I Watched a Jordan Peterson Video so You Don’t Have To
Jordan Peterson loves to talk about lobsters. I assume they are one of his favorite animals. In the 90 minute presentation I agreed to watch (after losing a bet), the best-selling author and former clinical psychologist recounted a cute little factoid about these crimson crustaceans.
“I was reading these articles on lobsters, and I came across this finding that lobsters govern their postural flexion with serotonin,” said the gaunt, middle-aged man in a crackling and nervous tone.
The anecdote was meant as an extension of Peterson’s first “rule for life”: Stand up straight.
“Fair enough,” I thought, “That is interesting.”
But shortly thereafter, mere minutes into his monologue, the “self-help” facade began to crumble. Peterson promptly advanced his discourse by using lobster “dominance hierarchies” as a vague metaphorical justification for hierarchies in human society.
This enigmatic notion got me thinking. First of all, if any behavior in nature should either be mimicked by humans or is “natural” when conducted by humans, then what about eating your babies? Does Peterson advocate cannibalism? Secondly, if he’s saying that human hierarchies are inherently justifiable simply because hierarchies exist in nature, then, in order to be logically…
