They shine so brightly... But, as I warned in my essay 'A Strange Thing Happened in a Sugar Cane Field' - these beautiful shiny things can often lead us up a ruinous road.
"t was September 2021, and I was taking a bath. A friend had sent me this essay earlier in the day and, much as I’d have preferred to lose myself in music or a mindless novel, I resolved to plough through it. The topic of vaccine mandates was becoming prevalent at the time, not just in Melbourne but worldwide, and I felt I needed to educate myself through whatever sketchy means necessary – such was the lack of anything other than keen enthusiasm from mainstream sources. At the time I was doubtful about this obscure blog site, but as I read on, a lot of dots began connecting, and even my own rudimentary understanding of epidemiology began crying: ‘Yes. This actually makes sense. And what they’re telling us on the 6 o’clock news doesn’t!’"
More people should share their moment to help others normalize the bridge over the cognitive dissonance. Mine was gradual in the sense that I wondered about the autistm link/debate over a decade ago. I brought it up with my wife (a biochemist whose work has nothing to do with vaccines), and she was somewhat dismissive, but not entirely. In 2020, so much seemed weird early, and the messaging was so focused on vaccines many months before we could have determined nothing else would work, so I decided that I wouldn't go near them. I discouraged friends from taking them, and lost some friends.
Once I saw international data in early 2021, I was sure I was not simply right to avoid it, but upset that this could be far worse than I ever would have imagined. Gradually through 2021 I began to question most or all vaccines (I might still be convinced some work, but I would not take one without doing a thorough deep dive into it).
Hi Matthew. Thanks so much for reading and sharing your experience also. It's a conversation worth having with people, and not just on vaccines. I think many tend to get so rigid in their thinking from one media circus to another that they believe their world views to be solid and unchangeable, without realising they are being constantly pulled in one direction or another. Better to accept the fact that one's views are going to change often, and then take up the mantle and carve one's own path.
Jordan's work with the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship strikes me as Hegelian dialectic to bring the world under the United Nations with a compromised concept of "global citizen". He did sustainable development work at the UN. The ARC money comes by way of Soros and the British East India Company (Unilever was one of the corps designated to white was the killing).
Yes. I recall connecting some of these dots myself as early as 2019, while I was still reading 12 Rules for Life in fact! This was the beginning of my distrust in JP, but I suppose I ended up putting that particular vector on the shelf for a while. It was both his unacceptable position on the vaccine and his sudden neo-con style war mongering once he'd joined the Shapiro squad that really made me sit up and start questioning his motives again. And now this brilliant work you have done in actual pictorial 'dot connecting' adds more fuel to the fire. I shall be bookmarking these for future reference. Many thanks.
Douglas Murray first. Why do we trust him? Because he is outspoken and cuts through. He is focused on certain points of Leftward Ho and his style is such that he speaks with great clarity on its obvious chicanery. He is not so good in the longer stretches -- his books, for example, are intelligently written but lose the spark. When he does literary criticism (e.g. on Houellebecq) it can become quite sophisticated but ever so slightly middlebrow. I watched a video of him in interview with John Anderson after that conference thing they did at Greenwich, and (a) found the set-up a little nauseous (furnishings chocolate-box conservative desperately seeking the Departed Spirit of R.G. Menzies -- who gave us the Murray Report!), and (b) got two snobs choiring one another. For an hour.
I won't waste much of your time with Jord. I've seen him on a few things (Q & A was it?) and of course I loved the way he so politely put the idiots in their place; but I've never been overly fond of believers in such things as the Palaeolithic Diet and I suspect if I ever did encounter the "get the vaccine dammit" I would have put this one in the same category.
Vaccines? I've had few. I didn't much trust Astra-Zeneca and remember asking the doc how long I had to live after he injected it. (He thought I was joking. I was just gambling.) The MRNA's came along and I said to myself, mmm, untested completely-new-technology with clinical trials conducted by American
Gothic. No thanks. So I did just the two A-Z's and I bet I'm in for fun in my old old age.
To change the subject, the ABC reported tonight on the "cross-border raids" on Israel in Oct 2023. That's all right then. Must have something to do with Freedom Fighting. (Like, Hitler was a Freedom Fighter against the Fucking Jews back in the day and Pot Pot was Freedom Fighter against the fucking bourgeoisie back in the day.) Like Trump, I hate losers. The Israeli cross-border raids have been SO much more effective. Hamas and their ABC stringers should stop complaining and get with the music. (That is, music apart from the rock-concert sort. Did Roger Waters feature? Eventually, in a Putinesque way. "Did you exchange / A walk-on part in the war / For a lead-role in a cage?" You asked for it, buddy, you got it. Next stop, Moscow? Nah. Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck.)
