Jordan Peterson not talking about the war

 

I encountered two criticisms of Jordan Peterson yesterday.  One of them was from Lewis Waller :then and now on Peterson

and the other was from the indomitable John Waters on his substack account -John Waters Unchained.

johnwaters@substack.com

The former was no surprise given that he jerks and genuflects with a post modernist knee though he affected to find much of value in Peterson’s Rules books.  What he objects to chiefly is the supreme emphasis on personal responsibility.   He parsed it as ‘response-ability’.  If the deck is stacked against you culturally, societally, what can you do, your options are limited.   Indeed, but how much of the truth is it?  The  Hero, a theme of Peterson’s, can turn on a dime.  He makes a space in the thicket of obstructions and decides with a healthy irascibility that this game of soldiers is a dead loss or salvable.   The insight into the interior checks comes from a rigorous ‘agenbite of inwit’  and the sense of divine love that carries you through that lonesome valley which pace Woody Guthrie you do not have to cross by yourself.

What John Waters would probably aver is that there is a lack of congruence with the structure of the human person in the philosophy of post modernism, critical theory and the dismal mephitic swamp of identarianism, viewpoint theory and cancel culture.  There is no joy in any of their liturgy rather misery and ananda deficit.  What the sage said : satyam vada, dharmam chara - speak the truth, follow dharma.  Suddenly that constricted space becomes boundless because as we are told - Being and the True are convertible.

Like the droll Meath man said - You’d wonder’ .  Why has Jordan nothing to say about the Covid  panic barring an irritable bark - ‘take the dam vaccine’.  He puts that foot out and then draws it back claiming that I understand why one wouldn’t want to take it.  Look this won’t do Jordan, too much of your stock in trade has been about resistance to mass movements.  The Shorter O.D. has a beautiful definition of panic:

“A sudden  and excessive feeling of alarm or fear, usually affecting a body of persons, and leading to extravagant or injudicious efforts to secure safety.”

Not talking about the war is talking about the war.  John Waters expresses his disappointment and  his article is well worth reading.  May I offer a defense of Peterson which brings into focus another archetype not spoken of by psychology.  As well as the Hero there is the Saint.  Psychology leaves off its shoes on that holy ground.  Peterson is not a saint who is prepared to martyrise himself.  He knows very well that if he says a word outside the rubric of correctness on youtube, he will be demonitised  and very likely kicked out.  I would not be surprised if he is planning to move to another channel.  The path of the Hero requires cunning.  In my view he came back to the battle too soon before his wounds were healed. And there were wounds which were not patent before he was stricken by multiple hurts any of which might have defeated another.  He was a wounded healer and like the Fisher King needs to drink from the Holy Grail to become whole and hale.