Such mythic, metaphorical, and literary truths play a central role in human culture through the arts, literature, religion, and even politics. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. We shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, a deeply religious man, in his 1896 Democratic National Convention “Cross of Gold” speech: Or perhaps it was meant to be a literary truth, as famously pronounced by U.S. Michael Shermer on the resurrection, from Heavens on Earth (Henry Holt, 2018):īut what if this story was never meant to be considered as literally true? What if it was meant to be a metaphorical or mythic truth, through which readers might be inspired to “bear your own cross” or admonished not to be “crucified” by your enemies, or warned not to “resurrect” bad habits, or encouraged to be “born again” by starting their life anew after a troubling past? Every community is exposed to two opposite dangers: ossification through too much discipline and reverence for tradition, on the one hand on the other hand, dissolution, or subjection to foreign conquest, through the growth of an individualism and personal independence that makes cooperation impossible. Social cohesion is a necessity, and mankind has never yet succeeded in enforcing cohesion by merely rational arguments. … It is clear that each party to this dispute is partly right and partly wrong. to the present day, philosophers have been divided into those who wished to tighten social bonds and those who wished to relax them. Quotes read by Shermer during the podcastĪ party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.īertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945):įrom 600 B.C.
Peterson’s critics and their motivation, and
How Peterson’s dark dreams, physical and mental health issues, and his clinical practice inform his worldview as tilting toward the darker side of humanity, The Native American Ghost Dance of 1890: Wovoka as Jesus, The Hero with a Thousand Faces: Joseph Campbell’s hero myth/hero’s journey,.Heaven as not a place to go but a state of mind and society,
How to think about the resurrection of Jesus as mythic truths, The danger of assessing according to race, sex, class and power, The appeal of Hitler and the Nazis, then and now,
The appeal of populist and authoritarian leaders, Why aren’t all countries on earth democracies? What great stories teach us about human nature and society, Objective truths, subjective truths, historical truths, political truths, religious truths, literary truths, The banality of evil and the evil of banality, He lives in Toronto, Ontario with his family. With his students and colleagues, he has published more than one hundred scientific papers, and his 1999 book Maps of Meaning revolutionized the psychology of religion. His YouTube videos and podcasts have gathered a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions, and his global book tour reached more than 250,000 people in major cities across the globe. After working for decades as a clinical psychologist and a professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Peterson has become one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals. Jordan Peterson is the bestselling author of 12 Rules for Life, which has sold more than five million copies worldwide.