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?
- Right:
- 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