- Reaction score
- 11,938
I watched the video:
I had a date today which involved two hours of total driving (one hour each way), so I put this on as something to listen to. Catching up on Jordan Peterson has been on my to-do list for a while. We've had a Peterson boom and I'm way behind the tide.
It's a good, informative interview. Peterson does a deceptively effective job of speaking clearly in a non-controversial manner. I related to a lot of it as some of it has come up for me before. For example, his discussion of needing to confront failure, so as to learn, is true, and I often wonder if the fear of failure is what drives procrastination. I feel bad when I waste too much time (he discusses that). It's also valid to say to people that there's a lot of suffering and irrelevance to life. This is not new though, if I recall correctly, it's central to Buddhism.
In fact both points are somewhat widely disseminated. For example I've heard that growth can only happen by leaving one's comfort zone, that was in the context of graduate research. However it's also the case that they're understated, because often we hear contradictory bullshit, our culture is now very hedonistic.
Peterson discusses the ketogenic diet at the end and how it solved his health problems. He had severe health problems including an insomnia that lasted several weeks. He went on a ketogenic diet of meat and greens and subsequently lost 50 lbs and solved his auto-immune problems.
It was also interesting that he recommended George Orwell's Wigan Pier as a book to read. I just bought that book and am looking forward to reading it. Lastly, I appreciated his explanation of the line "the meek shall inherit the earth". It's a very famous line so it's both surprising and unsurprising that people don't know better. The meaning that he gives is more poignant.
There are a few things that bother me in the video, but they are secondary to the main points.
1) He dismisses marxism/communism due to political events in the 20th century as if they are intrinsically representative. They are not, though it does not matter as he is giving advice to people who live in a capitalist society.
The Soviet Union was in fact severely crippled by the first World War (before communism), and then a costly revolutionary war to remove the tsar where other countries intervened to attack and undermine Russia. Following this, Stalin industrialized as fast as possible because he was afraid that Germany was going to go into the USSR and kill everybody. Hitler told people that this was his plan. Stalin was eventually proved right, as Hitler invaded in 1941 and came very, very close to destroying the USSR. They lost another 20 million. They would have lost another 150 million if not for the industrialization of the 1920s and 1930s, as Hitler's plan was the complete extermination of the USSR.
In those desperate conditions, countries make sacrifices. If Stalin had slowed things down, the USSR would have lost a full 170 million people, as that was their population in 1939. I would not be alive today, and you all would possibly be speaking German or Japanese.
2) Peterson dismisses the role of privilege in the world. It's not necessarily relevant for his crowd, able-bodied white males who have genuine opportunity to do well in life, to "go to heaven" as he calls it. Regardless, it's the case that many people have less opportunity. For example, police in the USA go out of their way to harass African American men.
It's a good, informative interview. Peterson does a deceptively effective job of speaking clearly in a non-controversial manner. I related to a lot of it as some of it has come up for me before. For example, his discussion of needing to confront failure, so as to learn, is true, and I often wonder if the fear of failure is what drives procrastination. I feel bad when I waste too much time (he discusses that). It's also valid to say to people that there's a lot of suffering and irrelevance to life. This is not new though, if I recall correctly, it's central to Buddhism.
In fact both points are somewhat widely disseminated. For example I've heard that growth can only happen by leaving one's comfort zone, that was in the context of graduate research. However it's also the case that they're understated, because often we hear contradictory bullshit, our culture is now very hedonistic.
Peterson discusses the ketogenic diet at the end and how it solved his health problems. He had severe health problems including an insomnia that lasted several weeks. He went on a ketogenic diet of meat and greens and subsequently lost 50 lbs and solved his auto-immune problems.
It was also interesting that he recommended George Orwell's Wigan Pier as a book to read. I just bought that book and am looking forward to reading it. Lastly, I appreciated his explanation of the line "the meek shall inherit the earth". It's a very famous line so it's both surprising and unsurprising that people don't know better. The meaning that he gives is more poignant.
There are a few things that bother me in the video, but they are secondary to the main points.
1) He dismisses marxism/communism due to political events in the 20th century as if they are intrinsically representative. They are not, though it does not matter as he is giving advice to people who live in a capitalist society.
The Soviet Union was in fact severely crippled by the first World War (before communism), and then a costly revolutionary war to remove the tsar where other countries intervened to attack and undermine Russia. Following this, Stalin industrialized as fast as possible because he was afraid that Germany was going to go into the USSR and kill everybody. Hitler told people that this was his plan. Stalin was eventually proved right, as Hitler invaded in 1941 and came very, very close to destroying the USSR. They lost another 20 million. They would have lost another 150 million if not for the industrialization of the 1920s and 1930s, as Hitler's plan was the complete extermination of the USSR.
In those desperate conditions, countries make sacrifices. If Stalin had slowed things down, the USSR would have lost a full 170 million people, as that was their population in 1939. I would not be alive today, and you all would possibly be speaking German or Japanese.
2) Peterson dismisses the role of privilege in the world. It's not necessarily relevant for his crowd, able-bodied white males who have genuine opportunity to do well in life, to "go to heaven" as he calls it. Regardless, it's the case that many people have less opportunity. For example, police in the USA go out of their way to harass African American men.
), Romanian women, etc. Mostly white men, true, but overall a very diverse crowd, not that it matters much anyway. Don't buy into the current regressive left's narrative. And try to let go of the ideas that are clearly not helping you.
