Professor Jordan Peterson

I have some concerns regarding the mob mentality of any group of people who have similar beliefs.

Professor Jordan Peterson

It is not often that you discover a speaker that so well communicates what you had always thought you knew and understood, and delivers his or her message in a way that makes you better understand what you had always inherently known to be true.

Professor Jordan Peterson is one of those speakers.

His intellectualisation of what I had assumed my whole life to be vague layman concepts of responsibility, purpose and utility has been essential in this tumultuous political landscape which we find ourselves exploring, willingly or not.

I am not writing this piece to gush over this man. I could, and if you should be unlucky enough to meet me, I will undoubtedly redirect all arguments which challenge my beliefs and values in his capable direction. I am writing this piece to voice my concerns about mentalities such as my own, and the trend of finding and following certain public figures, to the extent of smothering whatever chance we had left of agreeing on anything.

My concerns are based on the simple idea that people who follow will often gain a group identity which undermines the values of the leader.

I watched Rick and Morty.

If you are anything like me, after reading that you will have made a couple of judgements. One being that I have a tendency to intellectualise far beyond my capabilities and a second being that a conversation with me is likely to have you rolling your eyes. I make similar judgements. I think we all do. This is my concern regarding the movement being created by Dr Peterson. He, much like the creators of Rick and Morty, does not desire a cult following, however he, for the reasons I am going to give, might create one which will destroy whatever hope he, and people who think like him, have to open up necessary negotiations with people who think differently.

Firstly, people don’t want to think differently. It is very unlikely that a person who is convinced that the world is turned against him or her will choose to give up victimhood in order to accept certain tough answers. This in turn creates groups of people. Groups who benefit from certain social structures and groups who don’t. People who believe in God and people who don’t. Groups who believe in the patriarchy and evil capitalists.  Depending on who you are, a certain group may be far more inviting than another. These groups of opposing ideas are by nature vehemently opposed to mixing, sharing and bargaining. I know this, because as a lifelong believer in some form of Christianity, I know how difficult it is to bend those core beliefs. I therefore think that in order to avoid this formation of a group ideology behind the message of people like Dr Peterson, a policy of inclusivity and acceptance must be held dear, and more importantly, made clear.

Now these are messages that are repeated by Dr Peterson wherever you find him speaking as he, like me, is a classic liberal in every sense. But for the following reason this message may still cause a chasm between those who agree with Dr Peterson and those who he, along with many classic intellectuals, is trying to reach.

The political spectrum is seemingly ever-expanding, and moreover it seems to be growing further and further away from the centre. Those who believe the statistics, research and message that Dr Peterson and other academics are teaching are by definition, and quite unsurprisingly, somewhere near the middle or only slightly left or right leaning.

This, however, is a no-man’s land in the political sense as far-right and far-left leaning individuals are too indoctrinated in their beliefs to consider moving ‘backwards’ toward the middle of the spectrum.

This creates a climate where people who are not on the exact same political trajectory are grouped in with people who share almost none of the same values or beliefs. For example Dr Peterson is consistently being mentioned with people who are extremely right leaning and very politically provocative. Another clear example would be Mr Ben Shapiro, whom I admire greatly, although I differ slightly from his opinion on abortion. He is often grouped with alt-right nutcases. This one-or-the-other mentality causes a pre-emptive bad taste in the mouths of people who otherwise could have benefitted from what Dr Peterson has to say. A way for a reasonable person to combat this mentality would be a strenuous campaign of continuous denouncement of polarising figures and extremely careful woven language, which is what Dr Peterson has been able to achieve up to this point.

I just hope it lasts long enough for us all to be able to watch Rick and Morty again.

Reviews

[Sir Aphid]

more like juden peterson. I think he has some good points but for the most part he's a liar and contradicts himself constantly.