Jordan Peterson’s Shadow

The Postmodern Neo-Marxism Conspiracy Theory

Postmodern Neo-Marxism. It’s one of the terms Jordan Peterson is most famous for. It’s a term that galvanises the ire of his fanbase and sends the anti-Peterson crowd into a veritable apoplexy.

It is impossible not to be stirred by the vehement passion of Peterson when talking about the Postmodern Neo-Marxists. Whether the feeling stirred is total rage at Peterson or at the so-called Social Justice Warriors depends of course on your own political leanings.

For those of us who are partial to a Jungian brew, this should have immediately stirred our suspicions. Because now looking back at it, it seems patently obvious that what we are seeing is a dance of the archetypal Shadow. Peterson’s narrative about the Postmodern Neo-Marxists goes, as we will see, beyond all reasonable bounds into the realm of conspiracy theory. It is not simple dismay with a cultural trend, it is the belief that this is a nefarious plot to overwhelm everything we hold dear.

When you put it like that it’s hard not to see Peterson’s Shadow. It’s written everywhere in this discourse. It makes a strawman out of its opponents and makes the French Continental philosophers into scapegoats for the decline of the West.