How to Become a Civilized Monster
Lessons from Dr. Jordan Peterson, the Jungian Perspective.
It is not every day you hear advice on becoming a monster; it is usually the other way around. “Be harmless,” they say. But how do you fight the monster that dwells in every mans’ heart without being one yourself? Jordan Peterson provides us with an answer.
“The answer is simple. You don’t,” he says “You become a monster by fighting a monster.”
A common misconception in our society today is that most people believe that harmlessness is synonymous with virtue. People think because someone is incapable of cruelty, he is more virtuous than someone who is. This is not true. Jordan Peterson likens the harmless to a rabbit.
He says, “You are like a rabbit… A rabbit is not virtuous, it’s harmless, it can do nothing, except maybe get eaten.”
“But If you’re a monster and you show restraint and not act monstrously, then you’re virtuous.”, he continues.
Morality is the constrained capability for mayhem and malevolence.
“It is not good to be moral if the reason your moral is that you cannot be otherwise,” — Jordan B. Peterson
Nietzsche pointed out that most of morality is cowardice. This is correct. As Joker says in the killing joke, “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy…”
“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.” — Joker.
The problem with harmless people is that they’ve never been in a situation that would turn them into monsters. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says in his Gulag Archipelago; “….the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being….”
“If only it were all so simple! if only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Jordan Peterson continually refers to the events of the 20th century, the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin, and he says that to understand what the perpetrators of those heinous acts were like, we have to put ourselves in their shoes and we would see how easy it is for anyone to commit evil.
He says, “they’re exactly just like you, and if you don’t know this, you’re naïve and you know nothing about people, including yourself.”
The question is not if you have the capability of becoming a monster. The question is, what sort of monster do you want to become? A controlled monster or a resentful and hate filled one?
Jordan Peterson says you either become a monster voluntary or accidentally. You might ask, “how does someone become a monster accidentally?”
“It’s easy,” he says “suffering makes you bitter, your bitterness makes you resentful and resentment makes you vengeful.”
Because of your bitterness you feel like the universe is out to get you and you take out your frustrations on the world. Like going into a school and shooting up a bunch of kids.
“And if you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” — Jordan B. Peterson.
Jordan Peterson supports his claim by citing examples found in popular culture. He explains the popularity of the antihero myth in most cinematic representations.
We observe this all the time in Hollywood movies that have racked in billions of dollars by popularizing anti-heros such as: James bond, Wolverine and Deadpool, just to name a few. We admire and celebrate them even though they do things that are morally wrong. Like, kill people.
Jordan Peterson says it’s because we secretly want to be like them. He says, “They are tough and can handle anything because the monster within gives them strength of character.”
One of the most relatable analogy that Jordan Peterson uses in explaining his hero myth concept is the Harry Potter series written by author J. K. Rowling. We all know the story of Harry Potter, how he is flawed and has a part of Voldemort in him. He can speak parseltongue and he breaks the rules all the time.
Throughout the book we can see he continually fights the evil within by using occlumency and other means to keep the evil at bay. Eventually building a strong moral character despite having a monster dwelling within him.
If Harry didn’t break the rules a few times, okay, maybe more than a few times, he wouldn’t have attained the highest goal. He wouldn’t have defeated Voldemort.
“It is a common mythological notion,” Jordan Peterson says, “the hero has to become a monster, but a controlled monster. Batman is like that…”
It’s important to note that in all these stories even if the anti-heros did something terrible like, using a book to kill someone, they were doing it for the greater good, like maybe saving the world from a Nuclear Holocaust or getting revenge for their dead dog.
“You should be a monster. An absolute monster. And then you should learn how to control it.” — Jordan B. Peterson.
Becoming a controlled monster is the main ethos in the philosophy of martial arts. Martial arts philosophy emphasizes on the importance of self-control and respect for others. Martial arts trains you to be a monster, and also to be peaceful and to avoid fights.
The training is necessary because if a day comes when you’d ever need to save a damsel in distress from a group of serial rapist. You’d be damned sure you’re getting that thank you kiss.
