2014 Personality Lecture 13: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Existentialism)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, perhaps the greatest Russian author of the twentieth century, was an Orthodox Christian existentialist, a direct descendant of Dostoevsky's thinking, and a man who took a mighty axe to the terrible tangled roots of communist totalitarianism. He associated inauthentic being on the part of the individual, within society, with the direct degeneration of that society into tyranny and malevolence.
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[@adelehall5313]

I sleep through my university classes. Then spend my free time voluntarily watching hours of other university lectures😂

[@adelehall5313]

Only JBP though

[@Jay-jm3do]

Haven't had a single professor worth learning from... I respect JBP but I need someone to teach me all sorts of things in the manner he does

[@Future_looksbright]

I can completely understand that. Not only is he so knowledgeable but he’s passionate and very engaging and also illustrative. If I can add one more thing he is able to “articulate” things I have known or believed but never could fully put to words or understand. He is amazing. I can’t go a day without listening to at least one lecture.

[@korpiz]

I was never taught this, if I was I would never have slept! 😊

[@PresidentSunday]

That's because this isn't a responsible, substantive lecture. This is a sermon.

[@blueshirttail]

I read the Gulag Archipelago in my early 20s and it affected me so much that I have bought it for several of my family members and friends and pressured them to read it. I learned of the book after reading "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" and became interested in books about totalitarian governments. I really love everything that you are doing, professor, especially resisting this cringing encroachment upon free society now coming from the leftist ideologues. Thank you so much. Your work is sincerely appreciated.

[@kayrahl4048]

blueshirttail My Dad grew up in Soviet Russia, and my grand- grand dad died in Gulag. Dad gave me this book when I was 14, because he was afraid of leaning to the left indoctrination of schools. He always asked, why they teach about Holocaust in graphic details, but never about communists?

[@adehmark]

Did you read the abridged version or the full version? And do you know which version Professor Peterson gets his students to read?

[@blueshirttail]

adehmark I read Volumes 1&2 - the one with the grey cover with blue letters and I listened to the entire book on audio cassette. It is 70 hours long. You can find the audiobook in MP3 form on torrent sites like Pirate Bay. If you have an ftp service I can give it to you.

[@blueshirttail]

To answer your second question I have heard him recommend the entire book, but never stated directly. My assumption is the unabridged version, which is 2100 pages if I recall correctly.

[@blueshirttail]

Kay Rahl very fascinating, your Dad is a wise man. Very sorry about your Grandfather. He didn't die in vain as your Dad seems to be pushing you toward the truth.

[@denisZsuave]

"a single individual can stand up against a tyranny and win" . Let that sink in for a moment

[@ghiivannhykhaztroh8546]

Not during these times. If that were to happen the news would label him as a terrorist.

[@Barnstable11]

And then Peterson listened to himself and stood up. We will see whether he wins (and pray he does).

[@Io-Io-Io]

Not without a terrible amount of suffering

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@Barnstable11 stand up yourself.

[@elizabethsmailes2621]

Here I am send me

[@CMFKILFEATHER]

I’m here in June 2020. This is the medicine we need right now.

[@kurtjensen1790]

Yes!

[@dillotank9421]

He (Solzhenitsyn) associated inauthentic being on the part of the individual, within society, with the direct degeneration of that society into tyranny and malevolence.

[@garyblack8717]

@Mark Kenny Writing from the future, they didn't stop at statues...

[@deathstarwontsaveyou9892]

They don't care all they care about is complete egolitarinism. They don't value hard work and aspirations to get ahead of others. Nothing you will say will matter to them, unfortunately.

[@thatswhatshesaid15]

Wow this turned into going back to rigged ideologies

[@JerseyJimFish]

A very bizarre thing just happened to me. I've listened to all of this brilliant insight multiple times in transit to and from fishing hot spots. I have since read(audio book)Gulag Arpillego, Man's Search For Meaning, Kant, Jung, Rand and many, many others. In the beginning I didn't know even what nihilism was. As I re-visit this fundimental presentation, I just became aware that I am being educated by the sharpest minds that have existed for centuries. What an amazing existance you and I have, that a mere fish monger could be enlightened and educated by this plethora of knowledge at our finger tips!😁 I can't understand those that are ungrateful for this gift that has been bequeathed to us by the long line of people that provided the excesses we enjoy. Please suggest further reading as my thirst for knowledge has just been greatly enhanced.

[@brianmoran1196]

Great comment. I would suggest Victor Davis Hansons Lecture series on Western Civilisation on American Freedom alliance (22 lectures), as good as Petersons IMO, Also Ralph Raico ,Andrew Roberts.

