ques/answer
Sense of responsibilty helps you to lead a progressive life.Discuss?
Answers
offered a detailed critique of Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson’s politics. I also joined other men in speaking out about his views in Washington, DC. In addition to being wrong about civil rights legislation in Canada and elsewhere, Peterson’s individualistic worldview fails to address real-world problems of economic inequality and discrimination. Even when asked what public policies he might support to expand opportunities for young people today, he has little to offer other than his own self-help advice, which he’s codified in the best-selling 12 Rules for Life.
Progressives are dismissive of Peterson’s rules and self-help texts generally.
While reactions like this are funny, we shouldn’t be dismissive of self-help. Yes, it’s easy to make fun of rules like “Stand up straight with your shoulders back” or Peterson’s admonition that his fans clean their rooms. But people really do need advice in life. Not all of us have role models who can teach us things that a lot of better-off folks tend to take for granted or as signs of a good upbringing. And self-help books are among the most popular forms of non-fiction in America.
In his case, Peterson’s fan base is largely comprised of young, disaffected white men who are looking for an explanation as to why they’re not better off than their fathers and grandfathers. Peterson’s anti-civil-rights rhetoric encourages them to blame women and people of color for getting a bigger share of economic opportunities, which plays into what progressives leaders like Rev. Dr. Barber call “the trick.”
For progressives, solutions to inequality and discrimination are almost always based in policy prescriptions. But what do we have to share with people at a day-to-day individual level? Debunking Peterson and other members of the “Intellectual Dark Web” is not enough. Progressives need an alternative vision that makes sense to disaffected people and to ourselves.
America’s greatest civic institutions—our churches, our community halls, our unions halls and, yes, even our bowling allies—are in decline and we often don’t know our own neighbors. So many of us are isolated and in an economy that grinds us down, we barely have time to create the community and social bonds we need to thrive. A new generation is forging those communities on and offline. Some of it is strange and ugly. Some of it is inspiring. Our ability to build community is critical to thriving as individuals. As some self-help gurus have put it, we are the average of who we surround ourselves with. If we all grow and thrive together, we all grow as individuals, too.
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