My two cents:
I'm compelled by kimbermoon's (as ever) penetrating take on what Neptune in Capricorn might mean and flapjack's critical worries about this generation (on this site, I think, nobody has done more to poke and prod at the potential challenges and issues that come with this generation than flapjacks). Much more so than the optimistic read that Neptune in Capricorn essentially signifies a generation that is going to bring meaning back to our work lives.
After all, we ALL want meaning in our work lives desperately... No when we don't get it we either wither in a state of alienation (as Marx would put it) or find some way to circumscribe the influence of our jobs in our lives and give more time and space to those things outside of "Job" that do have meaning for us. There's nothing particular to the Neptune in Cap generation about that.
I was coming at it from a sort of undercurrent, emotional perspective. That descrpition is how it
feels more than how we try to behave or what we want, I think.
And, lol, sorry for ranting about this so much guys!
When we are talking about our work lives we're talking about capitalism - the system in which we produce and distribute stuff, and so the system that determines and shapes our work life today. And you can go all the way back to the 19th century grandfathers of modern sociology - Marx, still the greatest critic of capitalism, or Max Weber and his worry about over-rationalization and bureaucracy - to see the powerful critique that capitalism essentially erodes the human spirit and meaning from our work life, and one of the great crises of the Modern Era is finding meaning after science and industry have ripped the veil away and revealed we live in a purposeless universe.
(to be clear... I don't believe the universe is purposeless. I'm noting it's long been understood that take is a part of the modern condition. Though, interestingly... I think Neptune was in Capricorn when these guys were writing. They're born the last Neptune in Sag generation...)
There is a lot of grumblings about capitalism, but what it's really grumbling about is eroded capitalism in conjunction with increasing state power and a different set of ideals than are compatible with capitalism.
We've often been called the "entitlement" generation, which I think comes from that strong Cap influence. We demand material security and ease and comfort to be "given" to us because we believe everyone deserves these things. I do believe this comes from a large portion of us growing up being told that if we want something we should have it. Capitalism says in order to have things, you must work for them, they don't just appear for you.
Working for things isn't all that bad, and of course we're not opposed to working, obviously! Capitalism would be all well and good if we also didn't rely on insurance, standardized testing, credit scores, high interest rates and other social institutions and policies that make failure not an option. Because capitalism also must
allow for failure to actually work.
And that is what I see, a lot, is that we're
all afraid to fail to a degree that keeps us from growing and learning, and it's something we're slowly overcoming. It's also reflected in economic policies of when Pluto entered Capricorn, where failure of any institution is staunchly opposed, and we'll throw money at failing systems just to avoid the reality that is now crushing down upon us. Those systems were set up for failure, I think, when Neptune transitioned through Cap, and now Pluto is the time of reckoning.
Another thing about this generation is that we're all slower to mature. 24 is the new 18.
But if the suggestion is that this generation is a heroic generation that will be the first to actually solve that dilemma and really find ways to combine capitalist work and spiritual meaning, I think that's a delusion. With a pretty prominent Neptune in my own chart, I tend to balk at all the talk that Neptune is simply the planet of "delusion," but I read the starting posts on this thread and think to myself "So, the Neptunian delusion, the temptation, going on in this generation is that they are the ones who will defy one of the Great Problems that capitalism has introduced and merge work and true meaning for all, not just the lucky few..."
In fact, I have to admit... Along the lines of flapjacks's own perceptive worries... I think that if we have a generation that are finding deep meaning in their work, I'm worried that sense of "deep meaning" is a just a blindfold that allows them to feel comfortable in an economic system we really shouldn't be that comfortable with. Really what we need right now is serious reform, even revolution, in how we work, produce ins and distribute wealth and goods. Exactly what we don't need is a complacent generation that finds themselves happy with the market because they've found meaning in their work. Good for them, personally, but bad for humanity and the earth as we turn a bound eye to the worst tendencies of capitalism - exploitation, inequality, ravaging the ecology - that tend to run amok when we don't consciously reign them in.
If this is a generation that gets perfectly comfortable with our modern market society by finding deep spiritual meaning in their work, it strikes me that's exactly what humanity does not need right now.
That's an interesting spin! Although, you could say that a drive to find meaning encourages the changes.
That said, this is the generation I'm teaching in university right now. My sense of them generally is that the Capricorn colors the Neptune, more than the Neptunian tendencies feeding into the things associated with Capricorn. There're deeply worried about their job prospects and how they're going to manipulate the market to acquire the standard of upper middle class life they all imagine themselves having. Everything comes down to "how will this help me get a good job."
Which is a consideration That doesn't reflect their individual personalities - in another time and place I suspect many of them would be much less utilitarian about it all. Instead it reflects the economic conditions we live in today, post 2008 collapse. Which is perhaps a good way to think about the generational planets. No mater how artistic and dreamy any given individual of this generation might be, the wider environment we all find ourselves in demands that they be very aware of the need to secure a good job in a very competitive and increasingly cruel marketplace.
When I was at university, a lot of the incoming freshman (so age 18 - 21 now, when Uranus also joined Neptune) were causing my department to completely change their rules for how students can qualify to get into programs because they needed so much remedial education. One of my professors had to hold special classes to teach college students how to use
fractions. She also said, not in the years she's been teaching has she met a group of kids that openly don't want to participate in their classes. She was stymied because this was college... they paid a lot of money to be there (or someone did) and they were already in programs for their majors. But she had more than one student openly
tell her they were not going to do the reading assignments, and most of her classes were failing and she had to do serious curving just to get half the class to pass. Wonder where all that is coming from...
In my head I hear some astrologer's voice saying "You have Uranus in the 2nd house. Of course you're going to think this..."
I think it... but I have Uranus square Jupiter.