[@JourneymanLineman]

Hey man I’m not sure what a fish monger is, but if it’s a fisherman and if you are a fisherman it’s sure interesting to see Dr. Peterson calling you to wisdom. I feel it’s ironic in that he’s working in Christ like fashion to educate us and Christ called upon fishermen to be disciples. Live as if God exists and pray for wisdom above all else.

[@raygon8]

Paul Johnson ____________ INTELLECTUALS

[@JerseyJimFish]

@@raygon8 Thank you for the suggestion. I did a brief search on this platform for audiobooks and found primarily discussions in response to his writings. Great timing with your response. I actually had time to listen to one of these critiques. I am curious if you could suggest a starting point for a book or paper(title perhaps)? Thank you for your suggestion as the fall run of salt water fish has begun in my region. My long commute needs purpose and knowledge in case the fish don't cooperate.🤣 Thanks again.

[@JerseyJimFish]

Matrona's Home or A Day in the Life?

[@mr.sotack6586]

I never met my actual father. I met a father when I discovered Jordan Peterson. I love a man I’ve never actually met. I’m so grateful for him.

[@peterroselle7612]

I think you’re part of a very large adopted family of children who look to Jordan as a surrogate dad. What an enormous gift that is!

[@Io-Io-Io]

Go find your real father.

[@mr.sotack6586]

@@Io-Io-Io he is dead

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@mr.sotack6586 find out about him

[@mr.sotack6586]

@@Io-Io-Io I have. He was a junkie who killed himself when I was a teenager I’ve been told by my mentally-ill mother who hid him from me until he was dead so I had no chance to know him.

[@oodlebear]

“One person who stopped lying could overturn a tyranny..” Bill C-16 was the catalyst that made a hero unwilling to lie. Thank you Mr. Peterson. Your dire warnings came true, not because you are a prophet, but because you did your homework.

[@camerons.7164]

I am a drowning man and this lecture is a lifeboat, thank you!

[@sasykins3359]

Cameron S. how are u drowning?

[@harrison6082]

So you were drowning in a sea of nonsense? Or would you say you were on a lifeboat waiting for rescue?

[@NoXeB1995]

Stay strong man!

[@DANIELlaroqustar]

because his boat sunk and he knows his lifeboat as well can sink

[@RaccoonNation]

It’s been 3 years since you were throw a liferaft.. How many have you saved since you were saved? How many have you watched sink?

[@andreychetvertakov4574]

This is just brilliant! I am going to translate that whole lecture into russian language and spread it through russian social networks. Loved every bit of it. So insightful!

[@Io-Io-Io]

How's the work progressing?

[@zulusiyathokoza]

that's awesome

[@andreychetvertakov4574]

@@Io-Io-Io caused a huge mess in my russian facebook among communists :D a lot of denial and tears... They refuse to believe and some still want communism back... They do not understand that current situation with Putins regime is a consequence of that past...

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@andreychetvertakov4574 Sorry to hear but not astounded

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@andreychetvertakov4574 We are complicated, so life is too

[@mohammadtalep9913]

Words can't describe how grateful am I to listen to such a great man

[@PianoGesang]

He is the modern Plato

[@robertwalpole5376]

@@PianoGesang Both definitely did drugs, but I don't think that Plato had to go into a coma over his addiction to them that resulted in brain damage.

[@ryanmiller3330]

Watching this in 2022 sure hits different

[@ridendurance]

In 2023 even more so.

[@maguszeal5818]

No kidding right.

[@PlateArmorUnderwear]

I grew up fearing pretty much everything. Totalitarianism, nuclear threat, communism, life, death, etc. JBP saved me from my existential depression at a point of crisis three years ago and I’ve been listening and learning ever since. These lectures are a godsend. Thank yous! Hope to meet you some day. Love ya

[@MrDarryl1958]

Living in a nihilistic age is really an impossible situation. We cannot unsee what rationality has shown us, but life without a framework is impossible too.

[@johnstockill9353]

My epiphany was reading the comments and seeing just what others took from it, this man is brilliant

[@Io-Io-Io]

What Fanny?

