The Liberalism of Jordan Peterson – and Us!

Jordan Peterson wants to help men reclaim their masculinity and lead successful productive lives in a world where chaos and disorder reign making it particularly hard on men to be all they can and must, for the health of society, be. The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre sagely observes that one cannot know how to live if one does not know the story of which he or she is a part. Peterson, therefore, calls men to embrace a different story than the one(s) currently dominating North America. The response he has generated shows he has struck a nerve for many more than a few people. He’s found a live and important concern – we are living by a false story about who we are and what we are to be about in the world.

The itch he scratches is palpable, perennial, and profound.

-Palpable because it involves how we actually live, our interface with the world, the quality of our relationships, and the character of our influence on others. It matters.

-Perennial because it never goes away, is never settled once and for all, and must be daily renewed (though, sadly, often by default than by decision). It always matters.

-Profound because it touches the depth and breadth of life. In many ways it is what life at bottom is all about. It matters most of all.

But what is this itch? And how does Peterson scratch it? And, for Christians, how does his way of scratching this itch square up with how Jesus Christ scratches it? JP has a way of dealing with life rooted in a particular sense of identity derived from a particular story of what life is about, where it is going, and how we best get there. JP’s are found in his 12 Rules:

Rule 1- Stand up straight with your shoulders back

Rule 2- Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping

Rule 3- Make friends with people who want the best for you

Rule 4- Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today

Rule 5- Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them

Rule 6- Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

Rule 7- Pursue what is meaningful (Not what is Expedient)

Rule 8- Tell the truth - or at least, don’t lie

Rule 9- Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t

Rule 10- Be precise in your speech

Rule 11- Don’t bother children when they are skateboarding

Rule 12- Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

Now, a first look at JP’s Rules may strike you as simple commonsense maxims that at least my generation heard ad nauseum growing up from parents, teachers, church leaders, scout masters, and the like. And they are. And most of them are unexceptionable (except, for dog lovers, perhaps #12!). It’s a but perplexing why so many find this so powerful. But they do!

I suggest JP’s Rules get the response they do because beneath their surface these maxims sketch his vision for a preferred future, one that must reclaimed from other such visions that are perceived to be superseding it to our hurt – things like liberalism, political correctness, identity politics, feminism, socialism, postmodernism, and Marxism. The 12 Rules, then, must be seen as a competitor for our attention on a level with these other views as a serious, intellectually responsible, socially credible way of ordering and living out human life.

And this is where Christians must make their dissent from JP’s views. Not primarily over how it stacks up with the other visions for living life it challenges (though there is a place for that); nor over the place it occupies in our current “culture wars,” (though there is a place for that too); nor over his understanding of what he promulgates. Rather Christians must look first at the big pictures which lies behind and underwrites what JP is up to.

Surprisingly, when we take a wide-angle view, we discover that the real divide is not between JP and his competitors/critics. The real divide is between JP, his competitors/critics and the Christian gospel! In it’s light we discover that virtually all ways of life, philosophies, spiritualities in the West are based on the same foundation: rampant individualism which posits sheer choice as the mark of freedom and genuine humanity. The Christian gospel, otherwise, claims that reality is intrinsically communal, our lives and destinies are inextricably intertwined, and that love rather than choice is “the” mark of true humanity.  

JP’s 12 Rules bears the marks of this Western hallmark which historically we call liberalism. We are all liberals if we buy into this individualism-choice-freedom paradigm whatever position we occupy on our current conservative to liberal spectrum. And liberals believe the self is in control, who chooses and directs his or her way in the world by themselves, for themselves, and in their own power. Seems telling to me that where the Bible says “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” JP has “Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.” Now I’m not against appropriate self-care at all. It’s the way Peterson frames this maxim in distinction from its biblical counterpart that is revealing. He advises, “Stand up straight with your shoulders back.” Jesus says “I come among you as a servant, a foot-washer. Take up the towel and basin, bend down and wash the feet of others.” I’m not going to go serially through all 12 Rules. These two reflect the tone and tenor of what Peterson thinks. Jesus frames a life lived as God designs from a fundamentally different and opposed perspective: God’s. To live as JP suggests, controlling one’s own life for one’s benefit and success may be his version of the American Dream but in reality is a nightmare of idolatry. With the imperial “I” in charge things will not end well for us.   

We can, as I indicated above, debate JP’s place in the current landscape of America’s culture war. I contend, however, that for Christians, the overriding question is whose flag he bids us salute: the Self’s or the Creator-Redeemer’s? Whose story are we living into and living out of? JP and his critics are by and large debating different positions within the same paradigm. And none of them can finally help. The best witness the Christian and the church can bear is to opt out of that liberal story and discern together what our lives might look like if we passionately, intentionally, and with accountability one for another living into and out of Jesus’ story!