(Originally written March 2017)
Canadian Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson is an unusual superhero. He can’t jump single buildings in a bound, has no special skills that would qualify him for membership in any DC or Marvel collective yet provides a service that may indeed save many a great institution from the rot that it is in. Peterson is warrior number one in the fight for Free Speech on Campus and indeed within the broader academic framework.
Canadian Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson is an unusual superhero. He can’t jump single buildings in a bound, has no special skills that would qualify him for membership in any DC or Marvel collective yet provides a service that may indeed save many a great institution from the rot that it is in. Peterson is warrior number one in the fight for Free Speech on Campus and indeed within the broader academic framework.
Initially that campus was my alma mater, the University of Toronto, but now it appears that the Peterson effect seems to be spreading with the good professor making appearances on several other campuses.
Peterson (who used to be a member of Canada’s social democratic NDP) first came to the fore publicly when he released a series of videos around free speech in the political correct context. His specific objection was Bill C-16 that was introduced in the Canadian Parliament by the Trudeau government. The bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code by adding gender identity or expression to an extended definition of ‘identifiable groups’. This would make it an offence to spread hate propaganda based on these two facets. Peterson objected (not to the LBGT element) but to the Freedom of speech aspects and took aim at Ontario’s Human Rights Code along similar lines. He went further by saying that he would not use ‘non-binary’ pronouns such as zhe and zir ordinarily but would consider it if asked in the right way.
The backlash against Peterson has been severe. Mass protests have targeted his lectures and he has been the focus of an outrage campaign to silence him on campus. While many would be compelled to flee from such actions Peterson has stood his ground. He has taken to the media and appeared on a number of talk shows in Canada and the US. Stefan Molyneux, Joe Rogan, Steve Crowder, Gavin McInnes, Dave Rubin and Dennis Prager have all hosted him on their respective programs. His Twitter account and you tube channel is very active and he has received many endorsements including those of trans woman personality Theryn Mayer. Peterson openly meets with students across the campus to hear them out and regularly engages in the Socratic even with those who will not hesitate to attack him with the thinnest of ad hominems.
However Peterson is so much more than a crusader for free speech. His Mind Map lectures (posted on you tube) provide a tremendous insight into Nietzsche, Jung, Solzhenitsyn and Piaget and he is by all accounts an extremely informed and rigorous thinker when it comes to understanding the development of personality. I was particularly taken by his understanding of the way mythology is incorporated into our intellectual mega structure. Also worth looking at for those who are interested is his discussion with Sam Harris on the Nature of Truth.
In a way he embodies the Classic liberal idea of open debate. He has his well developed positions and offers much evidence for his stance. Complexity doesn’t overwhelm him and understands that no single theory can explain the intricacies of the human condition. Above all else he stresses the point of listening to the other. This has been a central theme in his mission against campus lunacy all along.
Peterson is a throwback to the type of social scientist that spoke freely for Western values a time before the toxicity of post-modernism and the stain of relativism espoused by the likes of Foucault, Marcuse and Derrida made its presence felt across the university backdrop.
In campuses across North America where speech codes dominate and conservative speakers regularly rely on a security detail (look no further than Charles Murray at Middlebury) Peterson’s effort to challenge this neo-orthodoxy is most welcome. He provides a necessary voice in an era that has succumbed to what Allan Bloom described as the ‘Closing of the American Mind’. Peterson is not a man of either the right or the left but a brave figure fighting a critical battle for the integrity of our academic heritage which once again is being threatened by ideological group think. One can only hope that his example will inspire other academics to act accordingly. The intellectual process certainly needs this infusion of passion that seeks only to further enlightenment values in a way that will benefit us all.