[@sbeast64]

*Best quotes* 26:44 "One of the upshots of the Jungian theory is that to the degree you don’t bear the responsibility for your own actions, to the degree that you avoid responsibility, or shunt them off onto say totalitarian or ideological systems, when you avoid responsibility for you own thought because if you’re the follower of an ideological system you have avoided the responsibility of thinking for yourself, and the consequence of that was continual catastrophe as those pathological, rational systems unfolded themselves." 28:55 "Solzhenitsyn observed this, and he was very interested in how this system developed, and his conclusion after decades of thinking was that the reason the Russian system was able to maintain itself, fundamentally, was because individuals were willing to give up the responsibility of their own relationship to the truth to the state, and constantly lie to themselves about everything." 52:38 "If you have a rigid belief system, and that’s what an ideology is, because it’s axioms are such that it encompasses all of reality, and then there are details left outside that don’t seem to fit into that reality, well then you ignore them, but what if they’re embodied, what if they’re people who are objecting to the way you think. Well, the equivalent to repressing evidence that runs contrary to your theory is the murder of people who object to what you say." 56:09 [on world war 2] "And so the conclusion that’s reasonable to draw from that is that the killing was the purpose of the war; all the rest of it was just window dressing…ideology was only there to allow the people who were fundamentally motivated towards genocide and destruction to pretend to themselves that they hadn’t become rotten to the absolute core, but when push came to shove, and they had to show where their allegiances lie, they weren’t even valid followers of the nazi party, because they put the continued pursuit of death over their own survival, even as an ideology." 56:54 "The narrower the box that you stuff yourself into, the weaker your character becomes, because there’s nothing left of you; you’re just a shell that has demons in it." 1:03:53 "Evil is the force that believes that its knowledge is complete." 1:11:04 "The existentialists of the late 19th century attempted to diagnose the pathology of the human personality at a deeper level, I believe, than anyone else had ever attempted. And their fundamental conclusion was that the destruction by rationality of the evolved systems of meaning, that people had previously lived within, had undermined the psychological strength of each individual, divorced from their own history. That led them to gravitate towards either nihilism, or as a counter position, to gravitate towards totalitarianism." 1:16:17 "The lesson of the 20th century is: that a single individual can stand up against a tyrant and win." 1:16:36 "As inheritors of the catastrophic legacy of the 20th century, and as inhabitants of the new millennium, part of your responsibility is to live your own life, and to live it honestly, and to pay attention to your own experience, and not take the easy way out that ideological systems offer you. They’re destined to transform themselves into rigid and murderous pathologies, and you offload your responsibility for thinking and acting to them. And then you have to ask yourself, ‘well, what are they?’. Well, all the evidence suggests that they’re not the sort of thing that you want to have in your head."

[@jaumeromeroventura6190]

Thanks man

[@eddiedreher7535]

May 14, 2022, rewatching this: that opening news headline is especially glaring now. -and a most beautiful conclusion there, at the end.

[@trailtrs1]

One of the greatest lectures I have heard on the human condition in my 66 years

[@levmanou9874]

Agree.

[@charlespeterson3798]

"The grades are up, see you on Tuesday."

[@tedkijeski339]

"Oh, and uh, one more thing: Let's be careful out there."

[@jandross786]

Jordan Peterson is Brilliant! This is the kind of thought engagement that I have craved most of my life. I started reading "The Gulag Archipelago" today. Thank you Dr Peterson.

[@Bulldoghartl]

This lecture is so relevant it's unbelievable. Uploaded over 8 years ago and it begins with Vlad and the situation between Ukraine and Russia. We've seen this conflict coming for nearly a decade.

[@javibentue70]

Imagine having the urge to applaud, TO APPLAUD, to your professor at the end of every single lesson. Speaks volumes about what a great man Dr. Peterson is.

[@crappycomputer77t1]

I was just thinking that. For all the hate people give him. How many professors get applauded at the end of class?

[@user-ws5dw1ul7h]

It’s the custom in Canada 🇨🇦 apparently

[@ancaioanabostan5823]

such a blessing to hear so much truth in such a manner. it enters in the brain as it does in the hearth. thank you Jordan Peterson!

[@adamwhite1920]

Best closing remarks ever: "...all the evidence suggests that they're not the sort of things you want to have in your head."

[@alexnk49]

My favorite part is that the student clap after the lecture, because that’s all I’d do. I’d just sit there after class too and just think. How do you just go to another class after that? How do you absorb all that and not just sit and ponder for hours afterwards. And this is ONE LECTURE IN A SEMESTER!

[@NicklasNylander87]

In light of this lecture, the comment "I live as though God exists" is finally completely understandable too me. For if the option is: Rationality with nihilism or murderous ideology on the one hand or an irrational belief in God, than belief in God surely wins even with it's drawbacks and inconsistencies. Man cannot live without meaning. If you factor this into Pascal's wager it is no longer a wager but a duty to act as if God exists weather he does or not. Therefore rationality cannot be ruler but only a servant.

[@thogameskanaal]

love how he ends with “grades are up”

[@jameshegedus5566]

A fascinating lecture. I so wish that I could do more to be the individual Dr. Peterson speaks of. This man is a treasure that we should support and defend. #SuperHeroJordanPeterson

[@sudo_nym]

How apt is Jordan's intro today, 8 years on!!!

