Five Hours To Change Your Life With Jordan Peterson

Life is suffering. It is complex and tragic and difficult. The price we pay for being is suffering.

We should not aim for happiness, because the purpose of life is not happiness. Happiness is done in by the first harsh blow that life deals you. If we make out happiness is the ideal state of being then anyone who experiences pain and suffering and tragedy will feel ashamed and think there’s something wrong with them. If your philosophy is shallow and meaningless then when you suffer you will become resentful, hostile and self critical. And then you will become cruel and destructive and be a danger to yourself and others.

Instead we need to sacrifice current pleasures for long term future benefits. We need to believe in a future that is real, and to have confidence we will there be in that future. We then can make choices today that benefit us in the future but cost us today. If you have no future you will descend into anarchy, that’s why gangs exist.

Instead of thinking the problems in the world all lie outside us, we need to recognise that the line between good and evil runs inside each of our own hearts. And given how much suffering there is in the world, we should first figure out how to tidy up our own room and beautify it. To fix ourselves and the part of the world we have influence over, and then find ways to reduce suffering not increase it.

So says Jordan Peterson, the Psychologist storming the internet for the last couple of years. The coronavirus crisis surely has helped many of us realise that the world is indeed a broken hurting place. We can be ignorant of the sheer amount of pain that exists in the world if we are comfortable and going about our business. But suddenly our eyes have been opened.

“The line separating good and evil passes … right through every human heart…even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains…an uprooted small corner of evil." Solzhenitsyn

— Adrian Warnock (@adrianwarnock) March 20, 2020

The truth is that many of us have no philosophical undergirding whatsoever on how to handle suffering. Right now many of us have had our lives interrupted. And in many homes the anguish being felt by others is still distant. But it could potentially come and touch you and your loved ones soon. If you have time to spare, why not invest five hours of that time listening to the one of the greatest intellectual thinkers of today. This may bring rewards not. just in the short term but over the rest of your life.

Jordan Peterson is not explicitly describing a specifically Christian outlook on life. But many of his assumptions flow directly from the the Judeo-Christian world view which formed the foundation of Western society for centuries. He weaves it in with insights from some of the great psychologists some of whom theorised and discovered truths many of which underlined and supported those ancient ideas.

Sadly many today have vandalised the very foundations of any real philosophy in the name of “freedom” concepts about human rights and oppression, and historical snobbery. This video will help you examine your own assumptions about life and thought, and his deep thinking will lead you if you are a Christian to also approach the Bible from a deeper perspective. Many of us are unconsciously and uncritically accepting modern philosophy. Peterson will help you question unhealthy assumptions you didn’t even realise you had.