Hi there Jim, apologies - I was distracted last Sunday by the attempted JFK 2.0 which unfolded in mind-bending HD clarity before our eyes, and also the passing away of a friend. I have spent this afternoon catching up on Substack matters, but saved your comment for last!
I very much enjoyed (is that the right word? No it's not, but anyway) Murray's book 'The Strange Death of Europe'. This was of course pre-COVID at a time when my political leanings were very much of the bog standard conservative: "mass immigration will spell the end of the West (I still believe this to be so), and all this woke nonsense needs to stop; Trump 2020, and now it's time for a beer." Since then things of course have deepened and broadened and you are familiar enough with my writing for me to explain that statement no further. I grasped onto Murray much as we do with many intellectual idols because I found his book so compelling that I would thrust it at anyone who attempted to poo-poo my mass migration concerns and call me a racist. Their invariable refusal to read it then sealed the deal in my favour, and I loved Douglas for this (I even sent my parents a copy and they, while nominally conservative at the time, have since gained a much deeper appreciation for the magnitude of this issue - so, thanks Doug).
But I agree with your tepid criticism of him. It wasn't long before he began to bore me and, in the end, I never even picked up his book (the next on my list, pre-COVID) 'The Madness of Crowds'. At this point I doubt I ever will. I only mention him in this essay as he is a hero of many on the so-called right, and for a time, was also for me - thus, a fallen idol.
I've made my thoughts clear on Jord, so we need not rehash them. It is worth reiterating that his book '12 Rules for Life' really did change my life. Before reading it I was really quite a prick. But something in his whole thesis there changed me. It may have helped that at the time I had, in no particular order: alienated my entire family, destroyed my marriage, and lost two close friends in tragic circumstances. I found myself in a personal/spiritual existential crisis and perhaps Jord was just what a needed at that point -- "Clean your room, sonny!" At any rate, his message resonated with me and I was able to adopt a simple new philosophy of personal responsibility which has greatly alleviated much (though not all) of my spiritual pain. So I have him to thank for that. But, as I've discussed... he's another fallen idol.
His imperative to 'get the damn vaccine' I'm sure did not influence your decision (and I hope and pray that you're one of the (admittedly many) lucky ones who appear to have escaped with no serious side effects). I would hazard a guess (and it would be my profound hope) that were they to try for a sequel, you'd offer a polite (or even a cantankerous) 'NO.'
On Israel/Hamas, I don't think we ever wrapped up our initial dialog on that (if indeed we ever started one) - it may have gotten lost in the period where Substack turned off my comments function. You've probably noticed, and may have picked up from my passing comment on the matter that I'm remaining largely agnostic on this 'conflict', suffice to say I don't believe it would have happened under a Trump presidency, same as that little mess in Ukraine would not have happened. I believe it benefits only the internationalists, their banking and defence contractor buddies, and the faltering neo-lib world order currently headed by the doddering octogenarian known as Joe Biden (whom I understand they are about to swap out for a younger but equally odious creep). Oh and let's not forget the CIA. Let's not forget their favourite pastime is starting messy little wars in the deserts and jungles of far flung locales... If you ask me, their fingerprints are all over this.
You're rooting for Israel I take it? Sometimes your irony is too thick to wade through.
Hi Kate. Thanks for reading and for sharing Courtenay's video. I'm not familiar with her work so will check it out when I have a moment. From all the comments I'm getting on this essay I can see I've hit on a juicy point of contention within this broader movement of ours, so it's fantastic having you and others share relevant material with me to further explore the topic. As I've noted before - the bigger the personality (the more famous and far reaching) - I believe the more distrustful we should be in him or her. Thanks again for being here.
Thanks for this JJ, On Peterson, his greater failing as I see it is his continued inability to admit a faith. His huge catalogue of scholarship on belief continues to leave him absent any. We are drawn to believe his wife was cured of cancer through praying the rosary- Not good enough? What was he studying?
“….the lesson here is that we should not have idols..”
Not a bad take away.
Golden calves useful for the value of the metal but not much else.
They shine so brightly... But, as I warned in my essay 'A Strange Thing Happened in a Sugar Cane Field' - these beautiful shiny things can often lead us up a ruinous road.
"t was September 2021, and I was taking a bath. A friend had sent me this essay earlier in the day and, much as I’d have preferred to lose myself in music or a mindless novel, I resolved to plough through it. The topic of vaccine mandates was becoming prevalent at the time, not just in Melbourne but worldwide, and I felt I needed to educate myself through whatever sketchy means necessary – such was the lack of anything other than keen enthusiasm from mainstream sources. At the time I was doubtful about this obscure blog site, but as I read on, a lot of dots began connecting, and even my own rudimentary understanding of epidemiology began crying: ‘Yes. This actually makes sense. And what they’re telling us on the 6 o’clock news doesn’t!’"
