Jordan Peterson Salt Lake City Visit: Summary
Last Thursday, as part of his book tour, Jordan Peterson paid a visit to Salt Lake City and gave a lecture at the Vivint arena. For those there, seats were packed to the top, much like any Jazz game of worthy note.
Jordan is on tour for his third book, Beyond Order 12: More Rules for Life, in which he has written chapters on axioms to live by. Some of these include “Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement” and “Abandon ideology.” These two aforementioned rules apply to the political climate we find ourselves today. With the left being more creative and the right conserving what has been used before, there is something in the middle called the truth. We need to find the truth, and it is found between progressing forward and holding onto the past. To abandon ideology is to find that truth.
However, during his speech, Peterson focused on much more personal matters. The rule of the night was, “Do not hide unwanted things in the fog." He applied this to negotiation within marriage, giving the initial example of communicating with your partner when a disagreement takes place instead of hiding disagreements “in the fog” so to speak. The ultimate application for the rule can be summed up with one of his quotes from the book:
“there will be times in your life when it will take everything you have to face what is in front of you, instead of hiding away from a truth so terrible that the only thing worse is the falsehood you long to replace it with.”
Peterson went on to explain that those falsehoods can manifest themselves as things such as divorce, affairs, and resentment towards one another in marriage and in relationships in general.
During the Q&A session, he went into other topics from problems people in the audience had. Highlighted questions came from one guy struggling in his dating life and another came from an atheist who was concerned that they could not find faith.
The man with the first question asked how he could find a “feminine woman.” The first answer came as a correction from Peterson, saying that the man was using an ideal image in his mind to sift through myriads of imperfect people and that instead of finding the ideal, feminine woman, creating an ideal marriage was a much better alternative. The person who asked the second about reluctantly being atheist received an answer from Peterson that seemed to strike a chord with the audience. He responded that “Israel” translated in the Bible, means to wrestle with God. Therefore, anyone wrestling with belief in God and faith may not be an atheist per se if they are struggling with faith, but may instead be a part of the chosen people in a symbolic sense as the people of Israel were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament.
In a day where we seem to be more connected than ever, I believe that communication between those that matter most to us has deteriorated. We hide a lot in the fog. That is not the only factor, but one among many that contributes to declining marriage rates as well as increases in divorce. We could all tell the truth more and face those truths without fear in order to create a better world. Jordan Peterson is helping in that cause.
Jordan Peterson is a NYT best selling author. He has traveled the world speaking to hundreds of thousands of people helping them to put their lives together. He has written three books, is a clinical psychologist by profession, and has become a public figure since rising to national prominence when challenging Bill C-16 in Canada with concern over free speech violations. More info about his ventures and tours can be found on his website at https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/.
Thomas Stevenson
March 25, 2022