Book Review of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life during the Coronavirus

Book Review of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life during the Coronavirus

The New York Times called Jordan Peterson, “The most influential public intellectual in the Western world right,” and his book 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos warrants serious engagement during the global health pandemic. The Canadian psychologist grips you with really basic stories with profound meanings, contextualized by psychological theorists, biblical quotes and philosophers on how humans can grapple with chaos. The psychological principles displayed are carefully stitched with conservative politics, with the aim of helping humans find authenticity to life. 

 Starting off with looking at crude and competitive drive lobsters have for domination amongst each other, how the lobsters become successful has meaning for us. The winning lobsters develop a stream of confidence that reproduces itself, creating more serotonin and less octopamine, forming a neuro-chemical difference between the lobsters that dominate versus the ones that don't. A certain type of dominating lobster forms, establishing a clear haves versus have nots. The accumulating serotonin in the dominating lobster or human demonstrates a few will rule, a few will specialize and a few will be on top. It's the rules of nature. Mastering competition as survival and success is just part of nature. Foundational for his thought, Peterson’s central belief that, “It is a truism of biology that evolution is conservative,” and detangling Peterson’s rightwing politics and his psychological framework is key (11, Peterson). When Peterson also states, “standing up straight with your shoulders back is not something that is only physical, because you’re not only a body. You’re a spirit, so to speak -a psyche- as well..” It appears as a form of self-help for all humans, and it gives us spiritual and historical meaning to a minor bodily practice. This is the appealing reasonable psychologist who can appear to be apolitical and try to jump between political labels as a result (27, Peterson). The two statements are different, one clearly political the other physical and psychological; these are the two distinct voices of Peterson we will disentangle. His useful psychological principles of human adaptability to chaos can be read without absorbing his conservative politics. 

Loaded with biblical stories and psychological theories, Peterson, in his mind, is genuinely attempting to allow us to peel back imposed layers on our psyche to develop our own individual authentic persona, free from ideology, and not manipulated by outside factors. Peterson emphasizes to take care of yourself, the way you would take care of someone else. He uses a pointed line from Nietzsche, “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.” Generating a false sense of life purpose from routines, we fall victim to meaningless repetition. Peterson continues to explain his rules; to advocate to surround yourself with people who genuinely support and love you, and leave the people that are always dragging you down. Comparing ourselves to others always inflicts self-degradation and is key that we only compare ourselves to ourselves, focusing on measuring and developing internal authentic growth. As a parent, we must teach children what is possible and what is not, as they always test the boundaries. Before blaming others, really think if you have exhausted all the solutions that are at your disposal. Scapegoating is one of the marks for demagoguery and narrowness. Pursue what is meaningful not expedient, as society and social groups impose what is deemed meaningful, not generated from our own inner persona. Tell the truth or at least don't lie, as lies become a common practice in society. The importance of listening, which can unearth new truths. Idealogues don't listen but only talk at you or an audience, a one way direction. Be precise in your speech, especially in moments of chaos, don't let things slide or become unclear. Do not bother children when skateboarding, the title to his second to last chapter goes deeper into allowing people to endure their process in life but it also goes into his belief in gendered roles in society as well as how leftists, marxist are totalitarian, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot type mass murder based leaders. His overall patriarchal view of history is that genders are stationary and women represent chaos, while males represent a universal leader and provider. It's the most political chapter, drifting away from the more practical and psychological principles he starts with. The final chapter, pet a cat in the street, Peterson shifts to the authentic individual. It is the most empathetic, giving, and sharing chapter, with a deep streak of benevolence radiating outward. He envisions a free individual with unique authentic goals and ambitions, loving to animals, who gives back, listens, and is connected to others as an equal. Someone could rewrite the whole book to authentically commit to the psychological socially healthy principles without any of the sexist conservative politics.

Peterson believes in a powerful potential for human progress but definitely doesn't think it's inevitable that it will generate. Human limitation has a cost. Peterson quotes Dostoevsky from Notes from Underground: “So you see, you can say anything about world history- anything and everything that the most morbid imagination can think up. Except one thing, that is. It cannot be said that world history is reasonable. The word sticks in one’s throat.” (346, Peterson). Our history has been riddled with chaos, war, mass murder and extracting universal truths from it has led to more sectarian violence. But we are attracted to constructed truths, religions, organizations, and leaders who appear to explain the world. As a species without peers, we don't have a clear understanding of our own limits. Looking forward is difficult. That scares us and drives us. Peterson points out the Olympic gold medal vault from 1956 and the Olympic silver medal vault from 2012, “it didn’t even look like the same sport - or animal. What McKayla Maroney did in 2012 would have been considered superhuman in the fifties.” (296, Peterson). If we can learn to grow from our own instincts, experience, authentic aspirations, we can see human’s ability for remarkable growth. Whether it's the drive to stand up straight or how humans progress in olympic level athleticism, the common content of progress shall interest all humans, independently of politics. Ironically Peterson believes so many political forces stand in the way of this human growth, while his own conservative framework forms hidden barriers for the process he advocates for. 

Peterson politicizes his view against the left, feminists, ethnic studies, marxists, etc., creating tension with his representation, which marginalizes the useful psychological content to his rules. But someone can extract his psychological insights on growth and confidence; cleaning your inner, finding authenticity and purpose, listening in a real way, without any of his conservative politics. As both the book and our pandemic situation suggests, learning to deal with chaos is key, when we have lost many of our psychological survival tools. The politics of our era, a global pandemic with very difficult heads of state exacerbating the problem, creates chaotic bio-politics. Hearing about individual responsibility seems to be opposite to our pandemic’s reality, but our individual initiative can be meaningful in our localities. It is also clear humans have to readapt to a new world, with a new sense of danger. 12 Rules for Life can help for sure, and most of its psychological insights are powerful and useful, especially as we have to learn to live in isolation and think critically. That is all written works have a political agenda, including 12 Rules for Life.