[@stevej5185]

Jordan Peterson is the only professor that can give you an entire course in one lecture...unbelieveable...and that's why everyone claps at the end of each lecture...truly a prolific professor!

[@bkn6362]

This needs to be taught in schools.

[@thedistinguished5255]

yea, I wish I was a teacher just so I could send this to my class during this pandemic and ask them to watch it for a grade

[@alexpetrovich85]

Dostoevsky's claim that "Human beings do not want Utopia" parallels itself to our construction of simulated environments, in particular video games. Ask yourself why no one makes a Utopian-like video game, with no challenge/suffering. Imagine playing a virtual game where you can't die, run out of resources, aren't threatened by any conflict and have no consequence; it would be the most dull, unimaginative, and boring game you'd ever play. You as the player, if forced to play, would naturally find imaginative ways to alleviate this boredom by disturbing the order of the game's intended design. In Dostoevsky's view, this behavior will be inevitably emergent since the environment is vapid and doomed to fail just as a Utopian video game would. To quote the Matrix: "Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization."

[@jakobos93]

+Alex Petrovich the Matrix is an incredibly good movie in a sense. I wonder how I will look at it if I were to revisit it :)

[@magouliana32]

Communism uses the utopian promises of fairness and truth as a pivot so it can lever the masses from where they are towards it’s real goal that is totalitarianism for all humanity

[@puremusicdaz]

hopefully everyone knows nowadays the word 'communism' can be replaced with the word 'globalism' and the goals remain exactly the same, and nearer.

[@earthwormjim9229]

And then there's the people who cheat to succeed and achieve all on video games.... Lol

[@jsgehrke]

And yet: Notice how guys who play video games spend their lives recumbent, and eating?

[@DayBergs]

I'm at minute 53:38 into this lecture, I've been kind of binge watching Jordan's videos, and I can't take any more. I need a break, it's too heavy. I feel like going back and watching him talking about SJWs, that was much easier. Man, this is some heavy stuff. It's amazing to me that I didn't know about stuff like the dekulakization or what it's called that went on in the Soviet Union. Why the fuck is that not taught at any level of the education system? I'm university educated for crying out loud.

[@Headbanger9000]

DayBergs When you realize that one of the greatest Lies of the 20th century is that NAZIS were right wingers (which was coined by Stalin himself because he was angry about the comparisons made between Soviet Communism and German National Socialism) we all accepted it without question and the left uses it for political gain and control. The right wing conservative is their target, if they can some how convince the public that the right winger has the same attributes as Hitler, now youre opening up a can of worms. The Nazis were in fact SOCIALISTs. In fact, every Fascist regime was a collectivist economy, even Mussolini was a Socialist before he threw his own Nationalism into it. Mussolini was more or less, very much like a National Socialist. The only Fascist to ever fully embrace a free market was Augusto Pinochet, his crime? He killed some 3,000 communists. From my understanding, he was the only true Right Wing Fascist of the 20th century. In America, collectivsm and fascist ideology has no place here whatsoever. Our right wing wants less govt control, less govt spending and lower taxes. Hitler did not do ONE of these things. In fact, if you were to take a look at the economic policies of Bernie Sanders and Adolf Hitler, you would find that they are almost identical. Coincidence? No, theyre all SOCIALISTS

[@Headbanger9000]

DayBergs Theres a difference between National Identity and National Socialism. A lot of alt right guys seem to use these terms interchangably which is DANGEROUS. Think about it, is a Neo Nazi in America really a nationalist? They embrace an ideology that is completely foreign to the US and our Constitution, while claiming to hate foreigners. It doesnt make any damn sense... Neo Nazis are NOT nationalists in the American sense. Anyone who embraces a foreign ideology and pushes it into the public light in hopes to overthrow our current system are also encouraging treasonous acts.

[@theproofistrivial7677]

I AM Joseph McCarthy the nazis were socialists and collectivists. The proof is simply in the full name: national SOCIALIST. Hitler hated the petty bourgeois just as much as any socialist. The only difference is that they are NATIONALISTS. Socialism for one country and one ethnicity, united by their common culture. Soviets were INTERNATIONAL socialists. Socialism for everyone, united by their common suffering at the hands of the bourgeois, aristocrats, kulaks, etc. That’s all. They’re almost the same as far as ideologies go. I find that describing the soviets and communists as international socialists is an accurate and enlightening explanation of the similarity of their world views.

[@MrJamberee]

The left controls the education systems, and they reject the argument that they are the problem. Thus, whitewashed history books in our schools.

[@skinni45]

You are blind to your own prejudice, just as those who love Stalin. Either you are a liar or you don't know what you're talking about, I don't know what is worse.

