What’s the Matter with Jordan Peterson?
(it’s not what you think)
A recent article in the Times ran as an ‘expose’ designed to get to the bottom of this journalist’s question: what’s the matter with Psychologist Jordan Peterson? Is it food allergies? Bad luck? Bad diet? Bad judgement? The sequelae of a benzo addiction? Actually, none of the above. That journalist had it all wrong.
If you really understand what’s the matter here, you will see that Peterson’s health history, though clearly a worry for the man and his family, is not the matter. Not at all. And this is the message he’s trying to communicate.
Jordan Peterson’s matter is a cause well beyond his narrow existence: he’s a mouthpiece, an eloquent one at that, representing many classic values of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the principles on which modern democracies have been built.
He’s a spokesperson for ideas that are as old as the hills: the importance of personal responsibility, the necessity of truth telling, the priority of cooperation and competition, the power of the word, justifying the mastery of writing and the careful use of speech. On and on it goes, with Jordan Peterson representing basic human values and, in so doing, taking us on a tour of what really matters in life.
When Jordan Peterson has a health crisis, then, it doesn’t, in a certain sense, matter. Because so many of these ideas that he discusses are tried and true. Their validity is neither established nor disproven on the basis of his health status or the state of his personal affairs. Those values stand on their own merit and remain eternal pillars to those who use them as a platform on which to build a life that matters.
Of course, there are those who, subject to radical ideologies, find something to attack in kitchen table wisdom. Room cleaning, truth telling and assuming responsibility for self and others, that as a strategy for having a meaningful life, may sound admirable to you and I. Some are desperate to overturn their standing. They will argue that Peterson’s health struggles are the linchpin, a pivot which now brings his conceptions tumbling down, swept off to the dustbin. Smirking, they designate his teachings as a passing trend, disproven by a man who turns out to be as human as the rest of us.
Nice try, but no cigar. Jordan Peterson is not the first and will not be the last to uphold the type of classic sensibilities that are foundational in the lives of many. We are all foot soldiers. We will all continue to uphold, to advocate, to teach. We are lobsters, whether we have worked with his ideas or whether we have been imprinted, more generally, by the Judaic Christian sensibility as a heritage we can draw on. And these ideas matter.
Free e-book for download today — Lobster Tales: Stories of Lives Transformed by the Work of Jordan Peterson
Over time, when I’ve been hearing about an absolutely incredible story of transformation where Peterson fans used his ideas and insights to motor changes that can only be described as unbelievable, I’ve been asking for permission to document the story and have been publishing blogs over time, intent to show some of the good that has been spawned by this body of work. In light of the hit piece on Dr. Peterson, I am publishing the stories I have accumulated to date and offer them as a free e-book which you can download today by “buying” the book (which is listed as costing zero dollars today). Then, once you own the book, you are able to forward it to anyone you wish.
If people challenge you about how you can listen to Dr. Peterson when he had this well-publicized problem with pharmaceuticals or when he and his family took themselves off the medical grid to get treatment, feel free to put the focus on the way the work has helped individuals struggling with major difficulties. If you are asked about his so-called following of white supremacists, refer them to the story in this book of the fellow who came to Dr. Peterson’s work thinking “he’s one of our guys,” discovered that wasn’t true, left white supremacy behind and is currently doing a Masters in counselling.
These stories are, frankly, incredible. Most noteworthy. And par for the course in terms of what people have been able to do for themselves armed merely with a set of good ideas and a perspective that helps them turn chaos into habitable order.
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