The Sun has just entered Aquarius, and the Moon is full next Tuesday January 25, 2005, at 6° Leo.The Sabian symbol for 6° Leo is:"A conservative, old-fashioned lady is confronted by a 'hippie' girl; the need to transcend our subservience to fashion, in morals as well as in clothes.This refers to an ever-changing pageant of social values, as ideals of human relationship succeed one another, one generation facing in the next an antithetic picture of what it has been brought up to consider worthwhile and decent. The confrontation may lead to great bitterness, yet it should show us the impermanence of what society impresses upon our collective mentality. A collective, cultural and social crisis which challenges us to realize the relativity of social values."

This week, as George W. Bush is inaugurated President, Americans are being reminded incessantly by the corporate news media that the 2004 election was decided by voters interested in “moral values”.The question of the day is surely – what moral values? How are they defined? What generates “social values” from individual moral values, anyway?

According to the right-wing corporate media, “moral values” are by definition old-fashioned, traditionalist values – anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-American Empire, pro-American military machine, pro-corporate globalization -- all basically supportive of the right-wing agenda. If we believe the mainstream media, America’s social values map directly onto the agenda of America’s richest individuals and corporations.

But the corporate media cannot really define moral values for society at large. The media can create imagery designed to influence our values, but they cannot command our hearts and minds. That is why advertisers must spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to sell their merchandise, to create awareness of their brand. Without that continuous, expensive propaganda campaign, consumers would not remember their names, and would not be loyal to their brand.

Why not? Because their brands are virtually interchangeable, and the corporations behind the brands do virtually nothing to win the loyalty of consumers. They have no commitment to quality, service, or value, merely a dedication to generating the maximum profit at the minimum cost to themselves, regardless of any damage done to society as a whole.

Advertisers use images of sexy women, speeding vehicles in virgin mountaintop terrain, happy frolicking families in sun-drenched up-scale homes, hip, lithe young fashionistas and grinning medicated men surrounded by compliant, smirking women to sell cars, computers, household products, and pharmaceuticals.

Consumers are encouraged to identify with the images in the commercials, and to believe that if they buy the products they will be more powerful, more free, more hip, sexier, healthier and happier. Consumers are really buying a simulation of reality, and they are unconsciously attempting to acquire desirable values rather than making logical decisions in a free marketplace.

Likewise, our political parties have become virtually interchangeable, and they use mass marketing to sell voters on commercialized, artificial “values” rather than on their positions on meaningful issues. Democrats no longer try to represent the true values of their core constituencies – they see unions, environmentalists, minorities, women and political activists as irritating but necessary components of successful campaigns, whose interests must ultimately be sacrificed in favor of the agenda of America’s large campaign finance contributors in the corporate and private sectors. Instead, Democrats try to sell voters on “values” such as intelligence, reliability, or convivial militarism.

Republicans pay lip service to the values of evangelical Christians and lower-middle class American workers, but their leaders cynically use their core constituencies as cannon fodder while systematically impoverishing them with policies designed to enrich their corporate and private sector campaign contributors.

So it is not surprising that the two parties must now spend $200 million or more each Presidential election cycle to turn out the vote. Just like Coke and Pepsi, Democrats and Republicans depend upon mass marketing to create mass illusions that will resonate with a mass audience, causing large numbers of individuals to mistakenly identify their own best interests with the best interests of the politicians promoting agendas that serve the narrow interests of corporations and rich citizens with big money to invest in party politics. Cynical politicians see this form of mass marketing as defining moral values.

But the definition of moral values is society’s job, not the job of campaign contributors, political lobbyists and consultants in Gucci shoes, or cynical TV journalists whose only loyalty is to their own career advancement. The definition of social values takes place at a largely unconscious level, and is reflected in the choices, actions, thoughts, and feelings of the entire population. The aggregate of these thoughts, feelings and choices creates the “zeitgeist”, or the spirit of the times, which reflects the collective psyche.