[@dogcow666]

your quote about Milton's central these of paradise lost gave me chills. it parallels a lot of AAs theories in addiction recovery and makes enormous sense from that perspective

[@vickiezaccardo1711]

Brilliant. Regarding history and current events, it feels like ' here we go again.'

[@zoranmarinovic4379]

It most definitely feels like 'here we go again' ..and the problem is that ppl are stupid, that even if you tell them everything, they wont believe and think we have progressed since then ...we are simply doomed to repeat the same sht over and over and over again ...

[@vickiezaccardo1711]

@@zoranmarinovic4379' Nothing new under the sun' seems to be an accurate statement.

[@lorenhecht511]

Peterson is an INCREDIBLE mind. This video in particular is so potent... brilliant.

[@araspaulius]

The interpretive framework got me, I finally heard what I needed to hear, thank you very much.

[@TheRowanmoses]

This is real stuff! I lost hope in the University but now you've changed that. I hope to get back one day...

[@Io-Io-Io]

Chose wisely. The cancelculture pest is spreading everywhere

[@kabukikommandofourthworld5266]

@@Io-Io-Io You sound like a victim. 🤣

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@kabukikommandofourthworld5266 that would be your wet dream ay.. I think you are projecting, my boy:)

[@kabukikommandofourthworld5266]

@@Io-Io-Io Keep victimizing yourself. 😝

[@Io-Io-Io]

@@kabukikommandofourthworld5266 😂😂😂

[@nicklopez168]

I saw a free speech debate on KZbin at Yale University where one of the student leaders asked a question where she admitted to being called on to report people of using "racist" and "offensive" speech. This relates exactly at minute 50 of this lecture.

[@michaelureadi2884]

Absolutely captivating impartation of knowledge...I salute you Dr Peterson!

[@estherwiskel6550]

I appreciate the lecture, the history explained is amazing, how little I knew of this period of history, fascinating. I am moved to research and recapture what I should have paid more attention. Professor Peterson is passionate and it is contagious. Thank You Sir.👏👏👏👏

[@seanwyrembelski2697]

As someone whose seen most all of the JBP lectures, this one is one of my favorites

[@jaumeromeroventura6190]

Same

[@hard2getitrightagain314]

If one knows how to listen, this lecture contains a concerto virtuoso de voce as grand and moving as any ever performed by any instrumentalist in any venue under any motivation.

[@andreapetro420]

These lectures have helped me so much,i cant thank Dr Peterson enough I want to hug him

[@missbee9140]

Brilliant. Required watching for all students and adults.

[@TimothyAtlas]

Here in 2021. This is still the medicine we need right now.

[@laserowy_general]

Yet countless refused!?

[@Ac-ly8tx]

This man pours his heart out!!!!! i love it! Thanks you Dr. Peterson

[@stargatherer5926]

I luv these lecs, this one is very informative and opens eyes to new perspectives to both history and psychology.

[@Jason-bg7jc]

I'm reading Gulag Archipelago right now and I've watched this lecture 3 times in the past week. How some can wear the hammer and sickle on their clothing with pride absolutely shocking to me.

[@thaoless]

In 1990's many people in Russia were amazed by Solzhenitsyn's books. What he had written looked like an eye-opener. "The hidden truth" was finally revieled... Then years passed and it turned out that all his writings were pure propaganda and full of lies. But it was too late: the country was devastated, millions of people died in conflicts following former soviet repiblics split. So a bit of advice to all Solzhenitsyn's readers: check alternative sources of information. Don't be fooled like we were fooled.

[@matthiasthulman4058]

@@thaoless and how exactly were his writings disproved? And by whom? The government? Lol

[@thaoless]

@@matthiasthulman4058 , on the contrary, the Russian government is currently promoting Solzhenitsyn as one of the 'greatest writers of the 20th century'. For them it is useful to blacken the Soviet period of Russian history. As for disproval of Solzhenitsyn's works - well, it is unwise to take biased fiction for serious source of information. If you want real figures, you look into scientists' works. All archival data concerning the Gulag is available in free access (for instance: www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=home.ku.edu.tr/~mbaker/cshs522/GettyNumbers.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj25p6yw-vmAhWIwqYKHUbVAgwQFjAAegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw144nOtfShW47oe0u8hqkzw). Sapere aude.

