It Was Really Dark In There, So I Couldn't Take Notes: The Dr. Jordan Peterson Tour

YouTube star and political personality Dave Rubin opened for Dr. Jordan Peterson, and the crowd was thrilled.  He congratulated Portland on being the first stop of the tour to garner protests (loud cheers) and applauded the audience for being a part of the "Intellectual Dark Web," as coined by Eric Weinstein. He also wondered aloud how a 5 ft 4 Orthodox Jew (Ben Shapiro, my intellectual dream date) could be such a popular face of this revolutionary thought movement (even louder cheers).  And then he graciously introduced former Harvard and current University of Toronto professor, clinical psychologist, and author Dr. Peterson.

Gutenberg and the Podcast

Dr. Peterson was bemused that so many people were gathered to hear him deliver a lecture on mythos, psychology, Biblical themes, and science; he wondered aloud "what the hell you are doing here," to much laughter. But then he dove into the Gutenberg-like phenomenon of podcasts and YouTube and what they say about our society. TV, he posited, is a much different medium - it has incredibly expensive bandwidth (the production costs of a 1-hour show are prohibitive), it is heavily commercial (it must be a slick and appealing product), and it therefore limits how deep into conversation one can really go.  The maximum time limit on any one topic is about 7 minutes and it is often filtered through the TV host's own views and biases. Print journalism is likewise constrained, but not so narrowly.  But the rise of YouTube, podcasts, and Netflix have ushered in some interesting phenomena. First is the apparent hunger for much greater depth and complexity. Netflix shows in particular layer meaning upon meaning, plot device upon plot device, and the characters are increasingly complex. This is not the TV of the 1980s or 1990s, and people no longer consume this media in half-hour to hour installments.  No, they demand "binge" access.  Second, the average podcast material demanded by the public is 9 hours.  This is amazing. Our attention spans seem to be increasing, despite what we might otherwise think, and our appetite for intellectual content has soared. His previous show would have included a Q & A session, but he had staged a debate between himself and Sam Harris, a liberal neuroscientist and critic of religion, and the audience didn't want their debate to end. The debate itself was what was wanted, and that indicated to Dr. Peterson (along with our puzzling presence tonight) that the public is hungry for more substance and has an increased capacity to consume it. Podcasts and YouTube have also enabled us to consume much more high intellectual content and more easily because each is audio rather than written word. We can and do listen to podcasts (and he mentioned the Joe Rogan Experiment as the most popular) while working, exercising, eating, performing mundane tasks, etc. in ways we could never sit down and read a book, and at no cost, adding almost 2 extra hours to our lives everyday. This media revolution is akin to the sudden emergence of accessible written word made possible by Johannes Gutenberg and his moveable type printing press.  And unlike what we might assume, current media has not made us less intelligent.

Hierarchy and Inequality

Dr. Peterson went on to address the most controversial chapter in his new book, "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote Against Chaos," which is Chapter One: "Stand up straight with your shoulders back." He laughed and said this was not at all the chapter he expected to cause such a ruckus - much more likely would have been Chapter 5: "Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them."  After all, he quipped, everyone knows that children can be dislikable, and especially to their own parents, but we aren't supposed to talk about that. But no, Chapter 1 and its discussion of hierarchies has really upset some of the public.  They think, he said, that he is promoting a strict hierarchy of winners and losers in society and that all good things should only go to the wealthy and privileged, even though that is "a terrible misreading of what I was trying to say."  People also get very upset that it is about lobsters. (Cue much giggling.) And it IS about lobsters - their milennia-old insistence on social hierarchy that has withstood eons of evolution and that mimics itself among humans.  We are evolutionarily designed to recognize hierarchy - it's not a social construct.  And that hierarchy manifests itself in everything. For instance, he said, some plumbers are better than others.  ALL plumbers are better at plumbing than non-plumbers.  (The guy sitting next to me is a pipe-fitter by trade and we had a good laugh at that truism.) Specific skills will always create a hierarchy because some of us have a specific skill, some of us are inevitably better at it than others, and that leaves a whole bunch of people at the bottom who lack those skills entirely.  This creates inequality, which is undesirable. The question is not "How do we get rid of skills so as to get rid of inequality?" but "How much inequality can we tolerate for the greater good?"

The Five Personality Traits and Politics

Dr. Peterson went on to tell us that there are 5 major personality traits that motivate us and modulate our behavior, and that each of the five is a scale of high to low:

• Extroversion - How social we are/are not. High extraversion can be seen as attention-seeking, while low extroversion can be seen as reserved, reflective.
• Agreeableness - High: compassionate, friendly vs low: detached, challenging, or competitive.
• Conscientiousness - High: dutiful, organized, self-disciplined (even controlling/rigid). Low: flexible, spontaneous (can be seen as sloppy/careless).
• Openness - How open we are to new experiences. High: Creative, artistic, curious, open to a variety of experiences (can be considered unpredictable, unfocused, or prone to risky behavior). Low: cautious,  pragmatic, data-driven (can be considered dogmatic or close-minded).
• Neuroticism: How we deal with stress and worry. High: moody, self-critical, jealous, and depressed. Low: confident, even-tempered, low stress.

