I do not wish to harrow poor Jordan Peterson when is he is ailing and suffering so grievously, but though suffering is indeed much of what human existing is about, it is not the whole story, and I am not sure it ennobles most sufferers, unless they were high-minded, virtuous Stoics before the onset of whatever sickness, affliction, loss or tragedy which now troubles them.
Suffering can humble, educate, enlighten, deepen, and exalt the foolish, the rationalizer, the proud, if he is open to change, open to seeing his failures and flaws as they are now revealed, without crowd affirmation, without surrounding noise, with disguises shorn and tossed off.
My observation is that suffering is painful for all sufferers, but garbage in, garbage out. If the sufferer, before his affliction occurred, was not seeking the painful truth about himself and his flaws, working assiduously, repeatedly to improve himself intellectually, morally and spiritually, then suffering likely will not make him smarter, reformed, or more compassionate. It might make him instead more resentful, bitter and out to revenge himself upon the world and people that have made it hard for him.
However, for most people, nonindividuating mediocrities stumbling along on an even keel until their Maker calls them home, suffering will not much lift them up or tear them down farther. After or deep into the experienced crisis, they will be about the same as they were, for suffering for them is just a thing that happened, not a poignant opportunity to reflect, be reborn, to lead an elevated life going forward.
