On: Mythology, Fame, and Reading People.

Episode: 60

Date: February 2019

Background: Clinical psychologist, professor of psychology, author of “12 Rules for Life“.

Key Subjects:

• You look at the world through a framework, which can be conceptualized as a narrative.
  • Structure, internal coherence.
  • Overarching narrative provides order.
  • Release of a framework creates uncertainty / chaos.
  • Leads to death and reconstruction of (new) frameworks.
• Sovereignty of the individual:
  • The most appropriate perceptual framework for a social interaction at the familial and the community level is to view each individual as unique and sovereign.
• The West designed a playable game; communists a non-playable game.
• Politics:
  • Understanding politics starts with asking what the problem is.
  • The political left has difficulties formulating the right problem.
• Left versus right:
  • Right:
    • Often about responsibilities.
    • About what structures should be conserved (conservatism).
  • Left:
    • Often about rights.
    • About which hierarchies should be challenged (left).
  • Left has more and shifting challenges:
    • As rights get “fixed” for certain populations, left needs to shift and redefine its goals and target new groups.
    • More difficult to find common ground (competing rights).
    • Requires the “left” to continually change its object of focus and narrative.
    • If society and its organizations continue to improve, the left may run out of material?
• You go to university to familiarize yourself with what’s great about the past.
• Content delivery: disintermediation, removal of bandwidth restrictions.

Key Takeaways:

• The political left will always have difficulties formulating the right problem.

Worth Listening:

The format of short and unrelated questions perhaps lends itself less well to Peterson’s meandering and free-flowing style in building up and formulating his arguments. 

7/10