Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Liquid modernity

"As I walk through [Walmart late at night] I realize that the radio or something is on–I can hear a voice over speakers somewhere in the store and it is quite loud. Talk radio? It is a man’s voice talking. He reminds me a little of Kermit the Frog, but talking about some psychology stuff. I am standing there in the aisle, listening trying to figure out where I have heard the voice before when I realize it is Jordan Peterson.

I look around and realize that one of his videos is being played and broadcast through some speakers inside the fast-food place–but probably 20% of Walmart can hear it. There is a late 20s white guy cleaning up the Subway. As I am standing there, a Walmart employee also cleaning spies me standing there in disbelief, processing that I am listening to Jordan Peterson. He nods at me and I nod back approvingly. Nothing needed to be said, each understood the other in a flash.

The whole thing reminded me of the scene from Fight Club where the narrator realizes that there are franchises everywhere. I then got to thinking about Jordan Peterson, and realized that Chuck Palahniuk was prophesying the emergence of figures like Jordan Peterson whether he intended to or not.

The men who feel emasculated by liquid modernity are going not going to sit still for this forever. It is not about Left or Right–the Left pushing political correctness might be what brought us to the breaking point, but the more young men I talk to about this stuff are angry at the corporate-consumer world too. Jordan Peterson seems to be the first tangible figure that they can come together around. I doubt he will be the last."

Contrast with ContraPoints' take down of Peterson's logic (starting at 9:50):


15 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

So what Peterson is really saying is ...

chickelit said...

Solid past, liquid modernity, chaotic future. We never notice the phase changes.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

JOrdan Peterson over the loud speakers at Walmart. Trippy.

deborah said...

April, you remind me of the Candid Camera (I think) piece where a K-Mart has a blue light special inviting to do the twist...and a couple people do it. Good times.

The Dude said...

They are bloviating and have become gaseous. May they all continue until they are plasmatic.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I have not yet immersed myself in Jordan Peterson, and clearly I am missing out. Anyone who makes the left's collective heads explode has my attention.

I did watch the first 6 minutes of the linked video. More latter.

ricpic said...

My only problem with whoever wrote the comment Chip posted is that IMO corporations and consumerism are not the villains. The villain is good old communism, now disguising itself as Cultural Marxism. The attack continues to be on what the Left calls "bourgeoise morality," which is to say the morality that goes back to the Old Testament and puts the onus on the individual to shape up, to control himself, to act right. That all has to be eliminated to make free individuals slaves again.

Peterson by the way is all about stamping out the slave in yourself. As was Chekov. NAME DROPPER!

MamaM said...

DB@Home, Immersion is not needed, sprinkling will also work, so will dipping in a toe, or catching a drift in whatever way works for you.

I recommend his book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, in paper version or audio, as that style and delivery is different from a speech or talk. On my end receiving from another in that way allows time to ponder, and I don't feel like I'm being sold or talked into something. However, that preference may link back to numerous hours spent listening to preaching from a pulpit during the first half of my life!

When I first bought the book on recommendation from a friend, I was surprised to discover the author was the same person who'd been showing up here at Lem's on the long videos deborah had been posting--the ones I'd previously found unwatchable. I was also surprised to discover the book wasn't nearly as politically oriented or polarizing as some were perceiving him to be. There is a wonderful section in it on the power of listening one on one to another!

An additional bonus for me has been the mention over at Althouse of the diet Peterson and his daughter follow (she for her RA). I've been doing something similar and its been helping with the inflammation and arthritis I've been experiencing.

The Dude said...

I am not going to visit TOP but as someone who is inflamed, what is the diet in question?

deborah said...

April here are two snippets from his latest monthly q and a. At the very beginning he talks about free will.

orthodox Christianity's view on approach to personal sacrifice

distinguishing reality from unconscious projection

The Dude said...

Holy carp, he just took apart Meyers Briggs. I should have listened to that prior to taking that grueling test!

MamaM said...

No need to visit TOP Sixty, or get into poison ivy if doing so can be avoided. I can provide the links.

http://mikhailapeterson.com/2017/09/20/jordan-petersons-diet/

http://mikhailapeterson.com/2018/04/20/carnivore-diet-new-thoughts-april-2018/

I'm glad I happened to buy the book and visit TOP that day, as it was a comment on a post on Peterson that provided the link. Mention also came up of Hereditary Alpha Tryptasemia

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/hereditary-alpha-tryptasemia-faq


Here's his daughter's story:

My name is Mikhaila Peterson.

