While current affairs (and I suppose “celebrity culture”) rarely crosses my radar any more, recent affairs regarding Jordan Peterson have, notably his train-wreck of a Jubilee appearance that many have called him out on as being far less artful in his interaction with young critics of his than those that brought him to prominence in the mid-2010s. I realised immediately that Peterson had failed to be relevant in my worldview for at least a few years now, which got me reflecting on my relationship with his work.
It was around 2018 or 2019 when Jordan Peterson first came on my radar. I read his book, 12 Rules For Life, sometime in mid-2019, and I could see why so many young men were finding inspiration from the life lessons he explored within that piece. It was one of the first times in my life where I realised I did have agency and power to be the master of my realm, no matter what strife came my way. That was incredibly empowering for me. Couple that with early interviews where he acutely calls out and shuts down interviewers with ulterior motives, or is willing to listen to opponents and make sharp, well-reasoned arguments back in a way that demonstrates his sympathy for future generations, and he was one of those people who happened to be in the right place at the right time to be catapulted into the spotlight.
They say all things good shall come to pass, and I would hardly be the first person to point out his decline in more recent years. In preparing for this piece, I looked at others who had tracked his trajectory in recent times, and perhaps one of the most comprehensive I came across is his former Daily Wire associate Candace Owens’ recent video on him. In it, she highlights everything from the hypocrisy of not following his own rules of “tidying his room” and “setting his own house in order”, being nonsensical in his explanations, deriding people who call him out as “dark tetrad” psychopaths in an appeal to his “expert” status. Couple this with the incoherent positions on Covid jabs and the genocide in Gaza, and it certainly seems like he is coming undone.
It’s perhaps a great case-study against the worship of others as idols. We are all fallible, and Peterson is no exception. And yet, Peterson’s lack of substance behind his religious beliefs and unwillingness to say he believes in God - which atheists like Matt Dillahunty and Richard Dawkins have acutely made us aware of - makes his downfall even more noteworthy. In the failure of Peterson to name what he truly believes in, it seems as if he ends up believing in his own legend, rather than a divinity that lives beyond ourselves and that can act through him and his actions should he recognise it. That is the same behaviour of the fallen angels and devils - we only need to look around us to see where that behaviour on a grand scale has led.
I am grateful that Jordan’s works have been inspiring for many people in the late 2010s. However, the world of 2025 is not the same as 2016. Peterson has not only lost his relevance, but is now in the process of tarnishing the legacy of good that he did. It’s painful and tragic to watch, especially given the well-publicised health and family challenges he has had - and the good he has done.
sums this sentiment up well in his own piece, “The Fall of the Prophet”.
I can only hope he comes to see the grave he is digging for himself. Jordan Peterson: thank you for your service. It’s time to step down.
Jordan Peterson: It's time to step down. While your words may have provided us gifts, I fear you're growing tired and cynical, For your kingdom now seems tyrannical. Like an angel who has fallen from high, You scream your godless rage at creation. How was the view from atop Babylon? How does it feel now the pedestal's gone? Flowers are destined to lose their petals, For they give way to allow for new growth. Those resisting nature become rotten; They sow no seed and thus are forgotten. Welcome back home. Now tend to your Eden, And clear the bracken of all its serpents So boys that you saved, who look on with frowns, Can now grab the thorns to make their own crowns. Jordan Peterson: It's time to step down.
Jordan Peterson: The Fallen Angel ~ A Poetic Sendoff by Tom Shaw
Thank you for taking the time to read this piece. Let me know in the comments where Jordan Peterson has crossed your radar, and what you think of his current efforts.
With gratitude,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
I listened to and studied Peterson and his daughter for years. I found his health issues and those of his wife and daughter to be particularly interesting.
At one point, all three famuly members were very sick and at that time much conventional medicine failed them miserably.
For example...
Mikhaila, Jordan's daughter, experimented with changes in her diet and she found her new diets to be profoundly curative. Night and day.
Evidently the Peterson family, and family friends, helped each other to sound health with love and logic. Their diet is not for everyone, but I think we all need to treat ourselves to healthy doses of such love and logic.
I understood the 12 rules idea, like the 12 steps idea of AA, as something that might be very useful for certain people who might be struggling with autonomy. I never thought it was for me.
Also, when I saw the academic book reports on Exodus and other books of the Christian Bible, I took them the same way I take Wikipedia articles. I study them to become familiar with the names, events, and ideas that are related in close association. I take everything with a grain of salt.
I certainly never saw Jordan as a spiritual leader. I really don't think there is such a thing.
Believe much?
As for me personally, I believe we are surrounded by miracles that we constantly fail to appreciate.
For example, I am an extreme introvert, a happy hermit, now married into an extended family of hundreds, many of whom honor me by calling me "Tío" (uncle). In any given year since 1990, I get at least three times as many hugs as there are days in a year.
Each hug is a miracle, a gift from God, as far as I'm concerned. Good luck trying to convince me otherwise.
Jordan will never be my personal counselor, spiritual or otherwise,, but I believe he has discovered some significant ideas respecting rhetoric, logic, health, metaphysics, and science. Many of his ideas, I beilieve, are worth careful examination.
But...
What do I lnow?
mark spark
[ :-)
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Hi Roger,
When the harmful elements of a presentation outweight the benefits of it, then it's time to look elsewhere for one's learning and wisdom.
I think any debate, as a zero sum activity, producing a loser with every winner, will always be limited in its benefits. Being convincing is not the same as being right.
The dialogue you mention, if I understood you correctly, specifically as a mutual search for truth, call it a "dialectic," might be the best possible approach to discovering the truth. That would be a non-zero sum activity, a win/win, metaphorically speaking, the rising tide that lifts all boats.
Methods may differ, but the intention of discovering the true true, with its inherent goodness and natural beauty, such intention, and such attention, are what matters.
I summarize this rinse-and-repeat process as
Wake up
Wise up
Grow up
Show up...
I think at least 4 paths to truth should be consideted together, that is
Intuition
Imagination
Science (testing experientially)
Reasoning
and that implicate reality (souls, agape, compassion) matters just as explicate reality (measurable, observable stuff) matters.
mark spark
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