The Dalai Lama in a shiny suit

Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson spoke to a Forest National team member full of verbosity and self-confidence. “Your problems are your opportunities.”

Soft harp music plays as we take our seats. Where the Vorst-National’s central square would normally have been reserved for sweaty concert-goers, there are now several hundred seats arranged next to each other. Where beer and snacks are usually carried, young men in smart shirts carry thick books. A gentle commotion fills the room.

Where the stage is usually reserved for artists and rock bands, the room is now almost completely packed to hear a 55-year-old psychiatrist from Canada. Jordan Peterson gets a storm of applause when he comes on stage. He’s wearing a green two-piece suit that looks like it was accidentally washed in a bucket of glitter. Brussels is the fourth stop on a European tour that will visit Rotterdam, Bucharest and Geneva in the coming days. In his typical raspy voice, he declared that he wanted to speak in Brussels on the subject which has long puzzled every sane scholar of value-added Western Europe: the biblical book of the Exodus.

Anyone who sees Peterson stride down the stage confidently like some kind of psycho rock star can sometimes forget that he was an unknown nobleman until 2016. meaning maps, the book he published in 1999 as his magnum opus, caused hardly any ripple. Until recently, Peterson’s fame didn’t extend beyond the University of Toronto campus. In 2016, Peterson threw himself into a raging North American culture battle between left and right. When Canada passed a law allowing the use of gender-neutral pronouns, Peterson recorded a YouTube video criticizing what he called a “secret apparatus for left-wing impulses”. He also confidently declared that he would never use the gender-neutral expression “they”. Since then, Peterson has been dominant Cultural warrior On the conservative side. His YouTube vlogs attract millions of viewers. We are 12 rules for life, a book in which he explains how you can live a meaningful life by working on yourself, becomes a bestseller. the The New York Times Named “The World’s Most Influential Public Thinker” in 2019.

Family business

Peterson, who resigned from the University of Toronto in January 2023, has become a commercial producer himself. Peterson NV is a true family business. Before Peterson takes to the stage, a cutscene is shown promoting Essay, his son’s company. After all, Julian Peterson with Essay presents a “revolutionary program” in which people learn to “arrange their thoughts” in a “structural way”. With typical fiddle music that sounds like it was only made for corporate movies, the father and son say the world would be a “better place” if people were more able to write essays.

After promoting his son’s business, Peterson appeared in a second scene presenting The Peterson Academy. That academy should become an “ideology-averse” online college platform that teaches you how and what not to think about. After the commercial, Tami Peterson enters the scene, the wife who constantly refers to her husband as “Dr. Peterson. She also had the opportunity to share her wisdom—actually her husband’s, it’s rule 9 of the famous 12 rules—with the audience for fifteen minutes. In a very tenacious letter, in which she talks about her family life, she explains how important it is to listen carefully. She asserts that “communication works both ways”, that good listening leads to a better understanding of the other person and that by listening to others you can hear yourself.

“problems are opportunities”

The fact that Peterson chose his keynote to talk about going out for an hour also makes business sense. His speech comes as a prelude to the book, which he hopes to publish next January. Mythology is one of Peterson’s longtime fascinations. He is convinced that ancient mythological stories have deep meaning that still hold wise lessons for people today. He immediately promised to return to Europe next year to promote his book.

For Peterson, getting out is first and foremost about good governance. He argues that Moses is similar to Superman and Harry Potter. After all, all three gentlemen are far from their origins, grow up with different parents, and are gradually called upon to pursue a special goal in their lives. For Peterson, the Exodus is the final battle against tyranny: Moses leads the people of Israel through the desert, the test every community must endure in order to be free from the bonds of slavery. It’s one of Peterson’s favorite pet peeves: Life is hard, and there’s no point in telling people what to do. “Your problems are your opportunities,” Peterson told his audience.

In recent years, Peterson has regularly sought out aspects of the social debate. For example, he questions climate change and claims that Canada — indeed, Canada — is on its way to becoming a dictatorship. He also skilfully searches for cobblestones in Brussels now and then. For example, he suggests that the European Union – like ancient Egypt – has authoritarian tendencies. The loudest applause of the evening comes from Peterson when he declared that the “totalitarian tendencies” of the coronavirus pandemic were “much worse” than the virus itself. At the same time, it is clear that Peterson presents only a certain part of his works on European soil. He retains his fierce criticism of transgender people and feminists elsewhere.

The power of clichés

In a way, it’s remarkable that Peterson’s message reached such a wide audience. The deeper meaning of biblical mythology rarely results in a full program filling concert halls. It is also questionable how well the average spectator will understand Peterson’s argument, which sometimes explodes in all directions. According to Peterson, the burning bush in which Moses hears Yahweh’s voice symbolizes “life in his being, but at the same time also life in his becoming.” Like Moses, Peterson says, we must pursue our higher goals with “great perseverance.” They look great. But what does that actually mean?

However, it would be unfair to dismiss Peterson’s work as a coherent raving. Much of his work is based on (Salim) psychological research. Part of it is scientifically problematic, and at times it reeks of conspiracy thinking. But the main component of Peterson’s rhetoric is clichés, which he presents as wisdom set in marble. In the round of questions that will be held after Peterson’s lecture, it is also difficult to find original insights. He defends the idea that there is no point in holding back. When he talks about raising children, he advises his audience to show love, but also to raise the bar. Couples who want to have children are advised to continue investing in their relationship. It’s good advice, no doubt, but it’s not entirely original.

It is precisely these clichés that are the real reason for Peterson’s popularity. Just as the Dalai Lama has inspired a section of left-wing society with obscure platitudes for decades, Peterson has a reassuring set of cliches for people on the right. Jordan Peterson has a talent that should not be underestimated to make his audience feel that the ideas they already have are very clever. He gives his readers and listeners what he promises in his 12 Rules for Life: An antidote to chaos. His most important characteristic is not what he proclaims, but the certainty with which he does it. Whether it’s Russian politics, cosmic energy, or Egyptian mythology: Peterson declares his wisdom with equal confidence. After all, this is the man who was still lecturing in March on how to organize Christianity. Jordan Peterson has even the most aplomb talentJournalists can only dream. It is immediately the main pitfall for the Canadian anti-hero The Wake, who in his attempts to prove himself as a Omo universal To deliver regularly falls by the wayside.

Ironically, he himself was warned of this while passing Forest National. Creative people are often very good at forming relationships, says Peterson. However, the trick is in the dosage, because whoever makes too many connections “risks involvement in pseudoscience and conspiracy thinking.” Who are we to contradict Dr. Peterson?