Jordan Peterson on language, discipline and parenting

By now, most of you have heard of Jordan Peterson. He grew up in a small town in Northern Ontario, became a professor in sociology and psychiatry and now has become a world-renowned superstar because of his sometimes controversial views.

This all began when Jordan Peterson opposed the government of Ontario’s Bill C-16 which proposed to tell us how we should address LGBTQ people. He struck a nerve with this position. If speech is not vicious, hateful or disrespectful, the government has no business in telling people how they should talk. It is the widespread use of language by the users of that language that create language. 

Language authorities may come along later and determine what are the best  widely used terms , but they should not dictate to us the language that we are supposed to speak. As they used to say, “Ain’t ain’t in the dictionary, but everybody uses it”.

I am now reading Jordan Peterson’s “Twelve Rules for Life”. I have just finished Rule 5, “Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them”. This is Jordan Peterson’s view on parenting. As with much of what he says, he practises what he preaches. He is happily married and has two grown kids of his own. He has also been a practicing clinical psychologist so much of what he says comes from practical counselling experience.

Here Jordan Peterson continues his iconoclastic war on the politically correct. He starts by critiquing the view of the noble savage (i.e. are our children natural born little angels?). He shows that Rousseau’s view has had a hard time in reality. 

Flaws are found not only within society, we have them buried within ourselves.- so do our children. He then goes on to show that we have a ‘responsibility to nurture and discipline our children’. This will involve both rewarding good behaviour and disciplining and punishing bad behaviour.

For Jordan Peterson there is standard for good and bad which we all adhere to. This often goes against present liberal thinking that all is relative, and parenting should allow children to develop with minimal parental interference.

Other interesting rules are: Rule 8 “Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie” and Rule 9 “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t”. His rules are practical and illustrated from his work as a clinical psychologist.

All in all, this book is a fascinating read. I got it from the library and am reading it in the e-book version on my smartphone. It is amazingly easy on the eyes and I can bring it anywhere. This represents a scary future for books printed on paper.