Jordan B. Peterson

I have viewed several interviews with, and discourses by, Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, who is currently traveling the country on his 12 Rules for Life Tour: An Antidote to Chaos. 

I will say up front that I do not agree with everything Jordan Peterson says. But I agree with much of it, as apparently do the many people who sat in the theater with me listening to his insights and perspective, and who are tuning in online on a daily basis.

The most notable aspect, as I entered the venue in which Peterson recently spoke, was the abundance of young men, between the ages of 20 and 40, that I saw there. In fact, they were the majority. 

Also interesting is the fact that they came to the event with other young men. Sure, some were there with girlfriends or wives. But clearly this demographic dominated.

My husband and I sat down next to a young professional man in his 30's who traveled, alone, from his home in Des Moines to hear Peterson, after attending a previous tour stop in Detroit with a friend. 

My husband asked the young man, 

"What is it about Jordan Peterson that is resonating among young men?"

The man was quiet and thoughtful for a moment, and then said,

"I think it's because he provides parameters and foundational thinking. It's like he provides a platform of how to live."

I responded that I raised my children, as his parents most likely raised him, in a more open-ended parenting style where we encouraged and allowed our children to indulge every whim and interest so as not to "crush their spirit." We led our kids to believe that they really can accomplish whatever they "set their minds to," regardless of their abilities, personalities, societal expectations and employment trends, and that whatever they determine to be right for them must be. 

I said to this young man that there's a very fine balance between permissive parenting and knowing when to say "no," or how to teach a child to earn something through days, months and years of sweat and tears. I wasn't sure, I said, that I had rightly navigated that line.

And then I said, 

"Maybe your parents were the same way," quickly adding, "And I don't mean to say you had bad parents!"

He looked at me and said, 

"I had great parents." 

Then he went on to say how his child rearing sounded very much like how I raised my kids. 

After more thought, he looked at me and said, 

"Yeah, even though I had a great Dad, I guess I am looking for a father."

That blew me away.

I believe this young man from Des Moines hit the nail on the head of why Jordan Peterson is steaming-hot right now: men are looking for a father, regardless of what their biological father was like.

The way my husband and I were made aware of Jordan Peterson is through our 23-year-old son and his 20-something friends. Our son showed us a few of Peterson's talks on Youtube, and I've since seen Peterson on news programs and other online interviews.

I recently ran into a man who said his Dad, who was struggling with depression, was greatly helped by reading Peterson's book, 12 Rules for Life. Peterson seems to be expanding to other age groups, perhaps filling the fatherhood void for them too.

I enjoyed Peterson's one-man-show. But to be honest, at my age, I didn't hear anything I hadn't already heard before from the self-help movements of the 70's and 80's, or my own parents. 

Here is a condensed list of some of the nuggets of wisdom Peterson expanded upon in his talk:

Don't sleep your day away (my parents taught me this and didn't let it happen as long as I was under their roof).
Journal or write to figure things out (This practice is a staple of the self-help movement).
Start out with small, or individual, goals so as not to become overwhelmed (I think we've all heard that before).
Write about, seek out, do only what you are passionate about (Ditto).

Perhaps this talk of Peterson's wasn't for me: a woman in her 50's who has chewed on the plethora of "rules for life" type books that came before, so often and so much as a pre-Christian that I couldn't help saying to myself, during Peterson's presentation, 

"Really? These again?" 

And that's when it dawned on me that Peterson's rules have been around forever. The secular world has promoted and reconfigured them a million times. And still....and still people, in the words of U2, haven't found what they're looking for.

And what people are looking for in Peterson is no different than what they've looked for in Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, Thoreau, Dr. Laura Schlessinger or William J. Bennett and his Book of Virtues.

I remember tuning in to Dr. Laura in my late twenties the way young men are tuning into Peterson today. She was the first voice to say something different than the liberalism I had grown up with. I couldn't get enough of her. I would put my kids down for their nap and clean my house to Dr. Laura, only to find myself sitting at the kitchen table, marveling in agreement to her perspective and wisdom, all entirely new to me and resonating!

For me, Dr. Laura was the first seed planted into hearing another viewpoint. The unquestioned secular, atheistic, deistic, agnostic, feminist bubble I had been encapsulated in was finally popped, opening the door to discovering how things really are. 

I call it truth. It was the father, if you will, I was seeking without even realizing it. 

And I kept going. 

I didn't stop at Dr. Laura. 

I began reading the Bible cover to cover, admittedly in fits and starts, around the same time I was listening to her. 

It took close to ten years for the ultimate truth of Christ to once and for all set me free, and it is that truth that I now feed on every day, growing in the knowledge and love of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My Father indeed.

I believe Peterson is doing the same thing for young men today. I believe the young men who crave his words are seekers, hungry for the same thing I was, even though I would have never been able to articulate it, just as many of the Peterson followers today cannot articulate it. 

But one man did articulate it. The man from Des Moines who sat next to me. 

"I had a great Dad," he said, "I'm looking for a father."

I hope that, after finding Peterson, these young men don't stop there. I pray they go on, like I did, to the ultimate truth--the person they are really looking for--the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

copyright Barb Harwood

"At that time Jesus said, 'I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight. 
All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am humble and gentle in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:25-30.