[@matthiasthulman4058]

@@thaoless ok, I see. I won't necessarily agree that he is the greatest writer, Russian or otherwise, of any century. Middling at best, but the content is what I'm after. I'll check out your links and come back with more discussion later

[@ThrashLawPatentsAndTMs]

I've been to Museums of Nazi and Communist Atrocities in Prague, Budapest, and Berlin, and in each the numbers killed by the Communists (and specifically the Soviets) dwarfed those killed by the Nazis. In Budapest, I believe their documentation was that six million were "disappeared to never return" in Hungry alone. Considering what the Soviets did to small satellites, then imagine how their own cities (full of 'conspirators') must have emptied. Indeed 20 million seems like a low estimate, especially when one ponders the list of thousands of names (to be assassinated/purged under Stalin) that were made public by Russia under Yeltsin. To say nothing of the economic oppression, mental constraints, crumbling structures and human misery that permeated that society. No wonder lives were short and alcoholism ubiquitous.

[@patrickezuma7140]

These lectures are great in their video form...I can only imagine being there in person. If I ever get the chance to meet this man I want to do everything I possibly can to take advantage of it.

[@chiefexecutive]

We’re so lucky to have Jordan Peterson, history will remember and judge him very well. He doesn’t get near the credit he deserves. Thank you so much for these videos.!

[@lindareboh-king1064]

Professor peterson keeps me sane and gives me hope

[@jackl6637]

This is absolutely stunning. I’m going to show my children this when they’re old enough

[@rudiekazu]

I liked his analogy about the Life Boat at around 18:00 ...with regards to Belief Systems...If your Life Boat just sunk ...you know the next one can too

[@margaretmeyncke3592]

Isn't this great? 🤔 I just love this kind of thinking! BRAVO!!!

[@jasonm7700]

Interesting talk. I'd be curious to hear about more of your thoughts regarding totalitarianism in the 21st century and how they compare to the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century. That is, religious theocratic totalitarianism such as ISIS and the shades of totalitarianism we're seeing from the current identity politics craze or "regressive left".

[@inporyelm535]

He tells u towards the end. Do neither. I don't think even he knows, he is speaking of non dualism

[@hestonpfheffer1299]

Aren't we lucky to be in the audience for this? Wow thank you Dr Peterson

[@tomasmartinez8290]

Thank you Jordan Peterson. You are truly a very nice man.

[@tomasmartinez8290]

And if you ever read this, it would be an honor to meet you. When are you coming in a tour to Bogotá, Colombia?

[@thescythian321]

Truth delivered with the energy and conviction that only truth can engender.

[@hex7332]

fantastic lecture

[@giacomobiagini9263]

A few days ago I started thinking that I must translate the majority of his videos into my native language. People should listen to his words. I found a way to better understand my self, maybe others will have the same experience. Thank you Mr Peterson ❤

[@Cinderella227]

Several elements at play such as influences, characteristic traits, choices, actions and political power. All wars are fought over money/economy/reset, religion and power. Rich man’s war the poor men die for. You are brilliant! Luv ya! 😘

[@daysgoby7310]

This man is brilliant

[@eh3253]

Thank you professor Peterson. You have helped me over the past 24 months more than you know. Where can I see you speak?

[@jesse8254]

This is such important information

[@brianmoran1196]

I first listened to this a few years ago...before Peterson became famous..It now has 85000 views..I think it had 400 or so when I saw it first...85000 is not so much considering how famous he is now...great lecture

[@alienzenx]

Well a year later it has more than double that. Not bad considering it is an old version of a lecture he has done multiple times(the 2017 one has 1.3m views) and it's an hour long lecture.

[@mattanderson6336]

28:00-Has Mr. Peterson ever debated any Stalin apologists?

[@aleksandarkaraivanov4934]

The ideas you are presenting are so powerful that I am getting goosebumps.

[@ThrashLawPatentsAndTMs]

@1:05:00 the midnight raid on political opponents now conjures up images of the FBI Raiding 72-year-old unarmed Roger Stone's house in the middle of the night with about 20 armed agents and para-military vehicles, and floodlights. Clearly, someone wants every citizen to know that it can happen here and it can happen to you if you don't play along in their game.

[@jacklauder8226]

I just finished Vol. 1 and started Vol. 2 today; this series is just unrivaled

[@johnclarkeiop97]

The intro to this video is still relevant rn 😅

[@williamcancilla4615]

Brother this lecture is so damn epic.

[@jessejimenez5605]

Thanks Jordan. You’ve made sitting in LA traffic more bearable.

[@dirtyky9309]

I can't believe this isn't mandatory education, this lecture alone can save the world. God bless us all.

[@berniekatzroy]

Holy shit, fastforward to the present. Thanks youtube algorithm.