The silver lining to being a monster is that if you’re a competent fighter, it decreases the possibility of people ever wanting to get into a fight with you. Look at Dwayne Johnson. How many fights do you think he gets in? A bully will only persist when he knows you are powerless to stop him.
Jordan Peterson says for any rational person the goal of life should be peace. And not the peace of cowering in the basement and spewing hate speeches and fascist ideologies.
He says, “it’s the peace and respect armed opponents have for each other.”
Nobody will shoot first, they are aware of each other’s capabilities.
“You can either stay naïve and vulnerable to falling prey to evil by possession or you can voluntarily integrate your monster.” Jordan Peterson says, “you don’t have a choice, voluntarily integrating the monster is perhaps the only way you can bring it under civilized control,” he concludes.
This means you have to act like a warrior and discipline your monstrosity. But to become a warrior you have to be a monster. Development of character and strength is associated with the development of the monster.
It doesn’t mean you should go about breaking rules in the name of building character. It’s NOT that simple. Look at it this way. If not breaking the rules — like not killing the bad guys — will cause something worse to happen, like blowing up the world with stolen nuclear codes, then you should definitely kill the bad guys.
The question remains, how do we voluntarily integrate the monster?
Integrating the Monster
Jordan Peterson references Carl Jung in some of his lectures. Jung believed that to confront the monster it was necessary for a person to integrate their shadow.
The shadow being those parts of the individuals that are hidden in the unknown. The shadow is all those parts of yourself that you’re scared to confront. Jung concluded that integrating the shadow was difficult because it required a considerable amount of moral effort.
It is only through integrating the shadow that you can come to realize how you can also commit the terrible atrocities you cringe at every day in the news and without that understanding there is no possibility of bringing it under control.
Jordan Peterson says the integrating of the shadow is an intellectual enterprise. He says it involves adopting a comprehensive and properly directed philosophy.
He says something like this, “It’s a matter of facing the things you are afraid of and not cowering in ignorance and naivety. If it were easy, everyone would be a paragon of wisdom.… but the path to enlightenment and wisdom is seldom travelled.”
Jordan Peterson tells the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table to explain the process of integrating the shadow.
In this story, King Arthur and his knights go out to look for the Holy Grail. “The Holy grail is a symbol for transformation, like the phoenix, it is an Ideal,” he summarizes.
They go off to find the most valuable thing, the ideal, and where do you look for the most valuable thing when you don’t know where it is? You descend into the unknown.
He says it is only “In filth, it would be found.”
Each of the knights enters the unknown forest at the point darkest to him. That is a very interesting story, because it shows that courage is the first requirement for transformation. You look for what is darkest to you, what you are most afraid of, and you confront it.
He points out that there are parts of your personality that are underdeveloped, because you have avoided looking at them or because society has squashed you into conformity and demanded that you act in a certain manner. He says that the process of conformity constrains your potential in only one direction.
“I don’t think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some well-developed insight into your capacity for evil.”
― Jordan B. Peterson.
And the gateway to wisdom or the gateway to developing your personality and realizing your full potential is precisely through the portal which you do not want to pass through.
“That which you most need is to be found, where you least want to look.” he concludes.
You cannot survive this world without being a monster. The world is monstrous and full of evil.
“Don’t underestimate malevolence and don’t underestimate your capacity for malevolence. If you’re weak, turn yourself into a monster,” he warns.
Being a civilized monster is better than being harmless. And that should be the goal. To have the capacity to stand up for yourself and to say no when you need to.
To be virtuous, you don’t have to be harmless. You should be dangerous.
“In fact, the more dangerous you are the better,” as Dr Peterson puts it, “but you should control it, be a controlled monster.”
And when life’s tragedy comes knocking on your door, you will be equipped to handle whatever life throws at you without breaking.
The alternative is cowering in fear, resenting everyone and everything, “that is the real pathway to darkness.” Dr Peterson summarizes.
