7 Times Jordan Peterson Got Reality Right

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Jordan B. Peterson is a psychology professor at Toronto University. Arguably a sort of YouTube Messiah, he known for his catchphrase “life is suffering.” He urges young people to “sort themselves out” and save the world. Check out some of his quotes below!

1. On becoming successful, admired and your ideal self

“What else do you want to subordinate yourself to? How about your heroic willingness to encounter the unknown and articulate it? And share that with people?…You’ll be admired. You’ll be valued. And you know that, because if you look at the people you admire and value…you just have to watch the people that you admire and try to figure out what’s common across them and draw your own conclusions….You have a vision of your own ideal. And you torment yourself if you’re not matching it. What’s the ideal? Well, you don’t know…But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t trying to manifest itself and make itself known to you.”

2. On having goals and integrity

“Stop saying things that violate your conscience….Stop saying and doing things that you make you feel weak. All you have to do is pay attention to that, because some things will make for feel disintegrated…Some things improve your integrity, some things disintegrate you. Now the things that disintegrate you, you often do to impress other people; or because you’re taking a shortcut; or you’re escaping what you know to be your moral obligation. Your moral obligation stems naturally from your aims. Once you have aims you have moral obligations. They come together. Because the moral obligation is what you need to do to obtain the aim. And if you don’t have an aim well then, you’re aimless…Then when you violate the moral obligations you’ll have a sense of that violation! It’s like well, you have to stop doing that…. To the degree you’re in your room, the room is you. Straighten up the things that you can straighten up and stop saying things that make you feel weak. And Then you will know what to do next.”

3. On telling the truth

“Well, what happens if you just tell the truth? the world will unfold around you in very strange and mysterious ways, and there isn’t anything that’s more exciting than that. It’s perhaps something exciting enough so that the suffering that’s attendant on being would redeem itself, by that adventure. and that’s the call. The suffering of being can redeem itself through truth….Say what you think! Tell the truth about what you think. There’s gonna be things you think, that you think are nasty and harsh – and they probably are nasty and harsh – but they’re also probably true.”

4. On facing the unknown

“Risk your security. Face the unknown. Quit lying to yourself, and do what your heart truly tells you to do. You will be better for it, and so will the world.”

5. On why you’re obligated to share your thoughts

“I think you’re obligated to speak freely because otherwise people don’t have the benefit of whatever wisdom you possess; and at least you possess the wisdom of your own experience.”

6. On how taking responsibility for others is the way to a meaningful life

“You want to have a meaningful life? Everything you do matters. That’s the definition of a meaningful life. BUT everything you do matters. You’re going to have to carry that with you. OR do you want to just forget about the whole meaning thing and then you don’t have any responsibility; because who the hell cares; you can wander through life doing whatever you want. Gratifying impulsive desires, for however useful that’s going to be. And you’re stuck in meaningless but you don’t have any responsibility. Which one do you want? Ask yourself, which one are you pursuing? And you’ll find very rapidly that it’s not the majority of your soul that’s pursuing the whole meaning thing. Because, well, look what you have to do to do that. You have to take on the fact that life is suffering. You have to put yourself together in the FACE of that. Well that’s hard! CHRIST it’s amazing that people can even DO it. I’m stunned every day when I go outside….Get yourself together. Transcend your suffering. See if you can be some kind of hero. Make the suffering in the world less! Well, that’s the way forward, as far as I can tell; if there is any way forward. And THAT’S what’s understand assault by the postmodernists.”

7. And to summarize it all

“Life is suffering. Love is the desire to see unnecessary suffering ameliorated. And the truth is the handmaiden of love, and the dialogue is the pathway to truth. And humility is recognition of personal insufficiency, and the willingness to learn. And to learn is to die voluntarily and be born again, in great ways and small.”