Jordan Peterson is one of the most influential thinkers, public speakers, and internet celebrities in the Western world. Professionally he is a clinical psychologist, YouTube personality, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He has authored or co-authored more than a hundred academic papers on various psychological, cultural, social, political, and religious topics. One of his books 12 Rules for Life is a bestseller in many countries.
His views on cultural and political issues receive widespread attention. He appears frequently as a guest panelist in various popular TV shows. However, his lectures and conversations, are propagated mainly through YouTube and podcasts and attract millions of viewers.
Peterson was born and grew up in an era When the Western nations were still traumatized from the destructions of the 2nd world war and the post-war world was divided into two opposite blocks. The Soviet Union was at its Peak and the continuous Fear of Nuclear War was lingering in the Western World. Literary works of Soviet writers were shaking and influencing the minds of intellectuals all around the world. The ideologies of Continental Philosophers like Neitzche and Marx were still hot topics in academic circles. And the Existentialists were pushing the Western mind into an individual crisis.
Peterson grew up under the influence of all these Fears . . . fear of Totalitarianism, fear of Socialism, fear of existential crisis, fear of a nuclear war, and fear of the Destruction of the world. In November 1989 the Berlin wall was demolished and the Soviet Union Collapsed. But soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Western powers considered that event not only a political victory but also a social, ideological, and cultural victory.
Western minds began to think that Marxism, Socialism, and Totalitarianism, are nothing but evil ideologies and cause nothing but destruction and then they began to target all those voices which were somehow related or influenced or have an inclination towards, socialism, totalitarianism and were being labeled as evil ones. Not only this, but the End of the USSR also created a sense of superiority in the Western mind regarding their political system, and social and cultural values. These things lead them to ignore the social and cultural problems prevailing within their own societies.
But people who had clear insights and instincts about the changes in their society were feeling that things were not right, Peterson was one of them. Not only this, there were conflicts and bloodshed in various parts of the world and there was no socialism or soviets to blame.
In 1999, Peterson published his first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, which became the basis for many of his subsequent lectures. It took Peterson a long period of 13 years to complete his book.
The book described a theory of how the mind works and how people construct the meaning of history.Throughout the book, the author attempted to answer a single question, how do social conflicts arise, and why do both individuals and groups get involved in the social conflict?
Peterson seems to realize that Western Society is facing serious issues on both individual and social levels, and he began to highlight some of those issues and he also tries to find out the reasons behind those issues. He succeeded to some extent but overall he appeared hiding or intentionally ignoring the main causes and that resulted in his failure of finding solutions to the problems.
Peterson himself was under immense social pressure that was forcing him not to criticize or blame the corporate world or capitalism. He intentionally tried to ignore all the problems resulting from the economic injustices in a capitalist society. He tried to deny the Importance of Money or wealth and other material resources in the success or failure of a person's life and tried to ignore their relationship with happiness and miseries in human life. He shuts his eyes from poverty, hunger, growing class differences, and economic injustices in society. because in Western societies it has become a norm that anything against capitalism is instantly labeled as some unforgivable sin, in the same way, as it is to praise something from socialism or other social systems,
With such compromises, Peterson tried to point out and address the issues in an indirect and obscure manner. Because he couldn't blame the society or economic or political systems, he chooses to blame the individual . . . and here he commits a crucial mistake . . .he not only blames the Individual but he puts all the burden and responsibility of dealing and solving the situation on the shoulders of the individual.
According to him personal talents can help an individual to move up in the hierarchy but when it comes to pointing out those personal talents, his answer is very strange and seems completely irrelevant. . . .
e.g talents he mentioned are
the ability to articulate truth.Ability to be competent,ability to make an appropriate moral judgment. When Peterson fully realized that his first book was not able to address the real issues and failed to solve the problems faced by an individual or by Western society, he began to work on his 2nd book.
End of Part 1
