Doctor Jordan Peterson and the Public Intellectual

The public intellectual can be a strange position. It is often the case that the role is swiftly seized by an over confident, overzealous individual. Or at other times thrust upon an unsuspecting person. A person who then finds themselves rising to the occasion, and coming out the other side transformed and able to gift the world whatever shreds of wisdom or knowledge they have stumbled upon. This latter description perfectly characterizes the controversial rise and prosperous career of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Dr. Peterson has been consistently fulfilling the image of a public intellectual portrayed in the entry “Are Public Intellectuals a Thing of the Past?”.

Doctor Jordan B. Peterson has a long rich intellectual history. He spent his childhood years living in a small town in Alberta Canada before leaving for Grande Prairie Regional College, then transferring to the University of Alberta. He has a background in political science and psychology. His areas of study are abnormal, social and personality psychology, also he has specific interests in the psychology of religious and ideological beliefs. Dr. Perterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, as well as having a clinical psychology practice. On top of this he has authored a number of books, the most popular being “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos”. In total his collection of books has sold more than thirty million copies worldwide. 12 Rules for Life alone accounts for millions of the copies being sold. According to Dr. Peterson’s site, https://jordanbpeterson.com/about/, his latest work landed in the number one position for nonfiction in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, Brazil and Norway. The site also says the book is currently on path to being translated into forty-five different languages.

Along with his books he has gone on a few public lecture tours. One tour, The 12 Rules for Life Tour, stopped at over seventy cities and attracted two hundred thousand paying attendees in North America. Abroad the tour attracted an additional one hundred thousand paying attendees in an additional forty cities. Despite the monumental success of the lecture tour and sales of his books the bulk of his work can be found elsewhere.

A massive treasure trove of Doctor Peterson' work can be found online, particularly in video form. Dr. Peterson is a staunch proponent for the idea that knowledge should be available to anyone who has a will to seek it, despite their social or economic backgrounds. In the name of this idea he has championed the site YouTube, utilizing it to make his work available to the masses. Dr. Peterson regularly sings praises for YouTube’ potential benefits and capabilities. He often likens its social impact to that of the Gutenberg printing press, bearing with it a social revolution to transform the face of education and promulgation of knowledge. He recognizes the ability of the platform to freely upload and access uninterrupted and unedited footage as one of the most influential inventions of modern times. He has spent the last few years uploading various segments of his university and public lectures. An example of the lecture series he posts would be the popular fifteen part biblical series, in which he begins exploring the psychological breakdowns of popular biblical myths. Along with the lectures he has countless hours of other footage such as public responses and interviews. According to his website his channel has one and a half million subscribers, with seventy million views. Others usage of footage taken from his online content has racked up more than four hundred million views collectively. This number grows each month by about seventy thousand views. His online presents also includes The Jordan B Peterson Podcast. This podcast series has over fifty episodes which bring in seven hundred and fifty thousand listeners per episode. In total it has been downloaded sixty million times. The podcast can almost always be found in the number one position for the “Higher Education” category, as well it can regularly be found taking a spot in each of the ten top episode categories slots.

An essay posted to the site, http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/2012/08/are_public_inte.html, claims the real purpose and duty of the public intellectual is to criticize and openly question parts of life in a meaningful way which in turn promotes healthy public dialogue. This is something necessary to a properly functioning democracy. Doctor Jordan Peterson fits this bill perfectly.

Doctor Jordan Peterson wanted to share his work with the world, but never out of a desire for personal fame, he never wanted to be seen for himself, rather for his work. He did not spend his career perusing a spot in the limelight, but it was abruptly thrust upon him. Despite his published books, filmed university class lectures, and active clinical practice Doctor Peterson had been almost unknown to the world outside his local intellectual circle. This all changed in 2016.

In September of 2016 Peterson' name would become infamous almost overnight. This rush of controversial notoriety came after he released a number of videos openly criticizing Canada' Bill C-16. Bill C-16 is referred to by the Canadian Parliament as “An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code”. This bill extends the Canadian Human Rights Act to protect gender expression and gender identity. It also updates the criminal code proceedings when dealing with perceived “hate propaganda, incitement to genocide, and aggravating factors in sentencing”. The Canadian Parliament itself describes the bill as, “ The purpose of this Act is to extend the laws in Canada to give effect, within the purview of matters coming within the legislative authority of Parliament, to the principle that all individuals should have an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have and to have their needs accommodated, consistent with their duties and obligations as members of society, without being hindered in or prevented from doing so by discriminatory practices based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, disability or conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted or in respect of which a record suspension has been ordered.” In reality the bill serves to punish people with the penalty of law for not abiding by the desires of other people. For example if someone does not refer to someone else by their preferred chosen gender or name, the offended person can take legal action against the offender, in the form of fines and possible jail time.

On the surface this bill appears to be very progressive and humanitarian, however it may open the door for many authoritarian abuses, or it may be a sign of abuses to come. Doctor Peterson found the bill to be inappropriate because it forcibly coerced citizens into using or not using certain language. After studying the rise of both left and right wing totalitarian governments and regimes in Europe and elsewhere around the world, Dr. Peterson came to the conclusion that it is, under no circumstances, ever ok for a government to coarse language upon its people. It is not ok, even in the name of compassion.

What elevated Doctor Peterson to his current position was the aftermath of him publicly denouncing Bill C-16. In the weeks that followed his controversial online postings he would be berated by an almost unending smear campaign spearheaded by the Canadian progressive media. Dr. Peterson never once spoke disparagingly about the transsexual or transgender communities, only against laws forcing speech, which happened to do with these groups. He has even countlessly expressed his willingness to refer to people by their preferred pronouns. Yet he would continually be painted as an “alt-right” and “transphobic” figure.

However this artificially designed controversy would only work to his advantage. Interview after interview where Dr. Peterson would intellectually dominate have only served to show both sides true colors. It has shown Petersons true colors, that of an intelligent strong man who refuses to be swept away by social currents because he knows what’s right. He is a public intellectual who would fearlessly call out any abuser to human rights, regardless of their political or ideological backgrounds. And in turn it showed the true colors of the reporters which viciously went after him. It shows their hubris and arrogance in attacking his character in an effort to raise themselves to the position of appointed gatekeepers to morality. Do to both sides persistence it has become easy to see who is the victor in the situation. In the end, after withstanding so many attacks, Doctor Jordan Peterson is left on top with a new found international audience.

Doctor Jordan Peterson displays the realities discussed in “Are Public Intellectuals a Thing of the Past”. He is unlike other current public intellectuals who spend their time groveling about their own perceived influences over a society. Rather he is out there staying focused on his field and ways he could improve dialogue in the public and private spheres. Which he primarily does by pointing out uncomfortable truths, stirring the pot of controversy to prepare people for the necessary things they will have to do.

Doctor Jordan Peterson posed with an authentic Japanese Katana while recording the Joe Rogan Experience podcast