More people should share their moment to help others normalize the bridge over the cognitive dissonance. Mine was gradual in the sense that I wondered about the autistm link/debate over a decade ago. I brought it up with my wife (a biochemist whose work has nothing to do with vaccines), and she was somewhat dismissive, but not entirely. In 2020, so much seemed weird early, and the messaging was so focused on vaccines many months before we could have determined nothing else would work, so I decided that I wouldn't go near them. I discouraged friends from taking them, and lost some friends.
Once I saw international data in early 2021, I was sure I was not simply right to avoid it, but upset that this could be far worse than I ever would have imagined. Gradually through 2021 I began to question most or all vaccines (I might still be convinced some work, but I would not take one without doing a thorough deep dive into it).
Hi Matthew. Thanks so much for reading and sharing your experience also. It's a conversation worth having with people, and not just on vaccines. I think many tend to get so rigid in their thinking from one media circus to another that they believe their world views to be solid and unchangeable, without realising they are being constantly pulled in one direction or another. Better to accept the fact that one's views are going to change often, and then take up the mantle and carve one's own path.
I am adding some of your observations to a graph I started (when I get the time).
https://embed.kumu.io/7ae00e85336155fcf5491dfa3b530dd4
You may enjoy this. This is why I spend so much time collecting information on graphs:
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/was-the-intellectual-dark-web-assembled
I love this. Thanks for sharing! I've subscribed to your newsletter also.
I'm glad you like the research. I constantly try to exchange research, wherever it fits my priorities.
"Jordan was a free agent… Wasn’t he?"
But was he?
Jordan's work with the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship strikes me as Hegelian dialectic to bring the world under the United Nations with a compromised concept of "global citizen". He did sustainable development work at the UN. The ARC money comes by way of Soros and the British East India Company (Unilever was one of the corps designated to white was the killing).
ARC graph:
https://embed.kumu.io/cfbf2aee26e2dc1a98f3c4ef311a4ca9
Yes. I recall connecting some of these dots myself as early as 2019, while I was still reading 12 Rules for Life in fact! This was the beginning of my distrust in JP, but I suppose I ended up putting that particular vector on the shelf for a while. It was both his unacceptable position on the vaccine and his sudden neo-con style war mongering once he'd joined the Shapiro squad that really made me sit up and start questioning his motives again. And now this brilliant work you have done in actual pictorial 'dot connecting' adds more fuel to the fire. I shall be bookmarking these for future reference. Many thanks.
Full faith in nothing except the inner voice. Partial faith and being a fan or having mentors is very useful.
Jordan is a little too preoccupied with his outer voice. We all are.
His “Take the damn vaccine!” Is a command.
My reply would be a simple ‘try and make me and shut the fuck up’
Nice piece
‘try and make me and shut the fuck up’
Ha ha. This is probably what I should have titled the essay!
Thanks for reading, my friend.
They are children with large machines. Dangerous and Annoying
Douglas Murray first. Why do we trust him? Because he is outspoken and cuts through. He is focused on certain points of Leftward Ho and his style is such that he speaks with great clarity on its obvious chicanery. He is not so good in the longer stretches -- his books, for example, are intelligently written but lose the spark. When he does literary criticism (e.g. on Houellebecq) it can become quite sophisticated but ever so slightly middlebrow. I watched a video of him in interview with John Anderson after that conference thing they did at Greenwich, and (a) found the set-up a little nauseous (furnishings chocolate-box conservative desperately seeking the Departed Spirit of R.G. Menzies -- who gave us the Murray Report!), and (b) got two snobs choiring one another. For an hour.
I won't waste much of your time with Jord. I've seen him on a few things (Q & A was it?) and of course I loved the way he so politely put the idiots in their place; but I've never been overly fond of believers in such things as the Palaeolithic Diet and I suspect if I ever did encounter the "get the vaccine dammit" I would have put this one in the same category.
Vaccines? I've had few. I didn't much trust Astra-Zeneca and remember asking the doc how long I had to live after he injected it. (He thought I was joking. I was just gambling.) The MRNA's came along and I said to myself, mmm, untested completely-new-technology with clinical trials conducted by American
Gothic. No thanks. So I did just the two A-Z's and I bet I'm in for fun in my old old age.
