Jordan B. Peterson
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
ISBN: 978-0-345-81602-3
We’re living in incredibly interesting times right now. (The understatement of the century, I know.) Polarization of political views, at first glance, seems to be driving people friends and families apart. Over the last few years, more time has been spent launching insults than solving problems. Many spend more time blaming others for their problems than working to fix those problems themselves. So, where does one turn when one wants to have rational debate and form solutions? In 2019, it turns out you look to a mysterious collection of people known colloquially as the “Intellectual Dark Web.”
At first, when I heard that there was a group of people who span the political spectrum referred to as the “Intellectual Dark Web”, I was intrigued. They sound so shadowy and mysterious! Even the pictures in the article make it look like you have to enter some sort of back-alley speakeasy, telling the pair of eyes you encounter behind a small sliding door a password in order to access this group’s conversations. However, in this era of hyper-offense and a blatant misunderstanding or disregard of the First Amendment (a failure of the American education system, to be sure), free speech in certain places is relegated to secret locations, fortified structures, and the printed word.
In the middle of all of this, Dr. Jordan Peterson published his book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The 12 rules in the book are designed to help people advance themselves, rather than waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting or waiting for the government to step in as some sort of great equalizer, knocking everyone down to a common denominator. If you’re not the type to slog through nearly 400 dense pages, much of what he covers in the book is straight from his YouTube videos or his answers to questions on Quora. I’d watched enough of his videos before I read the book, where I felt like I was reading the book in his distinctive voice.
Again, the book is incredibly dense. Unlike a lot of the other books I’ve reviewed, this wasn’t something I could sit down and tear through in an evening. Peterson’s meandering writing style keeps you captivated, but can really drag at times. I really enjoyed the anecdotes from his childhood in rural Canada, and could really see the parallels between what happens with the folks who leave their hometowns versus those who stay – much the same can be said about the people of the shrinking small towns throughout the Midwest.
Most of the people who could benefit from the wisdom of this book probably won’t read it. Many of those people probably won’t watch Peterson’s lecture videos or any of the Intellectual Dark Web’s long-form debates. The technology that was supposed to allow for debate and free speech has done much the opposite, and it’s up to all of us to help correct this wrong. I don’t agree with everyone in the Intellectual Dark Web – they span the spectrum from left to right, most land on the side of freedom of thought and movement and away from authoritarianism. Honestly, the rise of authoritarianism on the fringes (the social justice left, in particular) is what lead to the creation of the Intellectual Dark Web group. Only through dialogue and discussion will we move forward.
We need to get outside of our echo chambers and our bubbles, and experience some disagreement and some discomfort for the good of humanity. People would be better able to deal with minor disagreements if their buttons were pressed a bit more often. (Turns out that this theme winds up in at least one of Peterson’s 12 Rules.) Shutting down discussions and new ideas because they don’t line up with “the acceptable point of view” is the beginning of the slippery slope to the kinds of major state-sanctioned atrocities was saw in Europe and Asia during the 20th century. We would be wise to move away from the slippery slope, so we can leave those atrocities in the past.
Overall, 8/10, would recommend because the book gets you thinking about your situation, and should act as a springboard to the movement known as the Intellectual Dark Web.