0:00:00 - 0:00:28 So I have a couple of minutes before work out here this morning and I wanted to share some thoughts on Jordan Peterson. Um I was watching a video last night from him. Uh And which video it was doesn't really matter. It's an oft repeated point from him which is um people battling the Woke Cultural revolution 0:00:27 - 0:00:52 uh or, or at least those who desire to resist it. His advice in a nutshell is to structure your life in a way where you can be resilient to their tactics. So he gave the example of himself and he stated that one of the reasons he felt comfortable standing up to the compelled speech law in Canada that 0:00:52 - 0:01:15 made him famous was that at the time, not only did he have his professor income stream, which was seriously threatened through that stance that he took. He also had um at least one. And honestly, I think he had multiple side businesses with different products. He had developed and partnerships he had 0:01:15 - 0:01:39 formed with business people. And then he also had his clinical practice and um part of the calculus of his taking a stand was not that he was going to get famous out of it, at least from what it seems. But he recommends to others that they diversify their income streams so that they can be prepared to 0:01:39 - 0:02:04 take a stand when the time comes. And I totally agree with all that. That's wonderful. In fact, I think as a student of complexity, um having diversified resources is a good thing and um always being prepared within reason is a great thing. So here's where I diverge from Jordan Peterson in my thoughts 0:02:04 - 0:02:29 on this, he constantly makes um well, I'll back up for a second. He refers to colleagues. He has, and people he has advised who are in a situation where they're being compelled to do what they believe is wrong or to say um what they believe is wrong or not to say what they believe is right. And he gives 0:02:29 - 0:03:00 fantastic reasons for why these things are dangerous and how they cause harm to yourself and others. Um And I agree with all of those reasons as far as I've heard them and remember them, however, if those reasons are true, they also apply to those who are in that situation, but do not have a backup plan 0:03:00 - 0:03:25 and do not have diversified resources in case they get canceled. And so here's where I disagree with him. Um If you, so one of the reasons that because I think you should do what's right all the time, not just when it's convenient and when it boils down to it. That is what he's saying. He's saying, uh 0:03:24 - 0:03:50 , I don't wanna force his, uh, position into a general principle because he, he says many things that support people in doing what's right, even when it's not convenient. But in this particular case, and I wonder frankly because of his statements, he's, he's made it, he's at least suggested that he withheld 0:03:49 - 0:04:17 from pushing back against the woke agenda until, or at least by degree until he felt confident that he was immune to their ability to hurt him. And maybe that's the reason why he can't see the inconsistency of this uh his position on this because one of his arguments, which I think is super powerful 0:04:16 - 0:04:42 and it doesn't originate from him, but it's, he's, he's been a uh an eloquent advocate of it and reached many people in doing so. But he, he explains how when we lie, we um harm our ability, not just to do what's right in the future, but to see what is right. And I couldn't agree with that more. And 0:04:41 - 0:05:03 that's my paraphrase. Um Again, I don't want to put words into his mouth, but that's definitely the case. It's a true, true principle. So my question is this, if you postpone standing for what you truly believe, and I don't mean like, hey, let's, let's uh let's oppose in this organized way or whatever 0:05:02 - 0:05:24 I'm saying at a much more basic level, just when someone tells you something that, you know, straight up is a lie. Do you call them on it? Do you push back in appropriate measured ways or do you just let it go and then do you repeat that lie? That's, that's what I'm talking about. Very basic level. So 0:05:23 - 0:05:51 we've got some fighting birds shame. This little one just got its tail handed to it. All right. He flew off or she? So um it impacts you, it impacts you. And if you postpone living according to reality, as far as you understand it and what's best as far as you understand it, how long can you postpone 0:05:50 - 0:06:15 that before you no longer have access to the person you thought you were or the person you could have been because you've gone that far off the path. So it turns out that you can't hit pause on doing what's right. It's a constant continuous thing and, and you build your character, laying it