Making Order out of Chaos
I know we’ve often been advised to not only read the books we’re assigned but also read about the books we’re assigned. That is, we’re meant to read reviews and the like, but I can’t say I always do. This week, though, for whatever reason I decided to start with some reviews of Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. I stumbled upon the following:
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone described the work as an “original, provocative, complex, and fascinating book, which is also at times conceptually troubling, unduly repetitive, and exasperating in its format”; however, the “positive values of the book far outweigh its detractions.”[1]
Others have called it “elaborate, unprovable, unfalsifiable, unintelligible.”[2] After reading that I was not eager to crack the spine of this 500+ page book, but I dove in.
I’ll simply scratch the surface of Peterson’s thoughts (elaborate and repetitive indeed) by highlighting two take-aways. Firstly, in a sense he echoes Stephen Hicks as he explains the evolution of thinking over time. With Hicks we traced changes in epistemology from the Middle Ages through Modernity and into our current Postmodern era. Likewise, Peterson evokes these changes when he talks about Myth and its role in pre-modern times. He explains that the Enlightenment ushered in experimental thinking and the age of scientific discovery. He says, “Myth is not primitive proto-science. It is a qualitatively different phenomenon…. We are familiar with scientific thinking and value it highly, so we tend to presume that it is all there is to thinking.”[3] As our cohort has discussed recently on John Fehlen’s blog and elsewhere, we are eager for a post-postmodernism.[4] But when the pendulum swings, where will it come to rest? What would a post-postmodernism actually look like? If pre-modernism was characterized by myth and mystery, the spiritual and the unknown and modernism moved us toward solid, provable science, what will come after our current era where there seems to exist no objective truth?
As for my second take-away, mythical archetypes obviously played a significant role in Peterson’s book, but his thesis might be summarized as follows: The human experience is made up of chaos and order, the domain of the unknown which we seek to explore and understand thus making it known[5].[6] Just as Peterson tells us, when we cross over into the domain of the unknown our emotions become dysregulated.[7] In other words, we enter into a mental state of stress which affects all other areas of our functioning. Nearly twenty years ago, in the course of my master’s degree, I encountered the term “tolerance of ambiguity.” As you might guess, the term refers to a person’s ability to operate effectively in the midst of uncertainty. In the midst of chaos, Peterson might say.
In our pre-field evaluations, I scored reasonably high in the “tolerance of ambiguity” category. But I don’t think anything can really prepare a person for the ambiguity (read: chaos) that is the first few years on the mission field. To make matters worse, as one’s stress level rises, one’s tolerance of ambiguity plummets. You’ve probably had comparable situations, and I would love to hear about your experiences.
As I wrap up, there are two things we can say for sure about tolerance of ambiguity. First of all, as humans we are hard-wired to seek order, control, agency and everything that is the opposite of ambiguity. Some people are more flexible and accepting of ambiguity than others, but we all seek to avoid it or at least avoid too much of it.
Secondly, as my husband reminded me this week, tolerance of ambiguity is like a muscle we can build. In my own experience, we can learn to let go and hold the future more loosely, whether that future is this afternoon or 10 years down the road. Living cross-culturally has certainly forced me to grow in this area. Painful as that growth was at times, I’m grateful for the ability to hold things a bit more loosely and to make peace with the chaos, at least most of the time.
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[1] Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine (2000). “The psychology of what is and what should be: An experiential and moral psychology of the known and the unknown: Review of Peterson on Meaning-Belief” (http://www.cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?meaning-belief.2). Psycoloquy. 11 (124).
[2] Nathan J. Robinson (14 March 2018). “The Intellectual We Deserve”. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve
[3] Jordan B. Peterson. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. New York: Routledge, 1999. 9.
[4] https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/how-long-to-sing-this-song/
[5] Jordan B. Peterson. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. New York: Routledge, 1999. 19.
[6] For Peterson, the order and the chaos bring him to explanations of archetypical myths, including interaction between masculine and feminine figures. While I acknowledge his reflections, the role of myth and archetypes is beyond my discussion in this post.
[7] Ibid., 32.
About the Author
Kim Sanford
2 responses to “Making Order out of Chaos”
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Hi Kim,
You wrote,”I’m grateful for the ability to hold things a bit more loosely and to make peace with the chaos, at least most of the time.”
Perhaps one man’s chaos, is another man’s treasure. Okay..that’s probably wrong, but from experience in working cross culturally, I frequently found that I was the anomaly. The Hungarians (after 26) continue to cofound me with some of their behaviors.
Perhaps Americans cling to hard to linear thinking.
Shalom…
Kim,
I love how your beautiful brain works. I always learn so much more when reading your posts. I watched a podcast with Peterson and Hicks, it was interesting hearing them discuss Postmodernism. When approaching this ample book, I wasn’t quite sure Peterson would address myths. I was drawn to his writing on Baptism and I did not focus on much else. You wrote, “Nearly twenty years ago, in the course of my master’s degree, I encountered the term “tolerance of ambiguity.” As you might guess, the term refers to a person’s ability to operate effectively in the midst of uncertainty. In the midst of chaos, Peterson might say.” Operating in the midst of uncertainty really resonates with me. I do believe I am in such a season.