Extract from Interview with The Guardian Tim Lott 21st January 2018 Jordan Peterson's worldview is complex, although his book "12 Rules for Life" makes a heroic attempt to simplify it into digestible material. It might be encapsulated thus: "Life is tragic. You are tiny and flawed and ignorant and weak and everything else is huge, complex and overwhelming. Once, we had Christianity as a bulwark against that terrifying reality. But God died. Since then the defence has either been ideology - most notably Marxism or fascism - or nihilism. These lead, and have led in the 20th century, to catastrophe. " 'Happiness' is a pointless goal. Don't compare yourself with other people, compare yourself with who you were yesterday. No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life. You conjure your own world, not only metaphorically but also literally and neurologically. These lessons are what the great stories and myths have been telling us since civilisation began." "Nietzsche pointed out that most morality is cowardice. There's absolutely no doubt that that is the case. The problem with 'nice people' is that they've never been in any situation that would turn them into the monsters they're capable of being."So if "nice people" get the chance to disguise their dark impulses from themselves, are they likely to indulge those impulses? "Yes. And a bit of soul-searching would allow them to determine in what manner they are currently indulging them." The great world stories have a moral purpose - they teach us how to pursue meaning over narrow self-interest. Whether it's Pinocchio, The Lion King, Harry Potter or the Bible, they are all saying the same thing - take the highest path, pick up the heaviest rock and you will have the hope of being psychologically reborn despite the inevitable suffering that life brings. Peterson's biggest analysis of story has been the Bible. He lays out how the Adam and Eve myth shows the coming of self-consciousness - and therefore an awareness of mortality, vulnerability, the future, and good and evil. Everyone in the story immediately starts to lie and dodge the blame - Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. Then they give birth to Cain and Abel, and the first act of human history is for Cain to murder his own brother out of resentment against him and God alike, and then lie about it: "Am I my brother's keeper?" "God", in Peterson's formulation, stands in for "reality" or "the future" or "the logos" or "being" or "everything that isn't you and that you don't know". And the principal discovery of early mankind is that "God" can be bargained with, through sacrifice - which is no more than saying if you sacrifice the pleasures of the present, reality is likely to reward you in the future. It's not guaranteed, but it's the best option you've got. Having said that, and noting that his lectures are purely about the psychological rather than the theological value of the Bible, Peterson is a devout Christian. "Yes. Which is a form of insanity. The ethical burden is ridiculous. God might swipe you down even though you're doing the right thing. But it's your best bet. There is a great level of reality out there which we don't know and don't understand. We can bargain with it, but it doesn't guarantee you anything and God can turn on you. That is the thing about life. There's no guarantee of success." Does he believe in life after death? "I don't know that I even believe in death! I'm not sure we understand anything about the role of consciousness in space and time. I don't think the world is the way we think it is. I'm not a materialist. Whatever is going on down there at the subatomic level of matter is so weird that the people who understand it don't understand it." The last chapter of Peterson's book, misleadingly titled "Rule 12: Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street", goes into the personal struggles he went through when it was discovered that his daughter, Mikhaila, had a rare bone disease. For many years, Peterson, his wife and daughter fought the illness, which clearly caused Mikhaila terrible suffering. It is also on record that Peterson and his daughter have suffered clinical depression. It is impossible to be sure, but it seems clear that the agony of these experiences has had a major impact on him and how he comes to focus on the underlying darkness of life. There is much more to be said about Jordan B Peterson. He is a strange mixture of theologian, psychologist, conservative, liberal, wit and lay preacher. He's a powerful advocate of the scientific method who is not a materialist. He can go from cuddly to razor sharp in a beat. His primary concern, however, which underpins nearly everything about him, is the defence of the individual against groupthink, whether on the right or the left. "Your group identity is not your cardinal feature. That's the great discovery of the west. That's why the west is right. And I mean that unconditionally. The west is the only place in the world that has ever figured out that the individual is sovereign. And that's an impossible thing to figure out. It's amazing that we managed it. And it's the key to everything that we've ever done right." Peterson's 12 rules Rule 1 Stand up straight with your shoulders back Rule 2 Treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping Rule 3 Make friends with people who want the best for you Rule 4 Compare yourself with who you were yesterday, not with who someone else is today Rule 5 Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them Rule 6 Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world Rule 7 Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) Rule 8 Tell the truth - or, at least, don't lie Rule 9 Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't Rule 10 Be precise in your speech Rule 11 Do not bother children when they are skate-boarding Rule 12 Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street "12 Rules For Life" by Jordan B Peterson is published by Allen Lane** End of Page