{"id":14528,"date":"2021-05-16T12:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T07:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=14528"},"modified":"2021-04-11T12:40:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T07:10:20","slug":"12-rules-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2021\/05\/16\/12-rules-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Rules for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jordan B Peterson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the book is categorised as “self help”, and has the kind of material that would qualify it for that label (if you’re so inclined), I read it more as a bunch of perspective on living and being. Or rather, Being, as the author prefers. And perspectives there are – the psychology professor and practitioner refers to the thoughts of everyone from Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky to Milton and Jung. Not to mention theology – Tao, Buddha and especially the Bible play a part too. To the extent that even the Pareto principle gets connected to a Bible reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The statement of the rules, are mostly straightforward (Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie) but seem to be bracketed by more quirky ones at the end – the last one is “Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street”. I found the perspectives to be thought-provoking, and especially liked the interpretations of Bible stories and the fairy tales we’re all familiar with. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, The Sleeping beauty are all stories that I now look at differently. And (unpopular opinion ahead), having been at the receiving end of the tantrums of ill-tempered kids in public places, I would encourage parents to read Rule #5 “Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them”. But I can already see parents frowning at me after reading it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, until the end of Rule #10, I found his arguments by and large persuasive, despite occasional logic lapses, biases, and convenient interpretations. Rule #11 made me think quite deeply, because the deceptively simplistic “Do not bother children when they are skateboarding<\/em>“, which begins harmlessly enough with the reason for the title, soon escalates into a full blown war with the “woke” world. What worried me was that the narrative was not completely incoherent and appealed to a part of me which believed that “overprotection” will eventually lead to a loss of resilience as a species, and narrower and narrower “tribes” will result in a groups of one, each of which will get outraged over something!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor though, went full throttle enough to make me question his belief systems. Add to that, the last chapter was classic self-help, and the coda at the end, insipid theology to me. However, I’d still suggest a read simply because it’s a good stimulus to reflect on one’s own belief and value systems, and as Rule #9 goes, “Assume the person you’re listening to might know something you don’t<\/em>“.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. In the author’s view, chaos is feminine. Interesting that “an antidote to chaos” is part of the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very interesting set of perspectives about living and being, referencing the thoughts of everyone from Nietzsche and Dostoevsky to Milton and Jung. I might not agree with a bunch of perspectives, but it did give me an opportunity to question my own value system and beliefs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,6003,6005],"tags":[6384,6385],"class_list":["post-14528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-non-fiction","category-worldview","tag-12-rules-for-life","tag-jordan-b-peterson"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15769,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528\/revisions\/15769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}