{"id":40941,"date":"2025-04-09T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40941"},"modified":"2025-04-13T06:22:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T13:22:50","slug":"i-have-no-idea-what-he-just-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/i-have-no-idea-what-he-just-said\/","title":{"rendered":"I Have No Idea What He Just Said…"},"content":{"rendered":"

During Dr. Jordan Peterson\u2019s recent U.S. tour, he stopped in Oklahoma. Several people I know bought tickets to attend. After it ended, I heard them say, \u201cI have no idea what he just said, but he sounds like he knows what he\u2019s talking about.\u201d Jordan Peterson’s books and podcasts are indeed tough to follow, and honestly, I was not thrilled to have his book, Maps of Meaning,<\/em> on the reading list this semester. However, after several failed attempts to dig in, I finally found a place to latch on through his musings about things that challenged him as a young adult. Those topics piqued a deep and lasting curiosity about people and social structures. A curiosity that resonated with me. He began studying belief systems and the power they hold to transform individuals or populations, mythology and how it shapes culture and religion, and the tension between systems of order and disorder, which are sometimes described as known vs. unknown or even good vs. evil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As a young Socialist, an ideology he held only temporarily, Peterson felt that economic injustice was at the root of all evil. This led him to ponder deeper questions about the interplay between money and the human condition such as \u201cHow was it possible for people to act the way the Nazis had during World War II? How can apparently normal people do such awful things to other humans?\u201d[1]<\/a> It also sparked a journey of self-reflection, referencing psychotherapist Carl Jung, who \u201cFormulated the concept of persona: the mask that ‘feigned individuality.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Essence of Maps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan Peterson\u2019s personal introspection played a significant role in his use of “maps” as an analogy for finding and articulating the meaning of life, including how people navigate hardship. He found value in Joseph Campbell’s archetypes and monomyth, which<\/span>\u00a0allowed him to formulate and narrate an ideology largely rooted in individual responsibility, self-reliance, and personal transformation.<\/p>\n

My thoughts diverge from Peterson’s views at this intersection of individuality or, as Patrick Deneen would say, liberation. Deneen contends, and I concur, that the focus on individualism has led to isolationism, fracturing critical societal and interpersonal bonds. Not knowing one another has caused a greater sense of fear, distrust, and anxiety, significantly impacting people, particularly teenagers, many of whom lack the resilience and hope found in faith.<\/p>\n

While Peterson admits respect for the moral values of Christianity, he does not subscribe to any religion, though his wife does. His philosophy is unaligned with the Biblical principles that I support, which emphasize interdependence and communal living. God designed mankind to live in harmony with one another. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Paul compares the church to the various parts of the human body, which serves as a metaphor. It is a fact that the community is constructed by the collection of unique gifts and talents of its members, who work together for the greater good of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

I found his discussion in a later chapter about “hostile brothers” fascinating. Here, he offers the examples of equal but opposite forces in Cain and Able or Christ and Satan – “two eternal individual tendencies, twin ‘sons of God,’ heroic and adversarial or order and chaos. Hostility is their nature! What does that say about people, in particular Christians? Reflecting on his earlier question about the atrocities of the Holocaust, he believes a consequence of humanity is the “voluntary willingness to do what is known to be wrong, despite the capacity to understand and avoid such action.” This trait is most aligned with what Christians call the sinful nature of humans. For Peterson, personal growth happens when you challenge the ideas of order and chaos head-on.<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledges there is always an information gap. With the evolution of our societies and within ourselves, there is always more to learn, which requires a posture of humility. He goes on to say, \u201cThose who, by contrast, accept the scientific perspective\u2026forget that an impassable gulf currently divides what is from what should be.\u201d[3]<\/a> In this argument, he seems to be suggesting that science and rational thinking are limited and miss the existence of a higher power. What is is an earthly kingdom that belongs to the fallen angel. What should be is life at the right hand of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Despite the rise of information platforms, there will always be more unknown to us than what is known. Still, I appreciate the author’s curiosity that led him to analyze his own thoughts and ideas. Although he may cover this elsewhere, I wish he would have included more insight on the broader cultural, social, and political contexts. These powerful forces can become slippery slopes that lead people into confirmation bias as they parrot others’ ideas- something he discovered himself doing as a young Socialist. It is why he later rejected the trait and the ideology, calling it evil.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was initially a daunting and challenging read has turned out to be a rather insightful resource. I want to spend more time on the Maps of Meaning.\u00a0<\/em>There are many things I have come to appreciate about Peterson’s rather lengthy journey of self-actualization. Most of all, I celebrate his deep sense of curiosity and willingness to dig into the nuances of beliefs and other forces that shape the world around us. I look forward to revisiting his work soon to enhance my toolbox of resources to deploy at opportune times.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Peterson, Jordan B. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/em>. New York: Routledge, 1999. P.xii<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0Jung, C. G., Marie-Louise von Franz, Joseph L. Henderson, Jolande Jacobi, and Aniela Jaff\u00e9. Man and His Symbols<\/em>. 2023 Bantam Books trade paperback edition. New York: Bantam Books, 2023.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Peterson, Jordan B. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/em>. New York: Routledge, 1999 P.1.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid. P.319<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Dr. Jordan Peterson\u2019s recent U.S. tour, he stopped in Oklahoma. Several people I know bought tickets to attend. After it ended, I heard them say, \u201cI have no idea what he just said, but he sounds like he knows what he\u2019s talking about.\u201d Jordan Peterson’s books and podcasts are indeed tough to follow, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3442],"class_list":["post-40941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-peterson-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40941"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41650,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions\/41650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}