Historicizing with a Bulldozer
Before talking about Peterson we should figure out how to talk about Peterson. The journalistic style of covering him (the man, the phenomenon, the intellectual of the hour), and the polemics erupting around him, have done little to educate non-specialist readers on the many areas they might need to evaluate his spectacle and arguments. I am picturing my childhood friends casually picking up 12 Rules for Life as a self-help book — and realizing that it is much more than a self-help book since it engages in political, philosophical, and historical arguments that clearly leave the realm of psychological advice. Peterson’s 12 Rules and many of his videos excoriate (a few of) the very same French intellectuals I study as a historian, so I will focus on this topic. Since Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault perhaps represent Peterson’s ultimate villains — aside from Karl Marx, of course — both friends and foes of Peterson might be interested in this piece.
Scholars need to tell their stories: if I simply dump a bunch of predictable labels on Peterson or his enemies, and teach you nothing about the relevant intellectual history, then I’ve clearly failed you. Hold me to telling this history generously and truthfully — and let us hold Peterson to the same standard. For he writes, “above all, don’t lie. Don’t lie…
