Jordan Peterson is a dude I can see oppressors enjoying, because his message of personal responsibility can be easily adapted to provide cover for their misdeeds.
Jordan Peterson doesn't believe in victim mentality and always appears extremely skeptical of privilege.
I have rolled my eyes at his positions more than once, but I really enjoy him too, because he speaks a message of universal empowerment and informed non-delusional optimism.
The speech I was listening to today was about Why it's not okay to be weak. To be a loser. To be a victim.
No matter what. Not that you don't HAVE to be a victim, but that it's ethically wrong to embrace it as an identity.
He made several points I was moved by:
- "It's not that life is better than you think..." Peterson is a master of winning arguments by first agreeing with you. The reality is life may be just as hard as you think it is. He concedes that. Racism is bad. Sexism is bad. Whatever obstacles you're fighting against are bad. It's even worse than you think. But you're still responsible to fight as hard as you can.
- "YOU are WAY TOUGHER Than You Think." We are much stronger than we believe we are. We are smarter and more capable than we think we are. But we're afraid. Being afraid, we choose to accept the excuses that life offers us. We play small and blame others. It's programming that gets harder to resist the more we do it. But it's still a choice. We can choose victimhood, or we can choose responsibility.
- "It is a CRIME to let all that NECESSARY POTENTIAL go to WASTE." Choosing to be a victim of a destiny that is assigned to you by outside forces that is less than your potential is stealing the contribution you were born to make, and trading it for the ease of going with the flow. The world needs us to at least try to live up to our potential. To do anything less is kind of a jerk move. Does the world oppose you? Of course it does (see #1), but you still have a contribution to make. You are powerful enough (see #2) to break through the resistance to at least go for your potential.
- "People who Take Responsibility are the ones we Admire." Whether it's the athlete who scores the game winner for the championship while playing on a bad knee, the at-risk kid from the projects who wins the spelling bee, or the superhero who saves the world and/or universe at large personal cost, we LOVE to see someone take responsibility when they have every right to give up. The reason we love it is because we know that is what life is about.
. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment