Clear Thinking v. Jordan Peterson

The Tragedy of Wasted Insight

Image: Jordan Peterson appears on Jubilee’s Surrounded.

This is, after all, a philosophy blog.

I've been going back and forth on whether I would write a Clear Thinking piece on Jordan Peterson. Then I sat through the entire episode of Jordan Peterson on Jubilee's Surrounded. I am embarrassed to admit that I understand what Peterson is trying to say. And yes, he actually has a point. I say this, as a self-identified atheist.

But understanding what someone is trying to say and agreeing that their method serves truth are two very different things. The real tragedy here is that Peterson is actually close to a serious insight. In some ways, he has accurately identified the territory that sits at the center of the true crisis of modernity—the same territory I've been exploring through my own mythopoetic experiments here at Notes From The Circus.

And that's what makes his approach so frustrating, and so dangerous.