Evidence of the Future Coming

Last week in the NY Times Tom Friedman wrote an op ed piece about a friend of his who had just been on the cover of China Newsweek. Michael Sandel's claim to fame is that he is a Harvard political philosopher who is selling out the seats to his lectures on moral philosoohy in China, Japan and South Korea. The compelling lectures use real life moral questions i.e. "Is it ethical that David Letterman makes 700 times more money than a school teacher?"; or "Is is morally just to raise the price on snow shovels after a snow storm?". The questions are modern but Sandel asks the students to debate each other with how Aristotle, Kant and John Stuart Mill would respond. 

The lectures were filmed by WGBH in Boston in 2009 and can be seen on http://www.justiceharvard.org/. Last year Japan's NHK TV broadcast translated versions of the classes and there was so much interest that the University of Toyko had to create a course based on Sandel's.  Millions of students in China watched the uploaded translated Chinese versions of the classes. Sandel's visit to Asia in 2010 turned this moral philosopher into a rock star with long lines waiting to buy tickets, tickets being scalped for $500 a piece and the cover of China Newsweek. His book, "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?" has sold a million copies in East Asia. 

So why do I think this is a harbinger of the future?  We are slowly leaving the Age of Pisces and moving into the Age of Aquarius.  Even if the Age of Aquarius begins next year as Sai Baba's quoted in last week's blog, two big astrological events, a once every 20 years Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius (last time in Aquarius in 1405) in December 2020 and Pluto's entrance into the sign Aquarius in May of 2023 will bring the new cultural shift into stronger focus.  Aquarius is an air sign.  Air signs like to talk and debate.  Aquarius is concerned that everybody is treated equally. Justice and social equality are the hallmarks of the sign of brotherly love. We are seeing evidence all around us, with the "Arab Spring", with Saudi Arabian women wanting to be able to drive, with moral philosophers becoming rock stars in Asia, that we are moving  into the Aquarian Age when the dignity of each person is valued and ideas are gold.