down layer 0:06:15 - 0:06:40 by layer, day by day, moment by moment, you destroy your character in a moment and it's very expensive to build it back again. And sometimes there are some things that are really hard to recover from. You might not have enough time or opportunity to do so in the life that remains and you could get forgiveness 0:06:40 - 0:07:02 from God. But that doesn't mean that you're going to recover to the point where you can make as much of a contribution to the world in some in some things, it's that way. And so when you're at work and you have to go to get another powerpoint presentation on that's chock full of lies. That's just the 0:07:02 - 0:07:25 latest, uh, the latest iteration of the big lie. How many of those do you sit through because you can't sit through even one of them without coming out as a worse person than you went in. If you're in a friend group and your friends are doing things that you don't agree with. Do you go along silently 0:07:24 - 0:07:49 ? Do you repeat the lie? Do you engage in it? Do you pretend it's ok in your marriage with your kids with your parents in all things at your church? When you feel that incongruity inside of you and that, that fire inside of you that says this is not right. This is not true. He's lying and I know he's 0:07:49 - 0:08:11 lying and I know he knows he's lying. What do you do? Because when you sit there silent, it changes you. It degrades you not in the common sense of the word of just makes you look bad. It really makes you worse and it makes you worse in ways that you will not be able to fully perceive because you're 0:08:11 - 0:08:33 losing light when you embrace darkness and all it takes to embrace darkness is not to embrace light when it shines on you or through you. We're meant to be a candle. Jesus didn't say hold up your candle to the world on the hill. As long as you have a backup plan and you're gonna be able to continue putting 0:08:32 - 0:08:57 food on the table. He said, seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be provided you. Does that mean that you will keep an income stream? No, it does not. Does it mean that you will preserve your life? No, it does not. But your life is not the most valuable thing. What you dedicate it to is 0:08:56 - 0:09:26 if you dedicate your life to preserving your life, you will end up in a situation where the only thing you have to show for your old age is your old age. And that's one of the saddest things that can be when, when, uh, so I got canceled. I lost a, uh a lucrative career as a tenured professor at a university 0:09:26 - 0:09:50 and I worked my butt off to get there. I made huge sacrifices. Uh I had a career that was already lucrative and I had come out of poverty, bootstrapped, worked my butt off to get there. I left all that behind became poor again to go back to school and, uh, acquire all the accolades were uh necessary 0:09:49 - 0:10:17 to get a tenure track job today because it is not easy. And then I jumped through all the hoops to get tenure. I worked my butt off, got a bunch of grants and did really good work. And in the end, uh, it was taken away from me because of my private religious views. And when I uh kept my blog and uh I 0:10:17 - 0:10:42 , this youtube channel existed at the time that I was canceled. But when I made videos or wrote blog posts or wrote books, I wasn't thinking, um, what am like, what am I gonna do? What's my backup plan if I get canceled? Do I have a backup plan? A revenue stream that will endure if I get canceled? I 0:10:42 - 0:11:06 wasn't thinking about that. I was writing what I believed and making videos about what I believed, trying to help people. I didn't sit there and do the calculus of is my paycheck going to going to keep coming if I hit send or post or whatever and here's the rub. So I believe that that Jordan Peterson 0:11:05 - 0:11:32 has, has very likely done more for the world than any other public person living right now. That's my current belief. If you know someone who's done more, I'd be interested to know. Uh because I maybe I missed something and I think whoever's in second place, there's probably a huge gap that being said 0:11:32 - 0:12:04 , I think he's stuck on two terminal beliefs and I just shared one the other is this idea that um we should pick up the greatest responsibility that we think we can carry. Um Now this being said, if you implement both of those pieces of advice that he has, the world would be a million times better than 0:12:04 - 0:12:26 it is. It would be a wonderful place. Uh, compared to now, it'd be way better because most people won't take a stand even when they won't really even lose anything by doing. So, um, if you get canceled, you'll see this really quickly because you'll become kryptonite to everyone. You