Conversations: Featuring Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto - John Anderson
Sunday, April 01, 2018
I cannot commend to you enough this video interview with Professor Jordan Peterson. I have long regretted losing my heroes, either as they fall from grace or as I acquired the cynicism (or is it wisdom?) that comes to all but fools as they age. It has been a long time since I acquired a new one.
What is wonderful about Professor Peterson is that he does not engage in the grumpy denunciation of “the young” that so many of our generation fall into. On the contrary, he has found that they are hungry, nay starving for, the very virtues many deny they value.
It is our generation that warped their understanding of the world. We coddled them because we had few children and they were overly precious to us. We indoctrinated them with shallow, virtuous-sounding ideas, rather than schooling them in the actual virtues of our civilisation. We parented them, ludicrously, as if we had answered all the great questions and there were none for them to answer nor challenges for them them to face.
In Civilisation’s great relay race, we failed to pass the baton and cannot now complain that they run without it
I have done enough for you today by introducing you to the video. Nothing I can say will improve upon his wisdom so waste no further time with me but spend a fruitful hour or so with him!
I don't think the values you value (!) are specifically Christian, although they came to prominence historically in Christian Europe. They were shared by Jews, atheists and agnostics as well as followers of most minority religions in the Anglosphere and Western Europe. They are the values of the Age of Reason, a concept promoted for example in the original and best Tom's book of that name and the principal opposition to them when they were first put forward came from the Christian churches. Not that I am agreeing with your sentiments about Peterson you understand and I am well aware that *he* is informed by his own Christianity. There are Christians on right and left and on both sides of the "hate speech" vs "free speech" debate. I am not sure it's a useful indicator of political stance or attitude to civil liberties.
Posted by: Tom | Saturday, April 07, 2018 at 12:06 AM
Thanks for that. Very entertaining but in some cases also encouraging. When I began blogging I naively thought that my stance on civil liberties was apolitical and could (if I stayed focused on it) unite both right and left. I thought free speech was a civil liberties issue, for example, and not political as such. Yet now the Hard Left regard any mention of free speech as a cover for "white supremacy" (a world view I have never heard articulated, even though my friends range from revolutionary Marxist to very Conservative indeed). However there are some left-wingers commenting on that feeble Guardian hit piece who think free speech is important.
Posted by: Tom | Friday, April 06, 2018 at 11:59 PM
Very well said Sir or Madam
Posted by: matt | Friday, April 06, 2018 at 12:03 AM
I agree that dr. Peterson is inspirational and refreshing and validating the Christian values imbued in my generation of baby boomers. I too see the young people aimless,angry and lost and I hope somehow they are exposed to his ideas as I believe we will witness an explosion of renewal in the young. I am reading his book and am incredibly uplifted. My 39 year old son is also reading and watching his videos and has recently introduced his wife to this wonderful man which has served to unite them as they were never before .he is truly a gift to us all and I thank him for his courage to withstand the negativity of the media which only serves to show their general ignoranc
Posted by: Jen | Thursday, April 05, 2018 at 11:48 PM
Following on:- Have you seen this article attacking Prof Peterson by the Guardian music correspondent (sic ???)?
The Comments are, to coin a phrase "entertaining"
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest
Posted by: matt | Thursday, April 05, 2018 at 09:33 PM
You know, I think 'Pertersonism' is the medicine Western society and politics needs. People like Jordan Peterson speaking out publicly may just drag us all back to sanity.
Posted by: Bill Sticker | Tuesday, April 03, 2018 at 05:46 PM
Talk to your grandchild and his or her friends. Any of them may yet save us. Hope!
Posted by: Tom | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 09:33 PM
Nil desperandum. You speak of “inexorable” and then report the optimistic fact of your son’s position. Any one of Prof Peterson’s adherents could be the leader who saves the values of the Enlightenment from their wicked and/or foolish enemies. If only everyone who took time to say we are doomed on social media spent that time reasoning with a young person instead!
Posted by: Tom | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 09:32 PM
Somehow I find he mesmerises me. I've been ploughing through his videos for about a year I suppose often till 2 in the morning.
It is not too easy now that You tube seem to be blocking all his stuff.
I'm now too old to even try to contribute anything to the coming political showdown that will be needed. I plan to get out the popcorn and watch the fireworks that one day will begin.
Even so western civilisation is a lost cause already. Islam and communism will triumph and it will not be long. Astonishing ---and it has only been 80 years from start to finish. The Long March is nearly over.
Just read The Camp of the Saints. Pity about my only grandchild.
Posted by: Matt | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 09:29 PM
He's a brilliant man. How marvellous to hear an academic who's applied a considerable intellect to something other than social Marxism.
The socialists are making their inexorable way towards their goals by enlisting every divisive / victim grouping they can find and pledging support for their cause. It persuades the gullible that no one else cares about "the victims" and enlists "useful idiots" who'll contribute their votes. The 80 minutes of that video gave me some hope that there are those in positions to influence who may be able to help us all to return to something approaching freedom and rationality.
And I can't tell you how utterly delighted I am that my son, age 25, busily working his way through his accountancy qualification and who's previously recommended I listen to Professor Peterson's videos and read his books, is a devotee who agrees entirely with Peterson's thesis and argument. It's good to think that - just possibly - he extracted something good and useful from my probably far-less-than-perfect fathering. Everyone needs something to beat themselves up for; that's mine. I feel slightly unburdened!
Posted by: MarkC | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 07:06 PM
You could be right. If so, what are both doing here? To bemoan our fate is a pointless activity. We should only speak, write or act politically in the hope of making a difference. Otherwise we’re just wasting our fellows’ time. If Rome is burning, and there’s nought we can do, recreational fiddle-playing may be a better option. There’s fun to be found, surely, even in a dying civilisation? When and if I despair, that’s what I will do*. Until then I will Keep firing my rhetorical popgun in the direction targeted by Prof Peterson’s intellectual heavy artillery.
* To be honest, that's how I spend most of my time already!
Posted by: Tom | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 01:48 PM
Because this man has all the virtues that you suggest and he unapologetically points out the flaws inherent in left wing/progressive philosophies and dogma he is vilified, attempts are made to silence him and ruin his reputation. Reasoned argument is never going to make the majority change their abusive and misguided behaviour. So it will not change my belief that we are all going to come to a sticky end. The other day you said that I was wrong to believe so because reasoned argument was making progress in some quarters notably academia. A quarter that has traditionally been virulently left wing and progressive so on the face of it a major breakthrough but in reality is just minor incursion. That is therefore I suggest just wishful thinking and so is changing the minds of the majority of the populace.
Posted by: Epikouros | Monday, April 02, 2018 at 10:34 AM