Reading through the final pages of the last chapter, where Peterson deepens his discussion of alchemy, I didn't find anything that Peterson hadn't pretty much said before. This is the point I shared before, when I first introduced Peterson's reflections on alchemy, how for Peterson alchemy is an alternative way of thinking about the hero archetype. The alchemist seeks to turn base medal into gold using the Philosopher's Stone. Alchemy, thus, is a metaphor for coping, for ordering the chaos. We take the raw material of life and transform it into something valuable. When life hands you lemons it's time to make some lemonade.
Which bring us to the final pages of the book.
In offering some summary conclusions at the end of the book, Peterson shares a key idea of his, an idea he often returns to, concerning the relationship between behavior and a hierarchy of value. Peterson observes:
The simplest and most basic day-to-day human activities, invariably goal-directed, are necessarily predicated upon conscious or tradition-bound acceptance of a value hierarchy, defining the desired future in positive contrast to the insufficient present. To live, from a human perspective, is to act in light of what is valued, what is desired, what should be...Collapse of faith in the value hierarchy--or, more dangerously, collapse of faith in the idea of such hierarchies--brings about severe depression, intrapsychic chaos and re-emergence of existential anxiety.
Here at the end Peterson is returning to ideas he shared earlier in the book. Human behavior is goal-directed. And these goals presume value judgments. More, these values are arranged hierarchically as we choose higher goods over lesser goods. The Kingdom of God, mythologically speaking, represents the highest, greatest good. Consequently, even the simplest action, like making your bed, is moving you toward the Kingdom of God.
To deny the Kingdom of God, to reject the hierarchy of values, pulls the rug out from under the human psyche. Without value goal-directed motivation evaporates. The psychic engine shuts down. We grow listless and depressed. We experience existential anxiety. The bed goes unmade. Chaos encroaches.
This insight is why, I think, Peterson cannot shake Christianity. Simply stated, the mind needs God to operate properly, if only implicitly. If you act at all you are moving toward a good, a good you have ranked higher than other goods. You are always moving toward "better." This is why Peterson is so hard on materialism. Materialism cannot provide the mind with the values it needs to function well.
This idea, that the mind is naturally drawn toward transcendental value, is very old. Read Plato, Augustine, Dante or Aquinas. What's interesting about Jordan Peterson is that he reaches this conclusion as a modern psychologist making clinical observations about how nihilism adversely affects mental health.
