Is he perfect? No. Does he offer anything of value? Yes. Should he be in the political arena? Well…
I first came across Jordan Peterson on YouTube, like many others. But that is about where my shared experience, with most others, ends. I found him before Canadian bill C16, before the University of Toronto protests, and before he got sick, recovered, and signed a deal with Daily Wire.
On YouTube, I listened to a 5 hour video of him standing on a dark stage, in his mid 40s, speaking to an audience. Which was about typical for him at the time. Most of his lecture passed as background noise. But then he said something which made me stop doing and thinking, whatever it was I was doing and thinking:
“If you do not go forth with that which drives you forward, you will pay for it like you cannot possibly imagine.”
To be honest, even after re-listening to the entire 5 hour lecture multiple times, nothing else stood out. But that one statement made me freeze and stop in my tracks.
It is absolutely true.
So I started watching, and liking, more of his content. People can overcome overwhelmingly horrible conditions, to forge themselves into something truly great and heroic. Finding an identity of responsibility is a very good thing. His message was one of hope, optimism, and acknowledgement of struggle. He was the best college lecturer I’d seen since Randy Pausch.
Later, I started telling my friends about him, and that’s when things changed. One friend in particular, an activist with lots of “I’m that Feminist your parents warned you about” buttons, just glared at me like I signed a contract with the Devil himself. She didn’t say much, but it was clear to see her disdain.
I went home and started looking around. It was actually tough for me to find his political commentaries, because my Google AI was not trained in that direction. But after a bit of effort, re-training Google’s supervised learning about me, find controversy I did. This was when Jordan Peterson was being associated with Richard Spencer, as a promoter of the white supremacist alt-right.
This made absolutely no sense. For a while, I thought these were two different people. At the time, there were very few videos of Jordan Peterson SAYING politically controversial things. The story was more of what others were saying about him, and not about what he actually said.
But in the months to follow, UofT protests, Canadian Parliament, Kathy Newman, and other videos were shot that solidified Jordan Peterson into the controversial figure we all know and love today. I watched dozens of these interviews, debates, and videos featuring him. I saw him speak live in New York City. After years of letting it all sink in, I have some hopefully balanced perspectives about Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.
The Good
Jordan Peterson is clearly an intelligent man, who has developed the ability to critically think. Over 100 academic papers going back to 1999, three books, tenure at the University of Toronto, and he was even a Harvard professor. Calling Jordan Peterson a pseudo-intellectual is like calling Barack Obama a pseudo-politician. Dr. Peterson’s academic qualifications are top notch.
I read the Gulag Archipelago from his recommendation, and it enriched my life. I’ve had Russian women approach me on the Subway in Brooklyn, saying, “I am very impressed you are reading this book.” I fully get how Soviet gulag prisons were every bit as bad as Nazi concentration camps. Stalin put his own WWII soldiers into gulags upon their triumphant return, out of fear their exposure to Western people during the war would threaten his rule. This is an equal bar for paranoia as Hitler.
I like Jordan Peterson’s family. True they have a more public profile these days, and some of the chemistry is going to be staged. But all four seem likely heartfully good people. They have been through thick and thin together, and certain aspects of chemistry cannot be faked — especially over time. It is clear they have the usual family tensions. It is also clear they love each other, and are in this thing called life together.
I admire how Jordan Peterson has faced political adversity, ranging from zen-like calm to Gracie level debate jujitsu. Note I don’t agree with all his political views! But his rationality, depth of understanding, and historical knowledge has outflanked many an emotionally passionate adversary. He also takes effort to tie his arguments back to the source — humanities professors and activist lawyers, not necessarily the one screaming at him. He has given a master class on how to debate, through his own example.
I continue to like his non-political advice. You could do much worse. It’s not just for men, but I think his advice for men is worlds better than the likes of Andrew Tate — or the legions of Andrew Tate wannabe’s. I believe Jordan Peterson has saved many young men from falling into the arms of the REAL alt-right. I don’t think the Left acknowledges this possibility: the only thing discouraging those who are sick of the Left’s radical insanity, from joining the equally insane Right, is a voice of reason somewhere in the middle. Jordan Peterson fills this role.
Lastly, I respect that Jordan Peterson overcame an extreme prescription drug addiction. If you watch videos from that era, you can see his pain — and also his daughter’s. I felt relieved by one video when I saw Jordan say, “I’ve got my mind back.” It was at that point that I knew he was going to make it. Because a guy like him, if he loses his mind, probably won’t stick around.
The Bad
Jordan Peterson is almost entirely a product of Western thinkers. Look at his recommended book list: Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Huxley, Orwell, Frankl. Some great authors to be sure. But where is Lao Tzu? Where is Sun Tzu. Where is Shunryu Suzuki, Miyamoto Musashi, Sri Ramakrishna, Rumi, or anybody else from a non-European cultural descent. Even Carl Jung is European through and through.