won't even get an 0:12:25 - 0:12:43 email from people that know, you well know it's all rubbish and even if they don't want to stick their neck out publicly, they won't even bother sending you a note to say, hey man, this is, this is messed up or even like, but I don't really agree with your positions on things. But as a person, you've 0:12:43 - 0:13:04 always treated me well and therefore it hurts me to see you suffer, you won't get those messages. It's the easiest thing in the world to do. It costs people nothing. Uh I had a neighbor allegedly so they're religious people. They're both ministers allegedly Christian and on the surface they've spent 0:13:04 - 0:00:00 their life helping other people. And uh she called me maybe seven months after the fact on some other issue that uh had to do with her temporal well being uh basically to help her out. And she said, you know, we heard about what happened to you because it in all the papers, all the news around here, 0:00:00 - 0:13:53 the whole state, in fact, uh from what I understand. And um she said, um we were praying for you. I said That's nice. Did you think of picking up the phone or stopping by and maybe actually saying something to me or we're just gonna leave that up to God, that's what I said to her straight up. And the 0:13:53 - 0:14:15 thing is, is that, you know, we're getting a little, a little off topic here. We could play games with what we believe and who we are. But I guess this may be right on the topic. This may be case in point, don't let people just blow hot air up your butt. That's, that's just, uh, it, it's not the right 0:14:15 - 0:14:37 thing. You have to say what you see, you have to say what you feel, you have to live what you believe. And if any of those things are out of line, you have to fix them. It's really important. The full importance of this. I mean, I'm gonna need a lot more time to, to write this out. I'm working on it 0:14:37 - 0:15:02 . But, um, I'm gonna try to tie this up. The, the other point though is, um, this idea of picking up a burden, the heaviest burden you think you can manage. That is extremely limiting. Again, if, if the world did it, we'd be way better off because most people won't pick up any burden. They won't lift 0:15:02 - 0:15:21 a finger to make this place better. All they're concerned about is how much they can get out of it. They, they wanna be givers, not takers, sorry. Reverse that takers, not givers, they, they don't operate under the mentality of what, how can I live my life? So this place is better than I found it in 0:15:21 - 0:15:50 any way. So here's, here's my problem with that though. Limiting what you undertake to what you think you can handle. God is uh the operating force in our understanding and in our conscience and the promise is clear that He will not instruct us in things that we do not have the capacity to obey. So here's 0:15:50 - 0:16:23 the truth. If you see a need and you feel a duty to do something about it, you're capable and being capable, makes you culpable. Being capable, makes you culpable. Now, the funny thing about following your conscience in, in all things, it will absolutely lead you to lift things that seem way heavier 0:16:23 - 0:16:56 than you could ever bear. Jesus Christ himself, prayed to the father and said, if there is any other way this can be done, let's do it. If the burden was seemed too heavy for him to carry, why do you think it's not gonna seem too heavy for us? Notwithstanding that your conscience will prompt you to lift 0:16:55 - 0:17:19 things heavier than you can carry, then you think you can carry, it will not prompt you to lift things heavier than you can carry. This is really important. So, um let me give you an example here. I have a huge, a huge pile of rocks. This is impromptu. So it's probably gonna be cheesy or unconvincing 0:17:18 - 0:17:42 . Maybe both. I have a huge pile of rocks here. See that? All right. So these rocks are of different size and let's say I only have two hands cause I, I do and I pick up one of these rocks with one hand. So right now this rock is the only thing in this hand and I can't really, I've tried, it's kind of 0:17:42 - 0:18:05 hard to carry two medium sized rocks at the same time. Now. Um, I might see another rock here that's a heavier rock. And I could know that if I put this rock down, I could pick this other rock up and that other rock could be heavier if, if, what I'm trying to do is lift up the heaviest thing. I might 0:18:05 - 0:18:27 have to let go lighter things to do it. But there comes a point where I am 100 and 50% sure that I cannot lift a heavier rock than what's in my hand with this pile. There's a set of rocks that I absolutely cannot lift with one hand. I could point to them, they're all over the place. And