I first heard Dr. Jordan Peterson in one of my favorite podcasts, The Art of Manliness. After that interview, I had to explore more of this straightforward Canadian clinical psychologist. I listened to some of his lectures on the psychological significance of Old Testament stories in the Bible and then periodically he reappeared in some of the other podcasts I am subscribed to like Jocko Podcast and The Tim Ferris Show. I liked what he had to say about being a better man and finding meaning in life. He has been caught in the crosshairs of the radical left with his opposition to Bill C-16 in Canada which is essentially is a threat to free speech but research it more in depth on your own time. He has gained popularity because his message resonates with so many people and has started a bit of a renaissance among my generation. Dr. Peterson isn’t afraid to spar with the liberals and he keeps winning which is very refreshing to see (watch interview with Cathy Newman). As far as a resume goes, he has published more than a hundred scientific papers, over 500 hours of lectures on Youtube, taught at Harvard and stands in the face of dangerous imposing ideologies.
I finally picked up his book: 12 Rules for Life an Antidote to Chaos. Many of my friends were reading it and I couldn’t wait to work through it. I finished it quickly and Dr. Peterson’s wonderful work really hit home with me. In the first chapter, Peterson writes, “To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood.” He kicks off the book with kicking you in the gut but what he writes is dead on. My generation doesn’t get that advice from a prominent figure enough. The second chapter: Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible For Helping is probably my favorite. I fall into the trap of being so incredibly hard on myself and it can be debilitating. He writes in reference to people being extremely tough on themselves, “they are excruciatingly aware of their own faults and inadequacies, real and exaggerated and ashamed and doubtful of their own value. They believe that other people shouldn’t suffer, and they will work diligently and altruistically to help alleviate it they extend the same courtesy even to the animals they are acquainted with but not so easily to themselves.” As a clinical psychologist, Peterson knows how to cut straight to the bone of issues that ail the human psyche. So far he has addressed, how to approach the world and how to approach yourself in only two of his rules for life. That is worth the price of the book. He follows the prior two rules with a great message about dealing with toxic people in your life in chapter three, “if you have a friend whose friendship you wouldn’t recommend to your sister, or your father, or your son, why would you have such a friend for yourself? You might say out of loyalty. Well, loyalty is not identical to stupidity. Loyalty must be negotiated fairly and honestly. Friendship is not a reciprocal arrangement. You are not morally obliged to support someone who is making the world a worse place.” Peterson provokes the reader to challenge his or herself into deep self reflection. I found myself journaling extensively while reading this and that is always a sign of a well written book by my standards. In chapter six, Dr. Peterson brought me to tears with his example from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s self reflection. I had listened to his podcast and lectures enough to know how much he loved The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn which I actually found volume 1 of that work at the LSU book sale for $4.00 in the very back of the warehouse as a cool side note. Anyway, Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet officer that was later put into a Soviet prison camp. Peterson writes in chapter six, “then he (Solzhenitsyn) asked himself the most difficult of questions: had he personally contributed to the catastrophe of his life? If so how? He remembered his unquestioning support of the Communist Party in his early years. He reconsidered his whole life. He had plenty of time in the camps. How had he missed the mark, in the past? How many times had he acted against his own conscience, engaging in actions that he knew to be wrong? How many times had he betrayed himself, and lied? Was there any way that the sins of his past could be rectified, antoned for, in the muddy hell of a Soviet gulag? Solzhenitsyn pored over the details of his life, with a fine-toothed comb. He asked himself a second question, and a third. Can I stop making such mistakes, now? Can I repair the damage done by my past failures now?” This is the kind of self reflection that brings people back, we are not all Soviet officers (I hope) but we have all failed and made awful mistakes. Instead of sweeping them under the proverbial rug, Peterson calls us to painfully make mature mental progress which will result in a better life. Finally, I found it very interesting what he had to say about success, “the successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future. What’s the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful? The successful sacrifice.” My generation expects the corner office and the loft apartment immediately. We have lost the understanding that success has a price tag and that price tag is sacrifice. More specifically, it is delaying gratification. Through and through, Dr. Peterson has made a tremendous impact on me and this work is one I will continually refer to going forward.
There is a lot more I could write about this book and Dr. Peterson but I strongly encourage reading 12 Rules for Life. The cynics can call it pop psychology or self help but it is so much more than that. It truly is an antidote to chaos, a lot of what he writes is stuff we already know to be true, he just brings it out in his writing. He does an excellent job in finding the value of mythology, religion but also science. Dr. Peterson is able to reconcile the fields with ease in his writing. As a young man, it is a great book to help forge me into a stronger one. This book is worth your money and your time. I will close this post with one final quote, “taking the easy way out or telling the truth those are not merely two different choices. They are different pathways through life. They are utterly different ways of existing.” This applies to our interactions with others and ourselves.
Written by Michael McPhail
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
Brains and Brawn 