Member-only story
On Jordan Peterson
A review of 12 Rules for Life and other content
🎙 This article is also available in Podcast format.
A few months ago, I decided to read 12 Rules For Life. All my progressive friends hated Jordan Peterson, he was the butt of many jokes in most philosophical or political pages I followed, and the target of strong criticism by most publications I read. On the other hand, many friends of mine who are super nice, open-minded, accepting and non-judgemental men and women, but who are completely oblivious about politics, seemed to be enthralled by him. On top of that, Sam Harris, a public intellectual that I deeply admire, seemed to have a very favorable attitude towards Peterson, even though they disagree on some fundamental issues. I had listened to all their debates, but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I finally decided to take a final step and read his (in)famous book in an attempt to formulate my own opinion.
Most of my life I’ve read and thought a lot about ideological subjects such as religion, science, politics, philosophy, etc. I completely avoided thinking about life, career, relationships, etc. and I was completely cynical towards any type of self-help. It was only recently that I started spending large amounts of my mental energy on these topics, and being more in touch with my psychology and emotions. As a skeptic, I try to…