Dr. Peterson said that liberals tend to score high on Openness while conservatives tend to score high on Conscientiousness. Therefore, liberals tend to be our artists, our writers, and our entrepreneurs, while conservatives tend to be managers and administrators.  And thus we see how much we need one another. We need liberals to create new businesses, and create art; meanwhile, we need conservatives to manage and administer those new businesses and ideas. Liberals tend to ignore the rules in favor of creativity, and sometimes that is necessary because if we do what we have always done, nothing new will ever come about.  Conservatives tend to insist upon the rules, and those rules are there for good reasons. The question becomes, when is it appropriate to change our structure, and when is it better to stick with what we have? After all (and this really struck me as something I hadn't quite considered in this way, too much order leads to tyranny, and too much chaos leads to nihilism. We cannot ever know for sure when it is the best time to change and when it is better to maintain order because our environment is always changing. We may become ill, our spouse might die, we might find out our boss is a psychopath, our marriage might end, etc. Things are always changing.  That is why it is so important to continue talking with one another. We need constant dialogue and to be truthful for that balancing act between order and chaos, tyranny or nihilism to continue to be successful. That is one reason why freedom of speech is so crucial - we need to be able to tell the truth and live out our words for balance to be maintained.

Osiris, Isis, Set, and Horace

Dr. Peterson noted that the Egyptian cosmology was an incredible insight into our need to shoulder the world and take responsibility for our own lives. This is why such a civilization lasted for thousands of years - it got to the heart of the matter.  He told us how Osiris was the god of order and power, and that he was undermined by his jealous older brother, Set. This is the classic story told in "The Lion King," of brother undermining brother and stealing his throne. Osiris, blind to his brother's treachery, is cut up in pieces by Set and scattered around the kingdom. Isis, goddess of chaos and the underworld, impregnates herself with the phallus of her husband and births Horace. Horace is pictured as both an all-seeing eye and a falcon, (birds of prey are the only animals to have keener eyesight than man).  He is the god of sight. His blessing and curse is to fly above the kingdom and witness all that is done by men - including things he does not want to see. He navigates the narrow space between Order (Osiris) and Chaos (Isis) and observes all things, including those things he least wishes to behold.  He represents us and our need to walk the thin line of Being between order and chaos and see both good and evil. We must learn to coexist with malevolence in order to overcome it - and we must be able to look inside ourselves and accept that we are capable of both great good and great evil.  "You all know that you are capable of mayhem," Dr. Peterson told us. "Just see what kind of tragedies people cause themselves, and then their family, and then their society if they refuse to take responsibility for themselves.  And yet, that also means that you are capable of equal good.  Just think of what kind of good one person can bring to themselves, and then to their family, and then to their society if they accept responsibility and take the burden of the world onto their shoulders."

Question and Answer Session

The best question that came out of the Q&A was the following: "How do I know when to get rid of a toxic friend?"

Dr. Peterson shared some truly useful advice here. First, highly agreeable people will want to help those who are struggling. It's in their nature to reach out and try to help. But this also means that highly agreeable people can become resentful.  Recognize when you become resentful, and ask yourself, "Is this because I am whiny and immature?" If so, deal with it and grow up. Quit whining.  However, if you are mature and can handle regular demands, then ask yourself, "Am I being taken advantage of?" Agreeable people can be taken advantage of, and they need to stop it. We have the ability to recognize this and put a stop to it by saying "No." If this is an "intransigent family member," it's likely that they have come to you whining and complaining about their situation. You have likely given them advice and suggestions on how to improve their lives.  Have they ignored you?  Then it's time to make a change.  Ask them to make you a deal - "Hey, let's make a deal. I will stop giving you unwanted advice, and in return, I need you to stop telling me about your problem." And then hold them to it, because they will come back and continue to take advantage of you if you let them. Do not cast your pearls before swine.  Yes, this is a harsh statement, but it is true.  If you are telling someone how to improve their life and they are ignoring you, you need to stop. If you are speaking and they are not listening, you are not where you thought you were. You need to leave that situation. And there may be a moment where you have to tell a friend, "It is no longer okay to take advantage of me." But it only really works if you have three examples.  They will ignore one and rationalize two, but they will have to listen to three.  Be specific.  If someone takes advantage of you once, let it go. Twice? Make a note of it.  Three times, and it is time to say "No" and stand up for yourself.

Those were the main elements of Dr. Peterson's talk, and they were fantastic. I also really recommend his book, "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos." I just finished Chapter 5. 

I'm exhausted, so I am going to bed. Enjoy!