Conversations with Tyler — Jordan Peterson

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

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