Jordan Peterson’s paradigm is Western science. And his thinking has the limits of an approach that is hundreds of years old. Other approaches are thousands of years old, completely ignored by Western science, and even today can prove more effective. One example being acupuncture and herbs for traditional Chinese medicine. I’d much rather trust an 84 year old Chinese woman with decades of great reputation to cure my cold, than a 32 year old doctor who got Straight A’s. But also consider that many pharmaceuticals are synthetic versions of naturally occurring plants from the Amazon rainforest. Medicine shamans have known how to cure ailments, including depression, using not just ayahuasca but a variety of plant extracts that are tailored for a person’s constitution. Where is Western science’s acknowledgement of that?
What’s missing from Western science is this skill called intuition. Is Western medicine useless? Of course not; look at today’s life expectancies as proof. But you can’t sanitize and sterilize everything outside of numbers and averages, and expect it to singularly work for us who are not 1’s and 0’s, but humans with a spark of conscious divinity within each of us. Inability to recognize and listen to this spark for direction is a huge limitation of Western medicine. It also explains one reason why Jordan Peterson had so much trouble understanding what Roger Penrose was trying to tell him.
To mention yet another facet of the same diamond, Jordan Peterson is sometimes so cerebral that I have to turn off the channel. I mean, the man is capable of feeling, and deeply at that. But his thinking and feeling aren’t integrated, not in the way that Carl Jung at his most wrathful would approve. Some of his interviews today consist of him talking more than his guest, or the two of them taking turns rather than creating a dynamic flow between the two. The problem here is that young men are already too “in their head,” and role models like Jordan Peterson will exacerbate not mitigate this problem.
Some of his recommendations are a bit straight-laced. For example, he never approves of a polyamorous lifestyle, yet I know at least one married couple who decided to explore this together and ended up extremely happy they did — for decades until they both died near each other. Jordan Peterson does not explore the God’s Will or dharma of living in counterculture — George Carlin certainly had no regrets. He’s open to psychedelics, but there’s a lot more to the virtue of coloring out of bounds than just that.
Lastly, is his politics. Some of his videos were cringe worthy. He has taken his Twitter addiction into cause celebre status at times, and really needs a mechanism to interrupt him when indulging in his reactions. A chip on the shoulder is not always good. Jordan Peterson can still have a voice, he can still share opinions, and believe me he has done more right than wrong when it comes to building a following and reaching escape velocity. But the Left does have well-meaning and smart people with valid points that deserve to be heard. I feel Jordan Peterson does not give enough credit to valid concerns and solutions from the Left, other than the occasional nod to someone like Russell Brand.
The Ug…Beautiful
We each have something in life that we are trying to figure out. Jordan Peterson is no exception to this.
I actually recognize his inquiry. I am not sure that I have all his answers, although I might have some. The most open I’ve seen him be, was getting schooled by Roger Penrose. Jordan went into full student mode, transparent about his limitations. Case in point, when Roger was talking about the physics of consciousness, Jordan kept trying to understand through a scientific lens while Roger kept saying it goes beyond science and measurement. He did not hear what Roger Penrose was explaining to him.
My strongest feedback for Jordan Peterson is that he is trying to use intellectual brute force, to discover that mustard seed of knowledge which cannot be reached using the intellect. I’m not saying the intellect is useless. I AM saying it will only take a person so far. And I am not sure that Jordan at this point in his life has enough desire, space & time, nor guidance necessary to make the leap to permanently fulfill himself with that intimately permanent knowledge. He has to be willing to let go of what he has, and I am not suggesting irresponsibility, but rather the same recognition and decision made by the original 12 disciples of Jesus. Jesus was a teacher, who did not teach through dissertation.
I’m not saying that for Jordan to discover this, he has to burn bridges. Not with his audience, and certainly not with his family. But he has to be willing to let go…of everything. This is extremely subtle stuff, but I think it is on some level what he wants. He just might not be able to explain it to others, which is an expectation that could prevent him from realizing it in the first place. This is another part of the trap called academia, but I’ve already beat that horse into its next life.
I do feel Jordan Peterson has earned the privilege to live a worldly successful life. His supporters feel genuine respect and appreciation for him. When I saw him in New York, the crowd was not a raging MAGA festival. In fact, the few Trump supporters I saw, were easily the most uncomfortable there. Most people were around center of the spectrum, with some definitely from the left, and a fair number of business-minded types from the right. But most were just living personally responsible lives, with an above average personal peace of mind.
To sum up, Jordan B. Peterson is a human, who has found several things that work. He has a lot of good things to say. I don’t like typecasting a person, neither fitting him into a box as the enemy of humanity nor exalting him to mythical and legendary proportions. If you take off the blinders of your perception about his reputation, you might find useful nuggets, and see his limitations for yourself. I personally feel we have several teachers who influence our lives. You can take Jordan Peterson’s messages that resonate for you, integrate them into your own life, discard the rest, bow your head in thanks, and get on with living your own self-actualized life. I think there is no greater way to honor one’s teacher than to integrate and carry out their teachings.
