AQUARIUS PLUTO: TRANSFORMING COMMUNITY

pluto in aquarius over the next decades will show us the consequences of losing in-person third spaces and will hopefully start bringing these third spaces back.

third space is anywhere that isn’t home or work where people can congregate and spend time with one another. as we’ve progressed deeper into late stage capitalism, third spaces that are free and open to the public are harder and harder to come by.

attending college/university is one of the last places where people experience access to free third space. common areas are abundant, inside and out. they’re in dorms, the middle of campus, the student center, etc — and students are heavily encouraged to use them.

now, most third spaces require you to be a customer or spend money (ex: ticketed concert, cafe, restaurant), which has decreased the amount of people being in them. especially in a recession period. especially during a pandemic.

gentrification has also contributed to the decline of the in-person third space. with developers and predatory landlords pricing communities members out of their cities and neighborhoods, there are fewer folks living around the restaurant/cafe type of third places.

poor city planning and the lack of walkability also plays a role in this trend. having to rely on cars (as a majority in the US at least) to get around prevents people from interacting with one another on city streets and from stopping by shops and businesses.

due to these changes, the main third space for many folks has become the internet. it’s a (mostly) free gathering/communal space that has remained consistently available throughout the social and economic shifts.

the internet and other technologies have made a convincing argument to many lonely and financially struggling individuals to stay at home and stay online. when what you want is at your fingertips, why leave? what are the consequences?

the internet as a third space has removed the accountability, responsibility, and true sense of community that in-person third spaces provided. in-person, there is an unspoken agreement to uphold social graces and maintain a certain level of respect for one another — this implied contract dissolves on the internet. as we know, many people say things behind a screen that they would not fathom uttering to another person in real life. this lack of care is at odds with the establishment of true community in the internet third space.

individualism has long taken root in the western world, and the dissolution of community spaces contributes to the decline of local economies, small businesses, and the willingness to interact between strangers.

we need a massive overhaul when it comes to community structure. city/public ownership of communal space and investing back into communities instead of into giant cooperations would breathe life back into in-person third spaces.

pluto in aquarius is showing us what structures must crumble in order to rebuild fresh from the rubble. the status quo of hyperindividualism and late state capitalism is at odds with the preservation of community interests and sense of belonging.