Jordan Peterson filled the 3 Arena last night for the much anticipated Dublin date of his new book tour ‘Beyond Order’.
Critics of Peterson like to paint a picture of his huge fanbase as being racially homogeneous white male ‘incels’. However, the crowd in Dublin was far removed from this notion.
The noticeably racially diverse audience was composed of men (60%) and women (40%) – approximately – the dominant age range being about 20 to 45, including plenty of couples and some families.
Dr. Peterson’s work has provided many of us with a framework for self examination, and ultimately self betterment. He has acted for many as a beacon of light cast out over a dark sea of cultural nihilism, providing them with a path to follow ‘back to order and meaning’ as he might say.
He challenges us to confront hard truths that other societal institutions might have us believe are someone else’s fault, or simply don’t exist. His advice for young women is vital in how it aims to wake us up to the reality that many of us are blindly pursuing careers unaware of the fragile window of fertility that nature allows us should we wish to have children.
That’s one thing that really stands out to me about Jordan Peterson – even though he likely knows how vicious the backlash might be, he cares enough about us to tell us things that are difficult to hear –
Peterson spoke to the captivated audience for about two hours before doing a sit down Q and A session accompanied by his wife Tammy, who MC’d the event – and is, in this writer’s view, just lovely.
Before launching into the heavy academia he spoke about how he loved visiting Dublin and how the city was “too much fun”, making observations about the numbers of people he saw apparently passed out from feckless alcohol consumption.
The lecture covered a range of topics including key talking points from his last book ‘12 Rules for Life’. Peterson spoke at length about the vital importance of play in early childhood development saying that it socialises small children allowing them to form an identity and find a place in the world.
Peterson’s narrative was speckled with assertions of deep fact and symbolism delivered as humorous one liners.
He spoke about how small boys engage in interactive play with their female counterparts around the age of 4 by asking them to “play house” and how – ‘in case any of you haven’t’ figured it out by now’ – this is a theme repeated all through adult life.
He spoke of the raw emotion, and aggressive tendencies of some 2 year olds and the vital importance of early socialisation, comparing a lack of this to the assumption in adulthood that one can establish a completely subjective ‘reality’ surrounding gender and throw tantrums when others don’t submit to participation.
Adding it was ‘dangerous when that becomes law’.
Peterson spoke of how after the age of 4 peers, not parents, are a child’s chief source of socialisation, of learning how to successfully interact and get along with others, and how a lack of this vital interaction causes a lack of identity.
He mentioned that Ben Shapiro had explained to him that the translation of the word describing Eve in ancient Hebrew was as being Adam’s ‘helpmate’ and how, although this was open to misinterpretation, its practical meaning was that a wife should function as a “beneficial advisory” to her husband meaning in part that such partnerships were about challenging each other, holding each other accountable, and striving to be better – to condense the intricacies of his full argument.
He emphasised the vital importance of adults being able to maintain a sense of playfulness when taking on the world and navigating society, saying that successful business people wished to find partners who “know how to play” and how this attitude helps foster an understanding of the mutual benefit to be found in working together.
When discussing the chapter, Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping, he discussed how most people – apart from sociopaths and ‘the cloud of narcissists’ that float around them – treat others better than they treat themselves.
He spoke about the Bible verse Matthew 7:7-8 :ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh.
Peterson challenged the audience to consider what asking in this context really means. He suggested that most people feel so ladened by awareness of their flaws and shortcomings that they don’t feel they deserve the good things in life that positive change and progress could earn them.
He spoke about the work of Marian Tupey, editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, who says that despite all the media doom and gloom narrative, the world is actually doing much better than we are led to believe, and how population growth parallels economic growth, quoting Tupey as saying that children born now will produce seven times more than they consume over their lifetime.
Peterson compared climate hysteria to people who, seeing someone having a riotous good time at a concert pull them aside to inform them that ‘this is all going to be over soon’, or to someone who, perplexed at a parent’s concern for their crying baby, says ‘why does it matter if they cry, the sun is going to consume the earth in 45 million years’.
He came back to the topic of alcohol during the Q and A following a question asking for advice for 30 somethings who still “binge drink”. Peterson reminisced about his own adolescence in a small town in rural Canada where he and his peers were “hitting the iced vodka pretty hard” by the time they were 14.
He continued saying most men stop binge drinking at the age of 27 as this is when they usually shoulder serious responsibility. Peterson quit drinking at this age prompted by a desire to not let his children see him intoxicated.
He pointed to the massive link between alcohol consumption and anti social behaviour saying that if it were out of the equation, almost all violent crimes like murder and domestic violence would likely not occur.
He said there would always be a part of him that would love to “down half a bottle of Bourbon and have a gay old time”, but that the realisation that most of the stupid or regrettable things he had done were done under the influence of alcohol made him quit all together after initially allowing himself to drink again for a time.
When Peterson was asked for his thoughts on a united Ireland. He replied, most respectfully, that he lacked a depth of understanding of the vast complexities of the history of this island and that it would be impossible for him to answer such a complicated question.
He warned of the dangers of delivering political messages flippantly, while acknowledging that he may have done so in the past.
Peterson pointed out that unity and peace are two different things. ‘Enforced unity is tyranny’ he said, continuing that peace is something that needs to be achieved in every human heart before it becomes a force for change on a political level.