“In a highly developed society, the Establishment cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going: the soldiers and police, teachers and ministers, administrators and social workers, technicians and production workers, doctors, lawyers. . . . They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls.”

—Howard Zinn, from “The Coming Revolt of the Guards,” A People’s History of the United States

For context, see David Graeber (author of that incredible mind-bending volume Debt: The First 5000 Years. Graeber reportedly was the one who coined the phrase “the 99%” for Occupy back in 2011).

So. Will marijuana be the straw that breaks the back of predatory capitalism? If so, how ironic that would be! — since way back when, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, while sitting around in smoke-filled circles, we were fervently analyzing the way society did not work as we passed the pipe around. Back then, we were utterly convinced that the revolution was just around the corner. I’ve often reminisced on that feverish moment in time, how utterly foolish we were. Or were we?

Perhaps we were merely “young and foolish,” i.e., we did not — yet — understand timing, how very long things take to move from vividly imagined to material reality.

The astrological signature during those years was the very rare conjunction between unpredictable Uranus and powerful Pluto (1962-1968). Between 2011 and 2015, these two planets entered their “opening square”, i.e., the next crucial phase of the new cycle begun during the late ’60s.

Here’s a perspective on the original conjunction by the philosopher Dane Rudhyar, whose profound works blew my mind back in 1974 — and set me on the path of becoming an “astrologer.”

The Uranus/Pluto Cycle

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—Howard Zinn, from “The Coming Revolt of the Guards,” A People’s History of the United States,