A few days ago I posted some news about the forthcoming March 2021 release of Jordan Peterson’s new book, ‘Beyond Order – 12 More Rules for Life’. It was an anodyne piece, broadly welcoming the news as we had favourably reviewed the author’s previous book, ‘12 Rules for Life‘. Yet there was a sudden surge in web traffic for that humble post. Why?
So far as I can see, two things explain the interest. One is that Peterson’s previous book was not just a best-seller but a publishing phenomenon. His series of lectures have also helped him to amass a large and loyal global fanbase. After Peterson’s prolonged absence from public life as he convalesced from a serious bout of ill-health, there are many people out there hungry to hear more from the Canadian psychologist. Yet there’s curiously little news posted to the web about the impending release of Peterson’s follow-up volume. Perhaps other websites are erring on the side of caution, choosing not to publish anything about someone who happens to be a best-selling author with a large readership.
On the other hand, there are plenty of stories about the supposed controversy surrounding the publication of his work. The publishing house in America who is to release his latest work has been struggling to placate ‘tearful’ employees, outraged that Peterson’s words could even see print and be brought to a wide readership. What on earth is going on?
Finding Jordan Peterson
For many people in the UK, Brexit changed everything. So too, for me. I am from a small town in the north of England and now live in a small town two hundred miles further south. The people I’ve always known as friends, neighbours and relatives were, for the most part, keen for the country to leave. When I asked them why, they articulated well their reasons for thinking that, on balance, the UK is better off outside of the EU than staying, which was mostly connected to national sovereignty and political accountability. Many had long-disliked the political project based in Brussels. The older ones voted against Ted Heath in 1974 as punishment for taking the UK in a year earlier. None said they were motivated to vote that way because lies on the side of a bus told them to, nor were any pressured by Russian oligarchs, and none said that they had no idea what they were voting for. Yet to many who consider themselves on the side of the angels, such people are inherently bad – either stupid, racist, or both. Despite the long and bloody road to democratic representation for the working classes, there are many ‘liberals’ who think they had no right interfering in matters that don’t concern them – such as having a democratic say in the future of the country they have always lived and worked in. I despaired, and my worldview became unanchored.
That was the personal background to first hearing Jordan Peterson’s distinctive Canadian tones on Dave Rubin’s podcast, because I was actively seeking out new voices. I liked what he had to say, and I set about finding more. In particular, I’d had a few rough years, and I was struggling to come to terms with a betrayal that had wreaked havoc within my family and left open wounds and substantial scars. Peterson’s talks on the nature of malevolence, and how it can take out unsuspecting naive people, hit home hard. He was right. I had been naive. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it made a lot of sense, and enabled me to contextualise what had been traumatic for me, and better understand the nature of evil. Even harder lessons were to come as I kept listening. Was I living up to my responsibilities? Did I even understand them? Answering those questions honestly, and doing something about them, was painful, yet so rewarding. It was also necessary, and I feel more firmly anchored in life now than I have ever been before. Part of the credit must go to Peterson, for pointing the way. Thank you, Dr Peterson.
In the past few years I have also read more of Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, both writers I had already come to admire, but whom I’d neglected, especially their more dauntingly lengthy books. Returning to them was inspired by Peterson’s work. I’ve grown an appreciation for hero’s journey mythological stories. And I wish I’d had as engaging a religious education teacher at school, since Peterson is the only person I’ve ever known who has been able to bring the biblical stories to life for me, interpret their meaning satisfactorily, and even inject a sense of wonder and awe. I’ve actively sought out his biblical lectures, finding them endlessly fascinating, and a rich source of information. They are great for long car journeys, and as good friends know only too well, I don’t cope well with being stuck in traffic jams. It takes Peterson’s calming voice to keep the anxiety at bay.
Cancelling Peterson
It was only a matter of time before the witch-hunt came for Peterson. After all, he holds certain unfashionable views about the nature of reality, and recognises Marxist dogma when he sees it. He is refreshingly unafraid to say so. Just as with public figures who support Brexit, the inexorable outrage machine moves from target to target, seeking to take them out for wrongthink. Although Peterson is still able to reach an audience, it is in spite of a concerted effort by his intolerant critics to shut him down. Cambridge University even rescinded the offer of a visiting professorship after the mob went into overdrive on campus. That Peterson was once photographed standing next to somebody wearing a t-shirt that was disapproved of was enough for the offer to be pulled. It’s a move that reflects very badly on Cambridge University, and signals to the intolerant censors there that all they need to do is kick up a fuss every time a member of staff, even a prospective one, has an opinion they don’t like, in order to get them removed. Should students progress through university never experiencing an opinion they don’t already hold? How is that now even a legitimate question to ask?
As far as I can see, the attacks on Peterson, and the supposed controversy that surrounds his work, is fabricated and disingenuous. They are dishonest and distorted interpretations of his work and of his views. Misrepresenting him is an expedient way of mobilising into action the army of social justice warriors who perpetuate the (always highly selective) outrage. I suspect if they were honest about it, the reason many academics dislike Peterson is because he talks with such lucidity about the historical precedents for cancel culture, such as Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China, in which the lives and careers of countless innocent people were destroyed by the state’s regressive army of thugs. Peterson is arming decent people with knowledge, and the ability to recognise intolerant Marxist dogma dressed up as social justice for what it is. And we can’t have that, can we?
Conclusion
There is a concerted effort to gain a stranglehold on our culture by those who claim that truth is whatever their beliefs are, that democracy is whatever outcome in an election they most desire, that open-mindedness is adhering only to their rigid ideological beliefs, that tolerance is defaming and destroying anybody who is not part of their tribe, that hate is any belief they do not hold, and that justice is getting their own way. They will not stop until they achieve their goal of taking out a heretic like Jordan Peterson. Those who rail against Peterson do so for disingenuous reasons, and with spurious accusations against his character. They believe that a perfect society can be created, but only once the human race is lined up with complete homogeneity of thought. Ironically, if they listened more to Peterson or read the works that have most influenced him, such as the polemics of Solzhenitsyn, they might understand how dangerously wrong are the suppositions upon which they hang their worldview, and how that road leads directly to hell.
There is a heavily-uprated comment beneath one of the many Jordan Peterson videos on YouTube that claims the reason Peterson draws so much hatred is that he holds up a mirror to people. I suspect there is more of a scintilla of truth to that. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for the trumped-up charge of corrupting young minds. The progressives wouldn’t allow Peterson off so lightly. This thought piece is my small gesture of support for heretics. We have to be able to break bread with people we disagree with. We have to have the intellectual curiosity to understand why other people believe what they do if their worldview differs from our own, rather than reaching for the lazy assumption that they must be stupid or bigoted. We have to be able to question our own beliefs, and have the humility to consider that other people may know things that we don’t. Otherwise, what hope is there for civilisation? Peterson’s voice connects with many people all over the world. He is an influential thinker and a prominent public intellectual. People who want to hear what he has to say are entitled to do so without bullying, harassment, or labels of bigotry being thrown at them. Nobody has to listen who doesn’t want to. But the progressives will never learn that they cannot control what other people think. The only antidote to their tireless browbeating is to show support for freedom of expression and champion voices like Jordan Peterson’s at any opportunity.
I look forward to reviewing ‘Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life’. The book is published by Allen Lane in hardback, eBook and audio on 2nd March. Pre-order Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life now.
