Maps of Meaning with Jordan Peterson: Part 42, The Gospel According to Jordan Peterson

After forty-two installments, this is our final week blogging through Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning.

As we've noted over the last few weeks, and throughout this entire series, Jordan Peterson's big point is that meaning making is central to human adaptation and flourishing. Peterson's project is deeply existential. Some selections from Peterson's final paragraphs underlining that theme:

...Life without meaning is mortal limitation, subjection to pain and suffering without recourse. Life without meaning is tragedy, without hope of redemption.

The abandonment of meaning ensures the adoption of a demonic mode of adaptation, because the individual hates pointless pain and frustration and will work toward its destruction. This work constitutes revenge against existence, rendered unbearable by pride...

The human purpose, if such a thing can be considered, is to pursue meaning--to extend the domain of light, of consciousness--despite limitation. A meaningful event exists on the boundary between order and chaos. The pursuit of meaning exposes the individual to the unknown in gradual fashion, allowing him to develop strength and adaptive ability in proportion to the seriousness of his pursuit. It is during contact with the unknown that the human power grows, individually and then historically. Meaning is the subjective experience associated with that contact, in sufficient proportion. The great religious myths state that continued pursuit of meaning, adopted voluntarily and without self-deception, will lead the individual to discover his identity with God. This "revealed identity" will make him capable of withstanding the tragedy of life. Abandonment of meaning, by contrast, reduces man to his mortal weakness.

...Meaning is the instinct that makes life possible. When it is abandoned, individuality loses its redeeming power...When meaning is denied, hatred for life and the wish for its destruction inevitably rules...The lie is the central act in this drama of corruption...

Many of Peterson's big themes are on display here. Consciousness reveals "the tragedy of life." Facing that predicament, cultures with their "great religious myths" train us to confront the unknown, which allows "human power" to grow and develop, individually and historically. We mature and step into our power as we walk the border between order and chaos, resisting temptations to one side and the other. For too much order stultifies, and too much chaos overwhelms. This process of forging meaning at the border of order and chaos reveals the sacred character of humanity, our "identity with God" who spoke order into chaos in the opening lines of Genesis. We follow the example of the heroic Jesus--the prototypical "son of god"--who shoulders the tragedy and absurdity of existence to redeem, renew and remake the world.  

Finally, this entire process is haunted by the demonic--the abandonment of meaning, giving into the lie, refusing to use your redeeming power. Hell is the hatred of life.

Psychologically speaking, I've never had many complaints with any of this. Peterson is right, life requires meaning making, and if you give up on meaning you quickly fall into dysfunction. 

My disagreements with Jordan Peterson concern ontology and metaphysics. And that disagreement comes into view in the final moments of Maps of Meaning. Specifically, there is a gnostic aspect to the gospel according to Jordan Peterson. For Peterson, like the ancient Gnostics, existence is devastation, full of pain and suffering. We escape the tragedy of existence by becoming "divine." We save ourselves through consciousness and will. 

Given this soteriology, it is no surprise that Peterson ends Maps of Meaning with this quote from the gnostic Gospel of Thomas:

These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.

And he said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death."

Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all."

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

Jesus said, "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same."

Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."

His disciples questioned him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?"

Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered."

Stated negatively, this is the gospel according to Jordan Peterson: Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate. 

Stated positively, making meaning is the "antidote to chaos." For in making meaning you become like Christ--the redeemer, the son of god, the hero who slays the dragon.