Few people impact their profession the way Jordan Peterson has revolutionized his. Psychology spent many decades collecting dust in the back shelves of academia until Peterson resuscitated it. It had become pseudo-science to many because of its practitioners’ proclivity for affirming whatever the patients wanted. Then, Peterson rolled into town.
As a relevant aside, life expectancy in the United States is down; suicides, anxiety, and depression are at all-time highs; crime is up; and the birth rate is dropping to perilously low levels. Add to it the declining rates of men going to college and a breakdown in family life, and it’s clear we have major problems. Truth seekers life Peterson can help.
Peterson’s insistence on personal responsibility is refreshing. When he analyzes patients, he does not condone the behavior causing the problems. Instead, he identifies problems and instructs patients, or in this case readers, to engage in the hard work of changing.
Beyond Order follows his widely read book 12 Rules for Life, which identified things people could do to prevent problems or gain control when life becomes too chaotic. In Beyond Order he turns his attention to telling us if your life is stale, you have the power to change it. In Peterson’s assessment, “neither the state of order nor the state of chaos is preferable, intrinsically, to the other.” Both chaos and order are problematic.
“Shackled Together” Might Not Sound Fun, But It Works
Beyond Order outlines the things we can all do to improve our lives. In it, he pulls no punches. His style is ordinary and direct, but it’s his logic that shines. His chapter on romance, for example, is one of the most brilliant explanations for preserving marriage ever written. In it, he harshly identifies the sacrifices necessary to reap the rewards of a loving marriage. Some of it is simple: spend time together twice a week, which is 100 dates a year, or 6,000 dates over a 60-year marriage.
His other advice is tough. For instance, it’s a challenge learning to negotiate everything. Without negotiating, you risk becoming tyrannical to your spouse or being tyrannized by him or her – both create massive resentments. When couples understand that “Until death do us part” is permanent, that they are “shackled together” with no escape hatch, they learn to negotiate. The chapter is not pretty sonnets on love or self-love, but it’s full of experiential wisdom from his years of counseling broken people with broken marriages.
“Imagine…”
This book shares Peterson’s wisdom for utilizing the ordered life and then stepping beyond it to find fulfillment. Rule II, “Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that” demonstrates his message clearly. In the chapter he explains:
“How do you know who you are? After all, you are complex beyond your own understanding; more complex than anything else that exists, excepting other people; complex beyond belief. And your ignorance is further complicated by the intermingling of who you are with who you could be. You are not only something that is. You are something that is becoming – and the potential extent of that becoming also transcends your understanding. Everyone has the sense, I believe, that there is more to them than they have yet allowed to be realized. That potential is often obscured by poor health, misfortune, and the general tragedies and mishaps of life. But it can also be hidden by an unwillingness to take full advantage of the opportunities that life offers – abetted by regrettable errors of all sorts, including failures of discipline, faith, imagination, and commitment. Who are you? And, more importantly, who could you be, if you were everything you could conceivably be?”
The Advice Behind the Advice
The context of Peterson’s book is interesting. Its origins began amid great personal challenges for Peterson and his family. Moreover, a global pandemic raged during publication of the book. Nevertheless, wisdom shines. Before he arrives at his final instruction to “Be grateful in spite of your suffering” he advices readers to “abandon ideology” and “do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.” The author’s hard won advice comes from a lifetime helping others.
Other chapters offer wise practices such as “notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated,” and “do not do what you hate,” and “work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.” This kind of advice is hard to find, but it’s honest and truthful and therefore worth considering.
What If ?
What if we all had the type of common sensical advice at our figure tips that made the Greatest Generation? How about toughness, resilience, and encouragement to work hard? It’s all here. What if we all had more classical logic in our lives? people may not want what Peterson has to offer, but if we’re all honest, a truth bath would do us all well.
The world needs more revolutionaries like Peterson. His sober minded analysis might even inspire others to follow his lead.
