What can we say about Jordan Peterson other than offer him our respect? He more than anyone else in the last year has changed the discourse, and made our culture and values worth fighting for. He more than anyone else has shone a light on the irrationality, unreason and inhumanity that’s come to dominate modern thought through the rise and rise of bullying identity politics.
This interview as spotted and introduced by Laura Perrins, in which Peterson brilliantly challenges the commodification of modern sex, is the latest in the TCW Encore series we are running over the summer.
I am not sure what Jordan B Peterson does to keep calm. Perhaps it is yoga, perhaps he does ten decades of the rosary every night, but whatever it is, it works.
Fresh from keeping calm but slightly bemused by the deranged attack from Cathy ‘so what you are saying is’ Newman of Channel 4, he is taking on someone from the current affairs channel Vice.
I don’t know his name, because I don’t care. Vice boy tries to adopt the ‘I’m just so chilled’ approach to the interview, no doubt wary of going Full Newman (hint to interviewers – never go Full Newman), but he can’t hide his bias and prejudice when discussing the tricky issue of casual sex.
That is given away by the fact he opens with a proposition that paints Peterson as a rape excuser. Later in the interview, Vice boy seems dumbfounded at the idea that a first date should take place at a coffee shop and that it might be wise to wait until date four to have sex.
He cannot seem to understand that sex has consequences and that on balance it is not the same as, say, playing a tennis match with someone. It all seems to go over his head.
Vice boy continues manfully once he has figured out the quite simple things Peterson is trying to say when it comes to sex, namely that although we should not use authoritarian mandates to change behaviour, we can use persuasion.
But I trust the rest of you will understand what Peterson is saying. Enjoy.
