Jordan Peterson: ‘If you can’t say what you think, soon you won’t be able to think’ – Telegraph.co.uk

And so when asked if he is worried about the rise of authoritarian China and Russia, Peterson responds with: Im also worried about the West! If we got our act together, we could be a light to those countries.

China and Russia are capitalising on our corruption at the moment. Its bolstering the Russian regime in particular, and the Chinese regime to some degree.

Western corruption, in this context, is our foolish demolition of our own traditions. There are many people in Russia, Hungary, Poland who are looking at whats happening in the more liberal West and saying no, were not doing that here, and they might be erring too much in the opposite direction. These things are always subject to debate, which is the whole purpose of freedom of speech, by the way. But again, we look to ourselves first.

Looking to oneself, whether as a nation or as individuals, forms a significant part of Petersons philosophy: If we are better at being what we could be, then the alternative would look less attractive. Thats a good doctrine for life, isnt it?

This self-reflection and self-criticism also plays a crucial role towards building bridges and crossing divides. That, and judicious praise of ones opponent where its due, as he likes to make a point of doing, whether lauding US Presidents Joe Bidens Bipartisan Infrastructure Law on Twitter and braving vitriol, or travelling to Washington DC to bring together politicians across the aisle, as he is scheduled to do in January.

The proper idea, he says, drawing again on his background as a psychologist, is to look at the benevolence and the capacity for atrocity that characterises you. Because if you dont see that within you, as the responsibility you have in relation to ethical struggle and in relation to conducting an ethical life, then you will absolutely see it in someone else, because it absolutely exists and has to find its place.

Can this self-awareness, or even guilt which the Left has been extremely good at weaponising be channelled to achieve something positive? It must, says Peterson: Anyone with any sense who has any privilege has guilt about it. We know perfectly well that we are the undeserving beneficiaries in some sense of what our culture and our parents have arbitrarily bestowed upon us, where arbitrary means not through our own efforts.

One must then try to live a life that justifies those advantages. You take the burden of the catastrophe of history on to yourself and you take that seriously. And so then you try to act like a noble and outstanding person, moving forward. If you dont do that youll suffer for it. Because we have a conscience and it will take us to task.

It is Petersons faith in the human conscience which makes him optimistic, though perhaps only marginally so, given that he is only too aware of the capacity of mankind to destroy ourselves as well as the world around us.

There were hundreds of millions of people killed in the 20th century, unnecessarily, for ideological reasons. And we can certainly manage that on a magnificent scale if we so choose. Were in a state now where our technological prowess has hit an inflection point. Its all we can do to keep up with it. We have no idea whats on the horizon.

Not that we ever did in some sense, but the scope of technological transformation has broadened substantially. So we can do terrible things or great things. What are we going to do? Well, Im optimistic because fundamentally I believe that men of good will can prevail.

Optimistic he may well be, but Peterson is also mindful of the dangers of fashionable ideologies which seriously compromise everything that weve accomplished, that is allowing people to lead lives more abundant in a material sense and threaten to bring the house down.

Misplaced guilt and a hatred for human enterprise, and the belief that were a cancer on the face of the planet and that the planet would be better with fewer people on it or perhaps none. Thats not the rock you build your house on.

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Jordan Peterson: 'If you can't say what you think, soon you won't be able to think' - Telegraph.co.uk