Do you know Jordan Peterson?

You might not. In which case, I think you might just be missing out. Don't get me wrong, Jordan Peterson is wrong, but he's wrong in a way that's informative. There's a lot to learn from Jordan Peterson.

Jordan Peterson is a Clinical Psychologist, author, and former proffessor, who got famous after misreading the Canadian Trans Rights bill C-16. He thought, the law would criminalize the act of accidentally misgendering someone, which isn't what it does. What it does is make it illegal to misgender someone intentionally in order to harrass them. So if you see a person walk into your classroom, (as he was a proffessor) and Jordan says, "Look at him, he's late." And the person identifies as a woman, Jordan Peterson thought you could be sent to jail or fined for that, for him accidentally misgendering a student. He's wrong, of course, it's not illegal to misgender someone, only to harass them by misgendering them. So if he says "Look at him, he's late." Over and over again, every single day even though it's been made clear that that person would prefer the pronoun she, that is a crime now in Canada. 

Now you might say, "The government shouldn't force me to call anyone any gender." And you might be right, I honestly don't give a shit. But so long as we both agree, that accidentally misgendering someone is not a crime under bill C-16 than we then both agree that Jordan Peterson got famous of off a misunderstanding based on ignorance. Him misunderstanding things, attacking them based on the misunderstanding, and getting loads of praise and money for it, is a pretty common theme in his career.

But Jordan Peterson wrote a book, 12 rules for life, that I actually agree with, sort of. Jordon Peterson is actually a self help author on top of the clinical psychology / political grifter work he does. He is a man of many trades. His book, is filled with terrible comparisons of humans to lobsters, weird sexist analysis of order and chaos, way too many bible references, and a total misunderstanding of what moral relativism is. But I don't want to talk about that stuff, because it's wrong and things that are wrong aren't useful to us. I want to focus on the ideas he got right, which when he's not talking about lobsters, is the main focus of his book.

It's got lots of really really good rules in here. The general gist of the book is this, "Stand up straight, be honest and articulate what you want, take risks and be daring, even if its dangerous to yourself or others, work to better yourself, and see the good in life." These are all actually things I totally agree with. You should stand up straight, you should be honest and articulate what you want, you should take risks and be daring.

These are all sort of conservative ideas, which is kind of the strange state of politics today but it's true. The idea that as individuals we should stand up for ourselves and hold to our principals is not a bad one. I think there are good things in all of these points, "Stand up straight with your shoulders back" is a basically saying "look professional so people take you seriously." I agree with this. I think appearances can be everything, so you should try your best to look, well to look like you mean business. Chapter 2 says "Treat yourself like you're responsible for helping." Which is honestly perfect, because he's right. At the end of the day, no body can make as big of a change for you as you. Hell he says "Pursue what's meaningful and not what's expedient," which is like, the whole point of this freaking book that I am writing.  He says you should articulate clearly what you want, and stand up for yourself. If people don't think you want something you're never going to get it, which is honestly the truth. Act like you want a raise and then if that doesn't work say you want a raise, and mean it. In fact, I think we should all act a little bit more like how Jordan Peterson says we should act, but I have a radical idea.

What if we all did this together. You see, Jordan Peterson wants you to do all these things, but only as an individual. Imagine a world where a group of people, say a group of workers, all got together and went up to their bosses and articulated clearly what they want. That's what unionization is, and i doubt Jordan is very pro Union, because unions are a very left wing, somewhat marxist idea. Imagine, if we all got together and treated ourselves like we were responsible for helping. Imagine if we looked at problems, things like racism, sexism, poverty, the Opioid crisis, and we told ourselves "This is our problem, we are responsible for helping." Imagine if we all said, today let's do what's meaningful, not what's convenient.

Just, let's be honest for a second, when Collin Cappernick and the other Football players take a knee, are they not "clearly articulating what they want?" When Leftists say, "We should raise taxes to pay for healthcare for everyone" is not that us saying "we're responsible for helping?" 

What I like about Jordan Peterson, is this idea of personal responsibility. His words are honest and direct, "Figure your shit out so you can live a life with meaning." Which, is exactly what I want for the whole country. You can't take Jordon Peterson's 12 rules for life, and apply them to the country as a whole, without having basically exactly what I'm describing in this book. You can't say "Treat ourselves like we're responsible for helping" and still let people starve in the street. You can't say, "Befriend people who want the best for us" and still be allies with a morally bankrupt country like Saudi Arabia. You can't say "Don't let our children do things that make us dislike them," And still maintain the destructive consumerist culture we have in this country. You can't say "set your own house in order before you criticize the world," without believing the USA should become the best version of itself possible so that we can stand as an example to others. You can't say "be precise in your speech" and at the same time criticize those in society who are telling you what the problem is and what they think the solutions have to be. You can't say "Do things because they're meaningful, not because they're expedient," and still believe that the government should keep doing what it's doing now. 

I don't think JP is all that smart, but his 12 rules for life aren't half bad. I want this country to stand up straight, with its shoulders back, clean its room, make good friends, and tell people what it wants and what it stands for. I think it's a little silly, that you're a conservative if you think an individual should do these things, but you're a leftist if you think the whole country should.

Maybe we have to act strong as individuals, and as a country in order to get stuff done.