I was a really sick person since I was 2. I was prone to getting bacterial infections (strep throat, pneumonia, etc.), yeast infections, colds, etc. I was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis when I was 7 and ended up with multiple joints replaced at age 17. I started antidepressants for severe depression/anxiety in grade 5. I suffered from “idiopathic hypersomnia” – aka I couldn’t wake up. I spent approximately 17 hours a day sleeping and the rest in a half daze. I had itchy skin starting at age 14 that I just ignored. Then my skin problems started at about age 19. Cystic acne, painful bumps, blistering…

I was on multiple medications, antidepressants, immune suppressants, amphetamines.

Then I started experimenting with diet. Almost everything I had read had told me it doesn’t really matter what you eat, as long as you work out. That is a HUGE and dangerous lie. What you put into your body is as important as what medications you’re taking. Changing the way you eat can change your life.

I’m in remission from everything. I don’t take any medications (I do take vitamins). The hardest thing to get rid of was the depression, but that’s gone too!

My dad suffered from a number of health problems too. Not like me, but the same depression and similar fatigue and weight gain. Gum and skin problems. He’s fixed too. He lost 50 pounds in a year on this diet. For anyone who watches his videos, you can see the difference from December 2015 to January 2017. This is huge. Check out the list of foods we got better with for more info! Leave a comment, and give it a try if you feel lousy, or if you don’t.

deborah said...

Sixty, I thought that was interesting, considering we'd just talked about it here. I'm interested in taking the Big Five test.

The Dude said...

Thanks for the links, MamaM - I will take a look at what they eat.

When you find out more about the Big Five test let us know what it is all about. And here I thought Big 5 was a sporting goods store...

MamaM said...

I found this post confusing at first as I missed the quotation mark at the start, and thought I was reading about someone from Lem's (ChipA perhaps or Sixty looking for Calamine???) wandering around Walmart late at night making eye contact with strangers. When I scrolled down to find who the poster was, I discovered it was deborah, and my next mental leap had me imagining she was the one making the late night Peterson connections, in a store this time rather than on a blog. How fun would it be, to hear the voice of the one you've been posting videos about, turn up in Walmart for an effortless connect? The modern version of seeing the hand of God writing on a Wal! After making it to the part about how much more men are going to take, it started to dawn on me that someone other than deborah was writing that story. Recalling her penchant for posting quotes, I scrolled back up to find the mark and click on the link in the hope of finding who was doing the wandering. Unfortunately the link deposited me in the middle of a comment section where IQ differences between blacks and whites took place with Good Old Blogging Heads mentioned. WTF?? More mystery, with yet another upward scroll required to reveal the author to be an unnamed reader on a post by Rod DReher at the American Conservative Blog. Whew! However, that still left me unclear as to what ax Rod Dreher likes to grind or juice he prefers to drink, with no real clue as to age, race or gender of the writer of the posted words. Just as my imagination had first led me to believe, it's possible someone I know could have written those words.

Even though I don't know whose story it is, and am not clear as to the context or point of this particular post or tuned in to what I'm supposed to compare and contrast, I appreciated the story and the part of the conclusion. It's not just men who aren't going to stand around or sit still for more. Women have lost their way as well, and Peterson comes across to me as a Voice of Reason speaking thoughtfully and deeply about what matters most from his perspective, based on what he's seen, noted, studied and experienced.

I put him in the company of Rollo May, whose book on Love and Will (1969) first opened my door to a different set of thoughts and perspectives while I was still in high school. (My sister had been assigned the book for a collage course and it was in her room when she moved out and I moved into her old room. )

The next book of influence that I recall was The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck in 1978, with his "Life is difficult" pronouncement, along with People of the Lie (1983); and I'm grateful for him as well.

Richard Rohr translates, or perhaps presents would be the better word, the pattern that is part of the Paschal Mystery of Passion, Death and Resurrection as one of Order, Disorder, and Reorder. It's the cycle that happens over and over again. Those who feel they've lost a sense of order and are encountering and attempting to live in disorder, are or soon will be looking for a Voice of Reason along with some Rules for Living that make sense and inspire.