Um, if it's not too much trouble, could you maybe send someone by to-"
or
"I don't want to get involved. I mean, what is going on over there is between Sagittarius and the Milky Way. I have my own constellations to worry about, you understand. It ain't right, sticking my nose into other Galaxy's business."
Instead of:
"If the old adage that you reap what you sow is true, dear Sagittarius, you are in for a great harvest in the months to come. Your hard work and focus will start to pay off handsomely with promotions and raises just when you may have given up ever being acknowledged for all you do. Hang onto your great energy, passion and enthusiasm. Doors are about to open for you. Get ready to walk on through them."
It might more accurately be:
"Oh man, we TOLD you to get out of the Milky Way's way. Now look what it is doing to you. That's just not right."
or
"Hello, um, I would like to report an emergency. See, my neighbor, he has been getting very close to me and has been eyeing my outer star systems quite, well, I hesitate to say this because it sounds silly, but hungrily. Um, if it's not too much trouble, could you maybe send someone by to-"
or
"I don't want to get involved. I mean, what is going on over there is between Sagittarius and the Milky Way. I have my own constellations to worry about, you understand. It ain't right, sticking my nose into other Galaxy's business."
Joel asked if this was a bit (well, duh) and went on to make his general reply about astrology which is that it makes no sense that gigantic flaming balls of gas would have an opinion about our futures. Which I happen to agree with although I like astrology and find it helpful in that it provides a window into how a person views themself. Obviously, I can't believe that every Aquarius out there will have a day like mine (unless you all dislocated your elbow Sunday), but I do expect there to be some affinity among us, if only because we all have birthdays within four weeks of one another and we have all grown up being told what sort of personality traits we are supposed to have because of our astrological sign. We've been told which signs we are supposed to have a connection with and which signs will conflict with us. Surely hearing the same things about ourselves over the years would start to affect us similarly, don't you think?
Far more telling, I would think, would be a personality test.
My Personal Dna Report
Thank you to The Welblog for finding and disseminating this test.
I like it a lot because it allows for nuanced answers with sliding scales, grids, and buckets to be filled. Too often, a personality test asks for "yes or no" (or "agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly") when the real answer isn't quite so clear cut and simple.
I like taking tests on the web (I know, this shocks you all). When I had a day job and would get all my work done, I would take IQ tests to pass the time; constantly being told by a computer that one is a genius is one way of making an administrative job bearable, but one runs the risk of ending up like Marvin from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: "Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't." Which, as you can imagine, does not endear one to those one works for, especially when they expect one to type letters without correcting their misuse of the English language.
I am not one hundred percent sure what these tests are meant to show one, what we are meant to learn about ourselves based on test results. I mean, I am sure they may be able to weed out he psychotic, but what about the sociopaths? One would imagine that a brilliant sociopath would know how to manipulate these tests in order to get less sociopathic results. Of course, maybe the tests control for that? Is a personality test anything more than a much more detailed astrological chart?
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