Self-Help
You read that title and had something go through your mind. I believe you immediately recognize that "self-help" is a popular topic among new and existing writers, talkers, communicators...
Jordan Peterson - image by Gage Skidmore - source: flickr
This is what I get rushing through my mind: "help" is a transitive verb. You "help" someone else. Helping is to "give assistance to", so how doe I assist myself? I can't ask myself to hold the door open while I carry the couch inside... Nah, in the "age of the self", our times of absolute individualism, I-fundamentalism even, the words "I" and "self" (-ish) do wonders for sales-figures while fooling the customer into a sense of independence. You don't need someone else for such petty needs as "help". Just buy my book, and help yourself...
And, extrapolating, you don't need to help others, as they have the same opportunity to buy my book and help themselves. For it is you against the world and the rest of humanity and you need all the help you can get, from yourself, of course. So buy my book and I'll tell you how to do it. And after that you'll never have to buy another self-help book again! No need to get each other on a higher plane of existence, we can all help ourselves! With this book!
Not a book, just a short random thought I got today that hopefully prevents the sale of these, mostly, worthless books. Jordan Peterson, and his mega-popular book 12 Rules for Life - an antidote to chaos is a shining example:
Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.
If that doesn't put you off immediately, or make you burst out in laughter, I don't know what will. Anyhow, thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet, and hope to see you back here tomorrow! Thank you and keep Steeming!
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I find it so bizarre that JP's book is such a best-seller when there are plenty more of its type that are way better than his.
Still, I will say this for him - he is helping a lot of men, thousands of who have written to him saying that his work has rescued them from going to the dark side of far right fascism. And so for me he earns his spot on the planet many times over for that community service alone.
I'm so sick of hearing about him though. But I have listened to him on several podcasts, with Joe Rogan and Russell Brand, and found him both irritating and interesting. I'm quite into Jungian psychology and the idea that humans on the inside are kinda akin to an ecosystem, something multifaceted and so that stuff is really interesting for me personally when he talks about it. It's really the crux of what he's about, far more than being a public intellectual, where he's not so great.
I've done a bit of work in the Jungian areas of active imagination and "talking with" parts of myself that are stunted and deformed and found it massively helpful. So I guess I both agree with you and disagree with you about the value of "self-help".
But I totally get what you're saying about the dangers of excessive self-reliance - and the delusion - for an I-Fundamentalist (haha, LOVE that term!) And I can see how some people could use self-help stuff to further entrench themselves into their fundamentalism if they're not careful :)
Fair and balanced :-) Thanks so much, @sue-stevenson, for bringing some balance to my mini-rant and giving us another perspective. But... JP is, in my mind, rather dangerous. As much as some young men have stated they were saved from that "dark side", a lot of his following is from that same dark side. I know nothing substantial about Jung, but I do know Peterson constantly misrepresents terms like "post modernism" and "Marxism", like modern libertarians tend to do.
But yes, he does deserve some kudos for making better the lives of some young people. And you deserve some more for making better this blog ;-)
Aww, thanks! But your post wasn't quite in rant territory :) And you've got right to the heart of what I loathe about his politics. I HATE his use of those terms. And I agree, he could do some great harm with them. I so wish he would shut up about cultural f*$)#%g Marxism 😂.
At the very least the phenomenon shows up how many people are reactionary voters. On my bad days I think it's most people. Trump has brought everyone out ofmthe woodwork with a political perspective and a great deal of it seems to be about being against something but not for something. And so if JP is helping some people come away from that edge, then that seems to be more than what those of us on the Left are doing.
Is that fair? It's possibly unfair :D
Jordan Peterson is a conservative Christian tradionalist who's self help is a gateway into some much more radical ideology.
Yea, it's funny how he never ever gives a straight answer when asked about his convictions, but you're right: his motives are questionable at best. Even his "claim to fame", his very vocal resistance against new Canadian law, which he claimed would criminalize people who refuse to use the desired pronoun when addressing trans-genders, is false: the law was simply an expansion on groups protected with anti-discrimination laws...
Thanks for the response, @negativespace! :-)
Precisely! I live in Canada so I'm especially ashamed of him. It only adds gender expression to the list of people protected under hate crime laws. So hate speech or genocide are illegal yes. You don't go to jail for using incorrect pronouns.
Hmmm. Good evening @zyx066! "Checking up" on you! 😊
Before I say more, I want to quickly state that I do not really know that much about Jordan Peterson. So, my somewhat supportive comments which follow are based on limited information.
My son introduced me to him a while back. Visiting with him one evening, he wanted me to watch JP in an interview where I was impressed with how civilly and comparatively respectfully he handled the relentless verbal assault of the woman interviewing him.
In my words matter post, I discuss this very thing, as it sickens and angers me the way far too much of our public discourse is conducted today. It has steadily degraded over time and the decline seems to be accelerating.
So ... How is this "going to play out?"
Here is how I closed my post:
So, there you have another perspective on the topic (yes, I know it doesn't really address the central theme of your post, but it's the first thing that came to mind, from my one exposure to JP, and the best this "weary warrior" can do at the end of a long day ...) 😊
Keep posting! 👍
It still blows my mind that his followers became almost a cult.
Yes, that's unbelievable indeed. I've listened to a discussion between him and Sam Harris, another person I'm not too fond of, and it's almost funny to hear two masters at producing word-salad go head to head about, let's say, religion. I listen to them because they both have almost a cult-following as you say and therefore it's a way to stay in touch with what's keeping young libertarian (or so they think) minds occupied these days. It was on one of Sam Harris' podcasts, if you're interested in wasting some valuable time ;-)