I know this because 0:18:27 - 0:18:51 I've spent a butt load of hours lifting rocks. I know what I can do and what I can't do. I also know how my elbows and back feel when I push it too hard. And so I can look at a rock and say, you know, what I can't move that one and guess what, when it's based on my actual, what I do, what I have pushed 0:18:50 - 0:19:21 the limits on. I don't feel guilty not lifting it. I don't see it is something I'm capable of and it's not my imagination or even a guesstimate. It's based on having pushed it hard before because I've actually tried to do stuff like that. Right. I hope it makes sense what I'm trying to say. So, the problem 0:19:20 - 0:19:46 with saying lift the burden that the heaviest burden you think you can lift is you're thinking what the limits you think you have, you don't have, you can do way more than you think way more and you start to conflate comfort with capability. And that's a problem because you will never feel a fullness 0:19:46 - 0:20:12 of meaning, let alone a fullness of joy if you don't exert a fullness of effort, but you don't know what you're capable of. God does and he's the one that's running the show in your understanding. So if you think you're capable of more than you're actually capable of, you're gonna find out really quickly 0:20:12 - 0:20:41 what your limits are, right? And you're gonna try. But if you think that you're capable of less than what you're actually capable of, how are you ever going to know? So not to get too deep into this? But what can help us in growing our expectation of our own capacity is honestly recognizing the unsolved 0:20:40 - 0:21:06 problems that plague us, including a lack of meaning or joy. If you look at God's promises, those two things are not supposed to be what we experience. He's got plenty of both. He's got so much of each that if he, oh, that's kind of cool. There's a bald eagle flying through my yard with a snake in its 0:21:06 - 0:21:40 talons. Wow, that was, whew, that was pretty cool. Um, sorry. Uh, he's got so much of each joy and meaning that if he exposed you to the least part of what he's got, it would overwhelm you so much that you would die at the scriptures, say those things, I'll show it to you one day but, but you can believe 0:21:39 - 0:22:10 it. Uh I'm I share those things with you from my personal experience. No, I haven't died because of that. But he brings you up to the point where you can experience those things without being overcome by them. It's a very sacred thing. So if you're deficient in things like joy or meaning, it's a sign 0:22:10 - 0:22:39 from God to keep looking, to keep pushing, to find what as Jordan Peterson says, what justifies the malevolence in life? And the thing is he has not done that. And I'm not again, I'm not this, none of this is an insult. I I truly have overflowing love and appreciation for what he has done and does for 0:22:38 - 0:23:07 humanity and for the cause of what's right. But the signals are there in his life that he's been overcome by things and they, they in spite of his valiant uh efforts and honest efforts and he's still missing some things and the reason these things are all tied together, it's not that, that he's missing 0:23:06 - 0:23:32 the solution. And therefore he's saying things, he's, he's uh representing, he's lacking in his representation of the situation. He's lacking in his, in his repre representation of the situation. And that's why he doesn't have the solution to the problem. It's like Martin Luther, who invented this doctrine 0:23:31 - 0:23:57 of free grace and once saved, always saved and all these other um very limiting ideas because he read the scriptures. Um And he, he said, wow, this is a really high standard of, of uh of action and desire and sinless. That's a really high bar. And I've tried as hard as I can and II, I just haven't been 0:23:57 - 0:24:25 able to achieve that. So therefore, it must not be true. So let me lower the bar and then invent these ideas around it and reinterpret a whole bunch of scriptures to uh back up what my inability to achieve this um suggests the real answer was just that he had not fully submitted to God. It is a very 0:24:25 - 0:24:56 , very simple problem, not easy to overcome, but a very simple problem. So I've ranted long enough. I'm late for my workout and uh I hope that these thoughts are helpful in some way. But um it'd be nice to reach Jordan because I think that the tremendous good that he's done for the world, it brings people 0:24:55 - 0:25:17 up to a certain point, we can draw people up as far as we've come. But at some point we ne need the next run. And it's, it's, it's critical to always be aware of the progress that evades us because that's where the pay dirt is for the next rung in the ladder.