12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018)
Jordan B. Peterson
Life is easy when you are living it with your eyes closed. For an idiot, life is a bliss. He does not analyse or overanalyse things that happen to or around him. He lives for the moment. There is in the now and the past; no future to worry about. In his eyes, everyone is good, and they mean well.
In reality, life is not so straight forward. Inherently, we build a hierarchical pyramid. The occupants at the top perpetuate their positions by merely being there. Their positions ensure continuity of power and status, much like the analogy of lobster that Peterson often quotes. The hierarchical order in any society is exemplified by our crustacean friend. The lobster, a remnant of our ancestral past, illustrates how any societal structure works.
Jordan B. Peterson
Life is easy when you are living it with your eyes closed. For an idiot, life is a bliss. He does not analyse or overanalyse things that happen to or around him. He lives for the moment. There is in the now and the past; no future to worry about. In his eyes, everyone is good, and they mean well. In reality, life is not so straight forward. Inherently, we build a hierarchical pyramid. The occupants at the top perpetuate their positions by merely being there. Their positions ensure continuity of power and status, much like the analogy of lobster that Peterson often quotes. The hierarchical order in any society is exemplified by our crustacean friend. The lobster, a remnant of our ancestral past, illustrates how any societal structure works.
The higher up a hierarchy a lobster climbs, this brain mechanism helps make more serotonin available. The more defeat it suffers, the more restricted the serotonin supply. Lower serotonin is in turn associated with more negative emotions – perhaps making it harder to climb back up the ladder. Serotonin gives one courage and confidence to fight for better, mate and territory, which will consequentially attract better food, healthier partner and subsequently better genetic pool in the offspring. In other words, society ensures that the occupants at the top of the pecking order and the ones at the bottom find it hard to move up.
This is one of the books that try to answer difficult questions in life. The problem is readers with a short attention span like me tend to forget the questions as he starts reading the answers as well as get lost grasping the answers too. Everything is a rollercoaster of circumlocution. Nevertheless, the discussions surrounding the answers are quite engaging, even if your answers are not obvious out there.
It seems that we are re-exploring what our elders once taught us, but we thought that it was old fashioned. When we were young, our parents insisted that we rise early in the morning. We did not see the relevance then, but we now know that it makes a lot of sense. We thought following a timetable was madness. Now we realise that Man needs a fixed routine to maintain sanity. Following a religion gives them a tuft of hope when the going gets tough. Rudderless without a set of rules for life, their life goes asunder.
The following rules of life as set by Peterson would make more sense after reading the book.
Rule #1 - Stand up straight with your shoulders back
Rule #2 - Treat yourself like you are someone responsible for helping
Rule #3 - Make friends with those who want the best for you
Rule #4 - Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who others are today
Rule #5 - Don’t let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
Rule #6 - Put your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
Rule #7 - Do what is meaningful and not what is expedient
Rule #8 - Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie
Rule #9 - Assume that the person you’re listening to knows something you don’t
Rule #10 - Be precise in your speech
Rule #11 - Don’t bother children while they’re skateboarding
Rule #12 - Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
This YouTube video gives an excellent summary of the book in a summarised and animated form. This type of advice is targeted towards the younger generation who are keen to turn their lives into something worthwhile. Unfortunately, these types of information do not excite the younger ones as they are eager to enjoy the spring of their youth and utilise their freedom to the limit. To them, philosophy and doing the right thing can wait. He has a large following in his native country, Canada.
P/S. We think we have it all under our control. How wrong we can we. Dr J Patterson recently recovered from devasting complications of benzodiazepines which he started to consume them to deal with the stress of caring for his wife's ovarian cancer and his daughter's debilitating juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
P/S/S. Peterson became popular among the conservatives for his vehement opposition to the demand of transsexual to choose a pronoun of their choice.
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