The Elderly, Ill and Poor
Hi Dr. Peterson, Thank you for having such a positive influence on the world, and thank you especially for your positive influence on my life. My question with a little preamble follows: As much as society raises certain exceptional people to great heights where they can be admired by all, it crushes many more into positions of low-status. Living a life generally low in the social hierarchy for any length of time can be devastating to a person. Any combination of health problems, tragedies, maliciousness and personal faults can quite easily bring a person down the socioeconomic hierarchy and often the lower you go the less potential other people see in you, and the less opportunities you have. You speak of the great well of potential in every individual, that there is virtually no imaginable limit to the effect that an individual can have on humanity simply through incremental self-improvement. But society values some people so little that they could be likened to rats in a B.F. Skinner experiment. It costs a certain amount to live in western society, if your income isn’t sufficient to meet this amount you are additionally taxed in dignity and self-respect. So I have to ask several related questions: to what extent is society responsible for supporting the poor and alienated? If each human is a well of potential, why do some of us live like dogs? And why is the lack of power viewed with such contempt by society? An example of this contempt is the lack of support for the elderly, ill, and poor of society. . Thank you.
To stay or not to stay in our fundamentalist, dogmatic church.
How do we look at what we perceive to be flaws in our fundamentalist Christian church community, with candor, yet not lead our kids to become cynical or dismissive, and still belong? We want to talk to them honestly and courageously, yet by doing so, we may turn them off even more than they already are. As you’ve mentioned, it is easier to tear something down, or trivialize something, than it is to build and maintain something complex and meaningful, and that is part of our history. We realize the importance of striving towards a higher ideal. We want our kids to learn this and we are trying to lead by example. This is especially important before they mature and can think abstractly about how transient life is, and the importance of good friends and a pursuit of values like love and forgiveness. Again, your highlighting of sacrifice is a good antidote for what is easy/fast/fun, the main focus of a kid's life (school, sports and material possessions) and we think belonging to a church community helps instill this understanding. Bottom line: Do we continue to belong and try to teach our kids what parts are important and what parts to leave behind? Do we find a new church?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Dr. Peterson, I originally read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a sophomore undergrad in 2012. I understood half of it at most back then. I have since been listening to and watching you for the last several years and was delighted to see this book on your recommended reading list. I just read it again and was amazed that I understood much more of it this time, and I credit that to me listening to your lectures. I have not heard you discuss this book, but it has many parallels to the concepts you discuss, especially: 1) romantic versus classical perspectives, 2) the capability of Quality to metaphysically bridge science and art, 3) and the importance of working on improving yourself as you would as a motorcycle mechanic, part by part. Could you please speak to this? Thank you so much, Colton.
Am I getting it?
Dr. Peterson, when I first came across your work (2015) I was and still hopeful that you were the catalyst to bring the young and the old back to what religion is supposed to be. “The guiding light to thoughtful Divine change” ! Abraham , Moses and Jesus were all about change . Christianity changed the world thru individual sovereignty .It seems to me listening to you that you get this beautiful poetic message of adaptability thru the Logos . Transfiguration ! How do we move into the future (no more chaotic than our ancestors saw the future) without throwing the baby out with the bath water ! A new institution ? A reconstitution? Or do we do a better job of messaging ? One that a Jordan Peterson could love and one that Sam Harris could embrace. Bishop Barron seems to be trying ,but to early to tell if it’s working ( lots of baggage to over come). Do think we are heading in one of these direction ? Is it like religious darwinism? I hope I live long enough to see what happens , a little Synchronicity would be helpful !!!