In Maps of Meaning psychology professor Jordan Peterson shares his views on how people construct meaning.
The book explores some themes the author appears very fond of such as religion, myths, the subconscious, and totalitarianism.
Contents
About The Author
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist.
In the last years, he has become an influential opinion leader, loved by many, and probably not-so-loved by as many others.
He also wrote the more popular 12 Rules for Life, then followed by Beyond Order where he sneaked in some extra “rules for life”.
Update:
Jordan Peterson has gone through some changes since we published this review. Including becoming more argumentative, extreme, and, how to say it… Less of a role model.
That’s our personal opinion, of course.
See for yourself here:
Summary
- The fundamental prepositions of fascism and communism were rational, logical, comprehensible… And terribly wrong (I agree, see: “fascism, Mussolini, Trump, and personal power”)
- Human nature is not infinitely malleable (also read “The Blank Slate“)
- Like animals, we focus on fundamentals first. Top questions: will this new thing eat me, can I eat it, can I mate with it
- Attempts to increase the state at the cost of the individual are counterproductive
- Note: I agree from an ideological point of view, but then again, it depends on what level of state presence we are talking about
- Patriotism or any similar attempt at strengthening group identity must necessarily be bounded by a supreme regard to the creative capacity of the individual
- Note: I totally agree here and take it one step further, too: not just the “creative capacity” of the individual, but the sacred independence of the individual from any organized groups
- A stranger is threatening because he is outside of the social hierarchy and can behave unexpectedly, with unpredictable consequences for the social hierarchy
- Note: Very true. And the more defensive, fearful and hierarchy-conscious people are, the more they will fear and oppose strangers
- A dominance hierarchy is a social arrangement that determines access to desired commodities
- The fascist sacrifices his soul to the group, which promises to protect him from everything unknown
- Great take
- The fascist believes the world should always be ordered. This increase in conformity alleviates anxiety
- The decadent refuses to join the social world because he is too undisciplined to serve as an apprentice
- The hero rejects identification with the group as the ideal of life, following instead his conscience and his heart. He refuses to sacrifice meaning for security
- These three descriptions were the deepest in the whole book. Following the “hero’s path” is one of the tenets of this website.
- Hitler and Stalin were humans. Our tyrannical tendencies and moral decadence are limited by our domains of personal power. We satisfy ourselves with riding roughshod with those nearer to us and then congratulate ourselves on our moral virtues
- Going to the philosophical core of the link between power and personal values
- We use aggression and strength to bend others to our will, and lacking strength we use sickness and empathy to deceive our way to dominance
- In times of uncertainty, the call for returns to the glorious past always arise.
And finally, I want to leave you with this question:
Granted the opportunity, how many of us would not be Hitler?
Personally, I think most of us would not be Hitler.
But probably more people than you think, would.
Review
Some people readers may find many sparkles of genius in Maps of Meaning.
Just too bad for how they are framed and presented, in a sea of religious references and rhetoric for rhetoric’s sake.
If Maps of Meaning had cut its rhetorical complexity and expanded on some of its core insights, it could have been a monumental work.
Potentially, even a TPM recommended resource.
But as it is, I cannot give a full thumbs up to Maps of Meaning.
Main issue is that, in plain words, many passages leave you scratching your head.
And thinking “what the f*ck is the author talking about?”.
It’s called “maps of meaning”, as if it wanted to show a route or path for people to walk.
But it certainly doesn’t seem to want to make that path simple.
It’s philosophical and inscrutable. It builds upon itself and it feels like it’s going nowhere.
It’s not easy to understand, it’s not much grounded in science and it’s of little application to real life.
For me, it also had little application to a more general and abstract theory of life and it didn’t help me to construct meaning for the world.
I really like Jordan Peterson.
Edit: liked maybe more suited today.
But Maps of Meaning failed to deliver for me.
