Marking The Revival-like Moment that was the Jordan Peterson Phenomena
What happened to Jordan Peterson? To David Fuller? to me? A lot, but we're still the same people, sitting in different spaces with different audiences.
This is a big topic that I can't really do justice to on Twitter and on a Sunday AM really can't write much more.
Who changed? As with almost everything human, some things more than others. Some things changed, some things remained the same.
There's clearly a core to Jordan Peterson that didn't change from 2015 to 2022 (look at Maps of Meaning) yet other things changed dramatically. He went from a rock star UofT professor to someone starring on Daily Wire +. Pretty big arc. We'll see what happens at Daily Wire.
How about David Fuller in the same time period. Very much a seeker first working in journalism to the head of his own media company pursuing the sorts of seeking that was clear from Rebel Wisdom . Again, both change and continuity.
What should we pay attention to? Something happened from 2016 C-16, Kathy Newman, etc. to 2019 (illness) that was significant, and I think culturally (and ecclesiastically) transformative. There was a "whoosh" in Western Culture that changed a lot of us.
Many of us are still sorting that out and Jordan Peterson AND to a smaller degree David Fuller were part of that. JBP's illness, the pandemic, things have changed and, in some ways, "settled down".
Jordan Peterson has become something of a conservative public intellectual ensconced at Daily Wire. Will Daily Wire+ become something more than a media company that can't really appeal beyond its conservative base? IDK.
David Fuller will continue his seeking in the way we saw at Rebel Wisdom but in a new way. Will that new way have reach beyond its base? IDK.
What was noteworthy about the Jordan Peterson phenomenon in 2016 to 2019 was a moment when a lot of people were connecting beyond their cultural silos and in the process a lot of people change seats.
Jordan Peterson changed seats, and a lot of others with him, especially young men who were struggling and have now found better seats and a better life, and a sizable number of young women with them.
These sorts of things don't happen often, and I think @fullydavid captured some of it in A Glitch in the Matrix.
These moments are "living" in that Jesus says of the Holy Spirit (John 3) they blow through, start, and stop unexpectedly.
Things are settling down again to a new normal. People are settled into altered silos but the silo dynamic that was transcended in that moment has returned. You expect that. Transformative moments ARE moments. People need to catch their breath. Catch those transformative, silo-transcending waves when they happen. They're special. Re-settlement moments will come and it's often during those times that you can see what the wave has wrought.
There's not a lot to gain in complaining about people for who they are. It's OK to mourn the loss of those transformative moments and celebrate that some new people landed in your silo.
In Christianity "revivals" are moments like that. They have little to do with tents and sawdust liturgy. We pray for those but it's hard to live in revival for long. People need to catch their breath and it’s often in "regular" times that you gain strength for the next wave.
Is Peterson changing tack because his efforts to raise the alarm about totalitarianism have not slowed it down? I appreciate your comments PVK. It's valuable to point out, as you do, the changes in our societies that have occurred during this period. JBP, you, and David Fuller are all, among other things, heterodox commentators weighing in on the tumultuous socio-political dynamics of the past 6 or so years. One facet of those dynamics is well-captured by your revival analogy - surging curiosity and open-minded investigation into central questions of identity, tribe, meaning, and the like. You don't mention another facet that I think is important for interpreting JBP's changes during this period, and that is, *the intensifying operation of totalitarian controls and spreading support for totalitarian values*. By controls I mean, for example, state-direct and state-indirect censorship as well as self-censorship. By values I mean, for example, popular support for censorship and declining tolerance (e.g. increased support for punishing people who have unpopular beliefs or who don't comply with state "guidance"). Across so many domains, we are closer to constituting totalitarian societies than we were 5 years ago - when many of us first heard Jordan Peterson's analyses and warnings on this point. I am certain of this. And, JBP certainly believes this. Thus, I think it is important to take the fact that our societies have continued down the path towards totalitarianism during this period; or at least it is important to realize that Peterson perceives this. However many people listened to him and were moved by his words - his efforts did not have the effect of mobilizing enough people to get involved in pushing back against the forces moving us in a totalitarian direction. If that is the case, then we should expect him to change tacks, shouldn't we? This is how I am interpreting his recently more heated rhetoric and his decision to work with Daily Wire.
Copypasting my comment on Rebel Wisdom and Emergent commons"
I guessed that tribalism was going to make him swing on the right since they were the only community embracing him. The left misconstructed him and demonized him to the point that why would he even try to be reasonable? It doesn't work. Basically, the left threw his shadow at him, and he stopped seeing the light.
I do have more hope for him now that he is going to be living deep into the right he is going to deal with Right's shadow like their obsession with guns while little children get regularly shot in America's classrooms and their own totalitarian leanings and I feel he is going to be leaving them too at some point and probably go back to moderation older and wiser and probably with some important lessons that he wouldn't had acquired without this deep dive into it. So wait and see "This is not even his final form"
I for one I'm very excited for this. Jordan has been stuck and repeating himself for a while which is a sign he needed new material to dig in and deconstruct and explain so now he is in a new place to do just that. Can't wait to see what he does with it.