40) Jordan Peterson, Part 1; Subsection 3: Theoretical Foolishness
But scaffolding is far more subtle than that. It happens not only at the emotional-to-behavioural level, but right down at the millisecond level of human consciousness, the level at which our emotions are guiding our perceptions which in turn are constructing a reality in accordance with our emotions — the level of our implicit story-telling hardware (and software).
The essential, long-term reason why compassion is so important for babies, is because it helps their own neurobiology learn to regulate itself. This is the basic insight of attachment research; receiving attentive care (i.e., compassionate, loving, responsive attunement with others) allows one’s own infant, raging, chaotic neurobiology to be, in effect, soothed by the more stable, grounded, controlled, resilient, more ‘ordered’ neurobiology of the attachment-figures.
39) Jordan Peterson: Part 1, Subsection 2: Philosophical Foolishness
If you examine [Jordan Peterson’s] rhetoric and restate it in the simplest terms, it would be something like, “If you disagree with me (about this), you are Ignorant, Evil, or both.”
I should not need to point out how incredibly dangerous an ideology this is. In fact, in the Great Pissing Contest of Most Murderous Ideologies of All Time, I nominate as my champion, this specific belief system: “I and mine are right and good; you and yours are ignorant and evil.”
38) Jordan Peterson: Part 1: Problems with fundamental assumptions
In the most succinct way I can put it, I think a good part of Jordan’s recent public narrative has a deep and fundamental problem — it is Foolish.
36) Jordan Peterson: Prologue - A personal note
I feel it’s important to try here, and share a few thoughts about the whole phenomenon of Jordan Peterson. It’s….complicated to get into, personally, for a bunch of reasons….which is why I’m starting this series of essays with this ‘personal prologue’, because I think it is important to contextualize my views.
35) Thoughts on Three TEDx Talks
I was trying to take people, right there, in that moment, on a journey, to engage minds and connect with hearts, directly, from me to you, unimpeded by theory and intellectualization. Rather than aiming for a rational appeal that could be communicated discursively, I wanted to engage people in a form of honest, authentic dialogue that transcended mere spoken language but could be conveyed through music, symbolism, story and nonverbal behaviour. So I tossed theory completely out the window and went straight for the heart through poetry, song, story, and drumming.
And it worked
34) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 4
I believe that healing starts with feeling.
Feeling the truth of your pain. Feeling the ache of loneliness that seems to open into infinite blackness in your heart. Feeling the guilt that eats away at you for the ways you know, deep down inside, that you have failed people, or yourself. Feeling your awfulness. Your grief. Your desperation. Your failures. If you don’t first stop and FEEL the soft, suffering animal that you are, then you will spend your life trying to hammer yourself into shape. This won’t make you stronger; it will just make you bruised and broken and exhausted. The “road to self-improvement” will become more like a hamster wheel, a treadmill that takes you nowhere.
33) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 3
“She said she had made a list of all the qualities she wanted in a partner. At the end, she concluded, “he has less than half. And none of the important ones.”
This was the end of my sanity, for a long time. I don’t know why. I just stopped being a person. I was a blank page. And anything written on me turned into invisible ink.
…..Less than half, and none of the important ones. I hate that phrase. It still haunts me, practically every day.”
32) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 2
Independence is a delusion. And it’s a dangerous one. Anyone who has been abused knows the deep truth of interdependence, right in their very bodies. The assaulted. The betrayed. The terrorized. The gas-lighted. But also the lonely. The invisible. The unwanted. The ridiculed and rejected.
People live out, in their consciousnesses, their bodies’ attempts to ‘process’ what has happened to them in life; we construct our entire ‘selves’ around this problem of body-world adaptation. It’s good to remember that.
31) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 1
Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone’s harshness? Criticism? Gas-lighting? Name-calling? Bullying? Shaming? Humiliating? Lying?
Well, “sticks and stones may break your bones but words….”
Just stop. Right there. Because “words can never hurt you” is absolute, dangerous, bullshit. Words can break your heart, poison your mind, even destroy your life.
30) Hell: Epilogue
“Hell” is an allegory. It can help a person understand the suffering of feeling existentially Alone. And thus, it points towards Connection, through opening to suffering.
This is useful, if it helps you connect with others, and if it motivates you to go more deeply into your questions. But it’s not useful if it just scares you into clinging to The Answer that some particular cult insists upon.
29) Hell, Part 2
Hell is like a logic trap, constructed so you only have one answer, one solution. As soon as you throw Infinity into an equation, it trumps everything else. Pascal knew this; this is what his wager was all about — that faith is not based on reason. But anyway, back to Hell as an unfair logic trap:
Hell = You Have To Give Your Life To God Or You Are An Idiot.
It’s the best sales-pitch ever. Buy my product, or Burn In Hell For All Eternity.
I call bullshit.
28) Hell, Part 1
Do you remember what it was like when you first heard about Hell?
For me, running into Hell was a soul-wrenching struggle of childhood. I mean, seriously man, Hell is the scariest thing ever!! And my young mind was excellent at imagining the unspeakable agony of actually BURNING. For all eternity! ….. wow….. like….damn…..who thought up THAT idea?
27) Gratitude Day 7: Breaking Your Vows
I am grateful for a Rumi poem. It’s the opening poem to the beautiful book, The Illuminated Rumi.
“Come, come, whoever you are! Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come!”
I love this poem because it is like a flower. Flowers are beautiful. But they grow in the shit and death of the micro organismic world that we pretend we are different from. Without death and shit, no flowers.
26) Gratitude Day 6: Dad
I am grateful for my dad.
There are a lifetime of reasons why, but let me share just a few. He taught me a fair amount of what I know about living in this world. These lessons weren’t always easy to learn. But so many of the important ones aren’t.
25) Gratitude Day 5: Aging
Thich Nhat Hanh once likened life to rapids that tumble down the mountainside in a frothy, ecstatic rush, slowing somewhat to a burbling, meandering stream further down, then broadening into a slow, flat, peaceful river near the bottom. And then eventually emptying, into the ocean.
24) Y/Y
Two old friends meet on a riverbank one day. One paces, one sits, watching the water. They do this every year. They have become famous in the local area. Their arguments are legendary. People think they hate each other. Most believe one will eventually kill the other and be done with it.
23) Gratitude Day 4: Gary Gygax
I could say more. But if I have any spare time today, I’d rather spend it crafting a better world. First in my imagination. Because everything starts there, doesn’t it?
22) Gratitude Day 3: Bugs
I’m grateful for bugs. They’re the choir singing the Song…..of my home.
21) Gratitude Day 2: Humour
And, humour is weird. Like, our bodies convulse, our eyes water, animalistic, guttural noises come out of us, we flail our limbs around, sometimes slapping other parts of ourselves because we just don’t know how else to express the zany energy exploding out of us. We snort, squeal, sometimes fart, and then just laugh harder. ….humans are bizarre creatures, when you really think about what we’re doing in our moments of “meaningful” expression.
20) Gratitude: Day 1 — Slider
There’s something rather….intimate….about another ‘being’ who shares your bedroom for 40 years. They go through a lot with you.