To change the subject, the ABC reported tonight on the "cross-border raids" on Israel in Oct 2023. That's all right then. Must have something to do with Freedom Fighting. (Like, Hitler was a Freedom Fighter against the Fucking Jews back in the day and Pot Pot was Freedom Fighter against the fucking bourgeoisie back in the day.) Like Trump, I hate losers. The Israeli cross-border raids have been SO much more effective. Hamas and their ABC stringers should stop complaining and get with the music. (That is, music apart from the rock-concert sort. Did Roger Waters feature? Eventually, in a Putinesque way. "Did you exchange / A walk-on part in the war / For a lead-role in a cage?" You asked for it, buddy, you got it. Next stop, Moscow? Nah. Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck.)
Hi there Jim, apologies - I was distracted last Sunday by the attempted JFK 2.0 which unfolded in mind-bending HD clarity before our eyes, and also the passing away of a friend. I have spent this afternoon catching up on Substack matters, but saved your comment for last!
I very much enjoyed (is that the right word? No it's not, but anyway) Murray's book 'The Strange Death of Europe'. This was of course pre-COVID at a time when my political leanings were very much of the bog standard conservative: "mass immigration will spell the end of the West (I still believe this to be so), and all this woke nonsense needs to stop; Trump 2020, and now it's time for a beer." Since then things of course have deepened and broadened and you are familiar enough with my writing for me to explain that statement no further. I grasped onto Murray much as we do with many intellectual idols because I found his book so compelling that I would thrust it at anyone who attempted to poo-poo my mass migration concerns and call me a racist. Their invariable refusal to read it then sealed the deal in my favour, and I loved Douglas for this (I even sent my parents a copy and they, while nominally conservative at the time, have since gained a much deeper appreciation for the magnitude of this issue - so, thanks Doug).
But I agree with your tepid criticism of him. It wasn't long before he began to bore me and, in the end, I never even picked up his book (the next on my list, pre-COVID) 'The Madness of Crowds'. At this point I doubt I ever will. I only mention him in this essay as he is a hero of many on the so-called right, and for a time, was also for me - thus, a fallen idol.
I've made my thoughts clear on Jord, so we need not rehash them. It is worth reiterating that his book '12 Rules for Life' really did change my life. Before reading it I was really quite a prick. But something in his whole thesis there changed me. It may have helped that at the time I had, in no particular order: alienated my entire family, destroyed my marriage, and lost two close friends in tragic circumstances. I found myself in a personal/spiritual existential crisis and perhaps Jord was just what a needed at that point -- "Clean your room, sonny!" At any rate, his message resonated with me and I was able to adopt a simple new philosophy of personal responsibility which has greatly alleviated much (though not all) of my spiritual pain. So I have him to thank for that. But, as I've discussed... he's another fallen idol.
His imperative to 'get the damn vaccine' I'm sure did not influence your decision (and I hope and pray that you're one of the (admittedly many) lucky ones who appear to have escaped with no serious side effects). I would hazard a guess (and it would be my profound hope) that were they to try for a sequel, you'd offer a polite (or even a cantankerous) 'NO.'
On Israel/Hamas, I don't think we ever wrapped up our initial dialog on that (if indeed we ever started one) - it may have gotten lost in the period where Substack turned off my comments function. You've probably noticed, and may have picked up from my passing comment on the matter that I'm remaining largely agnostic on this 'conflict', suffice to say I don't believe it would have happened under a Trump presidency, same as that little mess in Ukraine would not have happened. I believe it benefits only the internationalists, their banking and defence contractor buddies, and the faltering neo-lib world order currently headed by the doddering octogenarian known as Joe Biden (whom I understand they are about to swap out for a younger but equally odious creep). Oh and let's not forget the CIA. Let's not forget their favourite pastime is starting messy little wars in the deserts and jungles of far flung locales... If you ask me, their fingerprints are all over this.
You're rooting for Israel I take it? Sometimes your irony is too thick to wade through.
Hope you're well mate.
JJ
Great essay. Courtenay Turner has also looked into his ARC.
https://courtenayturner.com/is-jordan-petersons-arc-the-dialectical-right-hand-to-build-wef-dreams-courtenay-turner-radio-hour/
Hi Kate. Thanks for reading and for sharing Courtenay's video. I'm not familiar with her work so will check it out when I have a moment. From all the comments I'm getting on this essay I can see I've hit on a juicy point of contention within this broader movement of ours, so it's fantastic having you and others share relevant material with me to further explore the topic. As I've noted before - the bigger the personality (the more famous and far reaching) - I believe the more distrustful we should be in him or her. Thanks again for being here.
Thanks for this JJ, On Peterson, his greater failing as I see it is his continued inability to admit a faith. His huge catalogue of scholarship on belief continues to leave him absent any. We are drawn to believe his wife was cured of cancer through praying the rosary- Not good enough? What was he studying?
I agree entirely. I've found the incongruence of his views on this key subject more and more troubling as the years have gone by.