[@hexagram531]

This is all just so ridiculously important that it takes your breath away. It’s as if this guy, when he was say 20 years old or so, decided that he needed to understand everything in the living world, everything. What characteristics evolved, when and why, how come humans have different personalities, how does this affect politics and societies, what happened throughout history, what matters and why, how do we live, why do all societies have ritual and sacrifice and hierarchies and music and dance, what happens physiologically and emotionally when you lose your temper or wreck a relationship or care for a child, what are “rights” and why, how can things be made better? And he didn’t stop until all of these things were answered, as well as they could be within the information and capacities available to us. This needs to be packaged in gold and shown to every human on the planet and given a Nobel Prize or something. I have to go back to the beginning of this series and transcribe them all, they’re just priceless.

[@demonstructie]

Wow. Not to downplay the transcendent importance of the issues discussed here by applying it to a very specific current issue, but instead of requiring UofT HR personnel to attend mandatory anti-bias-and-racism programs (which, although utterly deplorable where and when they occur, are nowhere near as prevalent as ideologues will lead one to believe), how about we make the adherents of sjw ideology, advocates of censorship and thought policing, attend just this one lecture. Something about the dangers of mindless subjection to dogmatic ideology has to resonate with them. And then there's Dr Peterson. Is a man who speaks with such passion, insight and empathy about these matters a hateful man? Is this a man who's out to spite others? Please.

[@gjermund1161]

and whats wrong with hate? its all relative to subjective values

[@SiergiejW]

Gjermund Hate is subjective, therefore it's completely justifiable to be hateful. Because why not

[@maksimilijan5029]

www.nytimes.com/2003/06/06/world/natalya-reshetovskaya-84-is-dead-solzhenitsyn-s-wife-questioned-gulag.html "Natalya Reshetovskaya, a Russian chemist who twice married the dissident writer Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, and questioned the famous account he gave of Stalin's prison camps in ''The Gulag Archipelago,'' died in Moscow on May 28. She was 84. In her 1974 memoir, ''Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn'' (Bobbs-Merrill), she wrote that she was ''perplexed'' that the West had accepted ''The Gulag Archipelago'' as ''the solemn, ultimate truth,'' saying its significance had been ''overestimated and wrongly appraised.''" "Pointing out that the book's subtitle is ''An Experiment in Literary Investigation,'' she said that her husband did not regard the work as ''historical research, or scientific research.'' She contended that it was, rather, a collection of ''camp folklore,'' containing ''raw material'' which her husband was planning to use in his future productions." this is just revisionism, anti-communist/anti-semitic nazi revisionism. Jordan B Peterson a nutjob, a rightwing extremist bigot on anti-depressants. a jew-hating nazi. fuck him

[@SiergiejW]

Yea. Fuck him! Fuck everyone! But I must ask - are you scared of reading this book? Have you read it?

[@collinblatchford]

demonstructie They would have to listen clearly and thoughtfully. Difficult to do for something that goes against your value system.

[@vicsummers9431]

Last 30 minutes are haunting

[@EDDYLOL100]

also similar to what Jordan saying about the best farmers being killed off and everyone starving is very similar to when migabie of Zimbabwe kicked all the white farmers out the country ended up in a worse state because of one mans racisim

[@AMpufnstuf]

And now in 2019 people will call you a racist making up fake news if you acknowledge that African rebellions are still taking place with white farmers being killed off for their property.

[@blueskies1177]

The world turns a blind eye to the same damn thing happening in South Africa right now. People are so dumb / malevolent not learning from history! Watch Zim2.0 / Venezuela Take 2 emerging in what was the strongest economy Africa had ever seen, less than 25 years ago. I dispair!

[@donmackay7149]

You are right. Am 44 with lung disease. The World is turning into a nasty place for White Men very quickly. Shall be glad when I am dead.

[@crypto_hoarder767]

This hits harder than ever Today...

[@7679fleming]

We are seeing history repeat itself with all this chaos from the start of 2020

[@thoughtheglass]

jordan- I love your lectures - I got into them because you mentioned virtue in a public talk and then gave lectures like this on my favourite writers. may I ask: have you read GK Chesterton? Certainly nothing he wrote was as good as dostoyevski, but nearly everything he wrote was funnier. I love the fyodor quote in the lecture but I prefer GKCs expression of the same idea: "The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called "Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun. For human beings, being children, have the childish wilfulness and the childish secrecy. And they never have from the beginning of the[Pg 14] world done what the wise men have seen to be inevitable. They stoned the false prophets, it is said; but they could have stoned true prophets with a greater and juster enjoyment. Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity as a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman. But in the beginning of the twentieth century the game of Cheat the Prophet was made far more difficult than it had ever been before. The reason was, that there were so many prophets and so many prophecies, that it was difficult to elude all their ingenuities. When a man did something free and frantic and entirely his own, a horrible thought struck him afterwards; it might have been predicted. Whenever a duke climbed a lamp-post, when a dean got drunk, he could not be really happy, he could not be certain that he was not fulfilling some prophecy. In the beginning of the twentieth century you could not see the ground for clever men. They were so common that a stupid man was quite exceptional, and when they found him, they followed him in crowds down the street and treasured him up and gave him some high post in the State. And all these clever[Pg 15] men were at work giving accounts of what would happen in the next age, all quite clear, all quite keen-sighted and ruthless, and all quite different. And it seemed that the good old game of hoodwinking your ancestors could not really be managed this time, because the ancestors neglected meat and sleep and practical politics, so that they might meditate day and night on what their descendants would be likely to do" FD I love for the width and sorrow with which he transcribes the human condition; and GKC for his love of us in it - and the strange optimism he had about ourselves and our father.

