Mr. Vox Day, I am the person who wrote the comment on Alex’s YouTube page. “ogevanalmighty”. I currently regret the manner in which I addressed the topic, and yourself, but I am having a hard time finding flaws in my initial argument.
You accused me of not having read Jordan’s book, but I can assure you I’ve read the 12 rules book twice, as well as listened to both Sam Harris podcasts with Jordan, and Jordan’s own podcasts, and the general noise around him. Your characterization of Dr. Peterson on Alex’s show appeared to be faulty at best and malicious at worst (possibly due my having a limited POV). But I am not a person who just wants to be right. I want to know the truth. So I appreciate a man of your stature taking the time to address a crudely constructed comment, aimed more at Alex than you, as I have contacted Alex multiple times with regard to his views on Peterson.
Regardless, you still did not address my main concern. You said multiple times that Jordan’s 2nd rule is “take your pills”. While that is provably wrong, I understand why that is your interpretation, thanks to Mr. Rob Dew. He contacted me on the same issue and brought to my attention that Jordan uses the example: “People are better at filling and properly administering prescription medication to their pets than to themselves.” While I see where you got the “take your pills” idea from, I believe you are destroying the spirit or meaning behind the quote. As I said to Mr. Dew, “I believe Peterson is saying that people are better at helping others than helping themselves or better at looking after others vs themselves. For example: how someone may buy the very best cat food for their cat and then get low quality, garbage food for themselves. Peterson uses the unfortunate example of prescription meds to make this point.”
Very well, let’s look at the actual text from the book.
RULE 2
TREAT YOURSELF LIKE SOMEONE YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HELPING
WHY WON’T YOU JUST TAKE YOUR DAMN PILLS?
What could it be about people that makes them prefer their pets to themselves? It was an ancient story in the Book of Genesis—the first book in the Old Testament—that helped me find an answer to that perplexing question… And so we return to our original query: Why would someone buy prescription medication for his dog, and then so carefully administer it, when he would not do the same for himself? Now you have the answer, derived from one of the foundational texts of mankind. Why should anyone take care of anything as naked, ugly, ashamed, frightened, worthless, cowardly, resentful, defensive and accusatory as a descendant of Adam? Even if that thing, that being, is himself?
You could begin by treating yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping.
Unfortunately, Mr. Day, you have yet to address that aspect of my initial argument. You instead brought new material into the mix and I am a little shy to say that I’m ignorant of this material featured in, “maps of meaning,” so I would like to work within our currently shared knowledge.
You said in the same podcast with Alex Jones that Jordan’s first rule is “make your bed.” And then you question the relevance and practicality of this rule when it comes to enormous subjects like terrorism. But as Jordan Peterson explained on one of his podcasts, that rule is meant to be the foundation of cleaning yourself. If everybody were to learn to clean their room and thus learn to clean themselves, we theoretically wouldn’t have problems such as terrorism. So I stand by my initial argument that is I believe you are misrepresenting the spirit in which Jordan is speaking about these subjects, as well as misrepresented literal words he wrote.
Mr. Vox Day, I truly appreciate and respect your time and efforts. Know that your response matters to me a great deal and my only intention here is to get to the fundamental truth. I fully accept that I may be wrong and ignorant, and would appreciate your using the examples I’ve provided above as a means to show me the error in my ways. But what would be absolutely ideal is if you and Alex had a discussion on air with Jordan Peterson addressing your concerns about him, if he decides to respond to Alex’s invitation. I believe Dr. Peterson would be natural alleys with yourself and Alex, but again, maybe that’s a sign of my ignorance. Either way, thank you so much for your time and I eagerly await your response, if you have the time.