Garm
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2019
Amusingly enough, the Apostle Paul warned Christians in his writings not to become entangled in 'the empty philosophy of man' and be distracted from the simple truths of God's Word. Regardless of whether you agree with those truths or not, the fact remains that they're all pretty basic stuff that people like Peterson have turned into labyrinthine omnibuses that have very little practical value. I think he's more grounded than most and has a solid moral foundation, but 99% of what he says is extraneous waffle that can be summed up as 'have empathy, don't be a dick, work to improve yourself'. That's basically all you need.
I get the feeling that technology is quickly getting society to the point where there are no simple answers.
If I teach a person how to use machine tools, they can take those skills and make a gun. Am I empowering a person with education or am I undermining another person's security?
The arguments for abortion can be used to justify genetic engineering. Do you oppress women because we need fairness? Or do you let people design their children as a right?
A socialist who wants "a roof over every person's head" will come into conflict with an environmentalist who decides that the speckled wood cock needs a habitat.
Peterson doesn't have the answers to these questions. Just the old "left-right' spectrum is going to break apart and we will have a lot of new questions we would have to ask ourselves.
Most working class people never had any exposure to philosophy and it did them just fine. Hell, most people don't give a shit about philosophy.
Are you sure it's not just because he's telling a certain kind of person exactly what they want to hear?
That they don't have to live with a spiritual malaise because they feel empty and hollow inside? That maybe they have to find their own meaning in the world instead of waiting for someone to give it them?
That is the problem with educating people. They start asking question their teachers can't answer. Now it isn't good enough to go from high school to a factory job, you have to go to college to get the fancy book schoolin' or else you will get left behind.
In restrospective, we may end up saying that all the criticism in this thread boils down to the fact that, maybe, Jordan Peterson had the right ideas but the wrong means? Maybe, I dunno.
I can't really argue with this.
If I say "his timing was wrong" then that implies that his time would be after socialist policies were enacted and we found out they didn't solve the problem.
If I say that "his audience was a bit overzealous" then I'm blaming common people.
Personally I think that the "Greatest Generation" came back and said "Fuck tradition and philosophy. It didn't prevent two world wars and I have a house and car in the suburbs now. I don't need any fancy learning."
Now we have the baby boomers and the Gen X generations who had all the materialism and rebelled against everything only to end up bitter.
So millennials and zoomers are looking for something else and Peterson fills the void for now.