I think specifically “new age” here is referring to water-divenation, this is where some person claiming to be able to detect water gets a divining rod, which is often just two sticks and claims the sticks can show them where to dig a well and hit water (you can look up videos of it on YouTube). They often walk on strange paths, or stagger around and around fields in this process.
So I guess these guys are doing something similar with construction related tasks.
EDIT: I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere that Gary Larson was particularly annoyed with New Age music, and found it repetitive:
Wicca is also linked to very old practices and considered new age, as is tarot, and the zodiac. New Age doesn’t mean new, it’s a polite way to say hippie dippy unscientific bullcrap that was revived by new people in the 60s whom had no traditional connection to it.
I mean, if you bend over backwards, sure. But the idea that Gary Larson would expect readers in 1993 to associate the phrase “New Age construction workers” with dowsing practices – instead of actually using the term “construction workers dowsing”, or something – seems unreasonable. Plus it’s not funny at all.
I think my initial interpretation has now been proven correct.
Well, I certainly disagree, but I doubt we can find any common ground here. You seem content with any tenuous connection between concepts to fit your interpretation.
I don’t see an alternative explanation for the characteristics of the cartoon.
It’s definitely cryptic. I’ve suggested that it’s a reference to crop circles elsewhere in this thread, which is still the best interpretation I could find even if that’s not particularly satisfactory either.
In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley took credit for creating a lot of crop circles in Britain, using ropes and planks. It was a well known story and a cultural meme, even if people didn’t know about Doug & Dave specifically they knew that the crop circles that New Agers believed were messages from aliens actually were created by pranksters. The construction workers are walking around in circles so that the tracks from the wheelbarrows create…mud circles, I guess.
But as I said, this interpretation doesn’t feel satisfactory either, it’s just the best one yet. I’d love to hear a better idea.
Yes, agree to disagree, but I will finally and once again note that my interpretation has explainatory power (eg. They all have wheel barrows because they’re all dowsing), as well as has an article contemporary to the mid 1990s time period discussing the over popularity of dowsing at that time.
I think specifically “new age” here is referring to water-divenation, this is where some person claiming to be able to detect water gets a divining rod, which is often just two sticks and claims the sticks can show them where to dig a well and hit water (you can look up videos of it on YouTube). They often walk on strange paths, or stagger around and around fields in this process.
So I guess these guys are doing something similar with construction related tasks.
EDIT: I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere that Gary Larson was particularly annoyed with New Age music, and found it repetitive:
https://i.imgur.com/X1Hxm.jpeg
Wicca is also linked to very old practices and considered new age, as is tarot, and the zodiac. New Age doesn’t mean new, it’s a polite way to say hippie dippy unscientific bullcrap that was revived by new people in the 60s whom had no traditional connection to it.
I mean, if you bend over backwards, sure. But the idea that Gary Larson would expect readers in 1993 to associate the phrase “New Age construction workers” with dowsing practices – instead of actually using the term “construction workers dowsing”, or something – seems unreasonable. Plus it’s not funny at all.
Edit: just for reference, the word “dowsing” does not appear even once in this very long wikipedia article about New Age.
The shape of a dowsing stick is like wheel barrow handles:
https://appleofgodseye.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/dowsing_21.jpg?w=584
(Note how new age that image from google looks, it’s from a book cover about dowsing)
They all have wheel barrows, because they’re all dowsing.
Dowsing is often done on a specific property, resulting in a circling of the property until the sticks point downwards.
I don’t see an alternative explanation for the characteristics of the cartoon.
Why do you think they all have wheel barrows?
EDIT: Here’s a Smithsonian Magazine article lamenting that dowsing was being used by “urban New Agers” on things other than finding water: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/urban-new-agers-have-taken-over-the-art-of-dowsing-1-38424068/
That article is from 1996, three years after the cartoon, yet is based on the same premise: new age types, using dowsing for other things.
I think my initial interpretation has now been proven correct.
Well, I certainly disagree, but I doubt we can find any common ground here. You seem content with any tenuous connection between concepts to fit your interpretation.
It’s definitely cryptic. I’ve suggested that it’s a reference to crop circles elsewhere in this thread, which is still the best interpretation I could find even if that’s not particularly satisfactory either.
In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley took credit for creating a lot of crop circles in Britain, using ropes and planks. It was a well known story and a cultural meme, even if people didn’t know about Doug & Dave specifically they knew that the crop circles that New Agers believed were messages from aliens actually were created by pranksters. The construction workers are walking around in circles so that the tracks from the wheelbarrows create…mud circles, I guess.
But as I said, this interpretation doesn’t feel satisfactory either, it’s just the best one yet. I’d love to hear a better idea.
Yes, agree to disagree, but I will finally and once again note that my interpretation has explainatory power (eg. They all have wheel barrows because they’re all dowsing), as well as has an article contemporary to the mid 1990s time period discussing the over popularity of dowsing at that time.