Book Review of Jordan B Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos (2018)

12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos (2018)

By:  Jordan B Peterson

Why I Got This Book:

I discovered Jordan Peterson thanks to the  Counter Arguments channel on Youtube which had uploaded a fantastic video of Peterson in a interview on the BBC where the female host Cathy Newman just does not stop hammering at him  to expose that he issues against woman and that he's part of the alt-right and Jordan with an ability I have seldom seen before outmaneuvers her and actually flips the interview on her  and actually makes her prove his point. I was blown away with his debating skills, so I started to look up Peterson on youtube and discovered he was a pretty famous intellectual with some interesting and for some provocative points of view, so I set out to get this book because it came out right around the time I discovered Peterson, so here are my impressions.
Central Thymes:
•    Peterson affirms that it is a mistake to think that the main goal in life is the pursuit of happiness.
•    Individuals must balance in their interior conflict of order and chaos, their inner Yin and Yang, the author references Taoism as one of the cornerstone in how he views the world and how to fix people lives as a clinical psychologist. The author all leans heavily on Judeo-Christian beliefs too, referencing and analyzing many parts of the bible.
•    Jordan describes Order basically culture and its norms which facilitates cooperation among members of society, that is inclined to try to be constants and fixed, the male, while chaos is the unpredictable and the unknown of nature which is in constant change, the female.  For Peterson
•    Shared cultural systems stabilize human interaction and humans need values to act and perceive the pursuit of their goals which brings progress into their lives.
•    Anger is an important tool in life if used correctly can hold tyranny at bay on an individual and on a social level. Because if one does not channel this anger resentment can build creating monsters.
•    If there is no adversities, challenges or dangers in life it is not worth living.
•    Humans are aware of their defenselessness, finitude, and mortality, with this being the origin of great distress to many people, but this can be used as a double-edged sword that can be exploited.
•    Peterson affirms that he believes in equal opportunity but not in equality of outcome, which over time I have come to accept this as the most constructive way to view society.
•    Jordan establishes the Ethics is the philosophical study of morality, while Religion covers the domain of the ultimate value, which is not the scientific domain of empirical description. The Peterson explains that religion end is to teach us the proper behavior, stirring us to be a good person. Personally, I feel this is a pretty reductionist view of religion, that serves Peterson's purpose, but the behavior control aspect of religion is one small aspect of faith.
•    The way we see the world depends on our religious views, which even for an atheist who live in a culture that in the west, for example, is deeply influenced by Judeo-Christian values cannot escape.
•    Bible is the foundational document of Western Society, establishing its values, morality, and concepts of good and evil, personally, I feel this is a little bit an overstatement the Bible is extremely important but it is not the only foundational text that helps shape Western Society.
•    School shooters in the US are making an existential protest, it an act of religious fundamentalism even though they did not do it in the name of faith.  The conflict in their mind is working on a religious level the world and reality are an insufficient experience and are evil, which must be destroyed. 
•    Sacrifice a fundamental invention of humanity where human realize the passing of time and delaying gratification, to better one future. On a social level sacrifice and sharing forges ties of trust, collaboration, reciprocity, prestige and reputation in a community.
•    Most political debates participants focus on winning but not being right, this leads to leads to reinforcing preconceived notions that are actually are fixed and reestablished, leaving out the possibilities to learn something or being constructive.
•    Socialism and social reformers do not care for the poor, they just feel contempt towards the rich, their resentment fuels their auto perception of self-importance, just like SJWs.
•    Modern school systems are too hard on male trying to beat out many male traits that are fundamental to men when they adults.
•    Postmodern and Neomarxist thinker are obsessed with the concept of the patriarchy, the dominion of the white male, really indulging in victim culture using it as a political tool. They view culture as an oppressive structure, which Peterson establishes that this is ignorant and ungrateful, also shows how they have no understanding in history.  Peterson also brings up the topic that P/Ns have gotten to the point of questioning science which they affirm the scientist have vested interest in their finds, and literally, they are no true facts, everything is relative. It has gotten so bad that basic skills and competence are actually put into question.
•    Culture for  Peterson crushes individuals into acceptable shape, but it offers great gain for people because they inherited the gift of language and technology for example. Culture takes and gives, but when it's healthy it give generously.
•    The collective pursuit of a valued goal creates hierarchies and systems the establish who the winners and losers are.  
•    Nature is the primary oppressor of Women, not men.

What I liked :
•    The book is surprisingly honest and personal at moments. In the Audio Book which is narrated by Peterson himself he actually gets choked up talking about a tragic moment in his life. In other moments he surprisingly funny with his dry wit.
•    You almost get a Peterson biography in this book because he talks a lot about his own past and personal experiences.
•    The book is pretty odd oscillating from a self-help book to a political philosophical manifest. 
•    Peterson makes a lot of emphasis in how unique individual is and that they are infinitely complex.
•    The affirmation the Atheist are also religious people by Jordan is pretty bold which I share with him, they just don't know the god they serve
•    Peterson seems to have an admiration for Extreme Sports especially Skateboarding and surprisingly love watching the Simpsons.
•    Peterson references the works of  Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Sigmund Freude and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

What I didn't like or Debatable Stuff:
•    Some chapters are too long, as a reader, I tuned out at moments and may have messed out a couple of important points. Around chapter 10 the book started to lag a bit but picked up in the last chapter and the conclusion. 
•    Peterson talks a lot about religion but it is never clear if he actually believes in a true God or in a metaphorical philosophical  God. Peterson even though he talks a lot about the positive aspects of religion he seems pretty elusive about his own religious views.
•    The author talks a lot about power but never defines it, and it seems he uses it pretty lacksly.
•    Tends to consider postmodernist and hardcore Marxist are one and the same, which you sit down to break this down is a mistake, but which is not to say that most SJWs are armchair Postmodernist/ Marxist, which you cannot debate with, even if you have hard empirical evidence on your side, so even though Peterson is academically sloppy he's sort of right.
•    Many of Peterson affirmations are used for individual and on a broader social level, and the social world is too complex to have a one size fits all explanation, even though some of his ideas may explain things very well on an individual level but partially on a larger social level.  
•    Peterson does pander a little to a right-leaning or conservative point of views especially when talking about genders and other social issues.  For example, he makes many more references to the old testament than to the new, which conservative Christians love.
•    The man hates Elmo, he must be Evil and has a thing for lobsters jajajaja.
•    At moments you can tell that Jordan has a pretty big ego.
•    When Peterson refers to religion he just focuses how it is used to regulate behavior and it stirs people to be good but does not define good. Neither goes into metaphysical aspect of faith, only focusing on the social norms it generates, this can be problematic if you only view faith in these terms, because his views seem to be pretty sophisticated and seems to omit things to the reader.
•    Jordan has a strong position against the idea the Gender is purely a social construct, and establish that this is not up for debate for him this determined by biological factors.
Overall: The book gets an 8 out of 10, it gets you thinking.

and Taoist, one must balance the inner Order and Chaos, and people that prevail are able to want on the frontier between constants and change.  Peterson actually uses an interesting example that good music has a proper balance between predictable and unpredictable, which makes it artistically interesting.