[@thoughtheglass]

on second thought - anything gkc could have said would have been to merry for this lecture :)

[@sheerluckholmes7720]

Chesterton inspires because he can speak with and for the common man, with reason,faith & humour.(unlike Nietzsche dare I say? )

[@ArmwrestlingJoe]

This talk is very powerful and extremely important. A system built on lies and ideology will always lead to death and destruction. The truth, god and good needs to prevail.

[@mdmh9999]

2023 how the turn.....tables..........................Thanks JP!

[@FSquid]

28:50 Kind of important stuff right here. A society is in great danger when each individual gives up their personal responsibility toward truth and allows or even insists that the state take up the responsibility for them.

[@ladymercy5275]

You mustn't expect every person you meet to think and act like a whole, integrated individual. On the other hand, that's exactly what makes each person who _has_ reached that degree of spiritual maturity so powerful, in relation to the masses who can't tell the difference between their own thoughts from within, as compared to dogma picked up from outside one's self. To continually become your truer self takes effort, real, conscious effort. Collectivists chase a dream in which they'd rather sleep their entire way through life, if they were allowed to. That reality doesn't exist, not completely.

[@marinradanperic4167]

Could you share your oppinion on what Kierkegaard meant when he spoke of how his task was to create "difficulties everywhere? And also thank you for your work, lifechanging.

[@nelsonenriquematutegoni7470]

Best so far

[@liveinrsa5930]

Hope I'm not the only one watching this in 2022

[@jacobmiddleton5615]

2024!

[@liveinrsa5930]

yes sir 🎉

[@vickiewatson4107]

I love this man, and what he is I see through a cup darkly....but Jordan Peterson is a holy hero.

[@eavesdropswhispers2598]

30:30, it's also a biblical proposition Romans 5-18 So now the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person, just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person. Don't underestimate your own abilities to wreak havoc or give birth to paradise

[@Grace17893]

God bless this man

[@jyotinoname2577]

He is most important man of 21st century from the west. Save him.

[@jacobstatter452]

I genuinely believe this is true - we must protect him 🙏🏼

[@trevorndhlovu7834]

"The belief that nothing in life has any meaning at all undermines our ability to strive."JB Peterson

[@Eugwel]

The difference between knowledge and wisdom. Honest or thoughtful behavoir.

[@delaroxx]

Just finished watching this and it's 2:27am on a Saturday night in April 2024.Thank god I'm hammered cause this lesson was brutal.

[@lovisericachii4503]

Ah, that section on doubts. Spot on, with David Hume's skepticism. Would love to hear Dr. Peterson's thoughts on David Hume and his rational doubts and the problem of Induction.

[@josiahcrew375]

Wow jus wow great class

[@johnsteed5754]

Great lecture, thanks! Somebody must have told Margaret Thatcher that the works of Solzhenitsyn might provide a powerful backing to her dislike of collectivism so when, in a Conservative Party Political Broadcast (1978), she attempted to say 'Solzhenitsyn' she actually said 'Solzhenitskin', though what's remarkable is that nobody corrected her or that she said it on TV and it didn't get a laugh, not even by the liberal press.

[@PrecisionTradingSys]

Bravo to Jordan Peterson, a superb study. Thank you. Man not being able to endure utopia is mentioned, but it is not mentioned that World leaders who get too much power such as Stalin, Mao and Hitler end up behaving in such a way to destroy the "perfect world" they made for themselves. JP makes this point here without actually saying it. Probably the best lecture I ever watched, so deep and so shocking. How is it possible that after all this wisdom of past great thinkers we still have dictators and communism in the world? The powers need to be challenged at every instance of misbehaviour, but they aren't. In the end they get so big because nobody stopped them early on.

[@Clarkjacksonfitness]

Thank GOD!

[@ebbieruedas28]

That is the reason why I followed you when I saw you in you tube