Deceit

 On Page 343 of his book, BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson provides a rich, perplexing, unexpected yet appropriate definition of deception: "There appear to be two broad forms of deceit: sins of commission, the things you do knowing full well they are wrong; and sins of omission, which are things you merely let slide--you know you should look at, do, or say something, but you do not."

To deceive or to lie, then, according to Jordan is not confined to verbal deceiving. It is also a sin of commission and omission whereof you knew your duty, but chose to do bad, or allow wickedness to spread because you did not find it convenient at that moment to stand up for what is right.

There are several presuppositions at work here. First, Jordan posits that our wills are free, that we choose to do evil rather than good. Second, our conscience will make us suffer for sinning, but we justify, rationalize, and bury our conscience so that we cannot heed its warnings and disapproving criticisms. Third, to be authentic is to be good, and to be good is to live by the commands that f God or Reality demands that we live. That truthful speech in action.

I approve of his view that to be good is to be good and do good, and such truthful speech and action will be recognized and rewarded by an approving conscience when we say and do as we are supposed to be saying and doing.

For my contribution to all of this, I would just like to suggest that if individuating was commonplace, these implicit conditions of sinning or refusing to sin, this living a lie or living in holy truth, all of these conditions for calming one's watchful conscience, that natural inner voice of Go welling up in all of us, then these existential conditions and expectations would be consciously clear for most people, and they would be much better equipped to lead good, honest lives.

Rule XI

 On Page 303 of his book, BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson writes this rule: "Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful or arrogant."

With this rule, Peterson warns the reader that resentment, mendacity and overconfidence about what one chooses to do, often parallel to one's making terrible choices, this triad of fell attributes will lead you right to hell. 

Both Peterson and Dennis Prager dislike self-esteem theory, regarding it as facile, shallow and selfish and narcissism-conducive.

It can be those things, but I insist that selfishness is the trait of a joiner-groupist, far more than it is the trait of a maverizer/individualist/egoist/individuator.

Without self-esteem, charity at home, there will be no charity towards others. To hate the self is to wallow in resentment. To hate the self is to lie to the self, and there is no way to be clear about anything. All is living in a fog. Those that are arrogant are too self-confident to mask their deep inner lack of self-esteem.

An individuator would be confident but not arrogant. He is logical more than driven by his feelings and passions, so his powerful sensibility for the need to remain cautious, prudent, and careful will override any temptation he has to make wild pronouncements to the world.

One of the corollaries to my definition of self-esteem for the maverizer is that he loves himself. If he loves himself, he will treat himself with courtesy and care. He will then treat all other spirits, people and even strangers with similar concern and politeness, because displaying manners in public is his affirmation in action, showing God and himself that he feels okay and extends that expectation to others in thought, word, and deed.

Let me quote Jordan from Page 303:"You have your reasons for being resentful, deceitful, and arrogant. You face, or will face, terrible, chaotic, forces, and you will sometimes be outmatched. Anxiety, doubt, shame, pain, and illness, the agony of conscience, the soul-shattering pit of grief, dashed dreams and disappointments, the reality of betrayal, subjection to the tyranny of social being, and the ignominy of aging unto death--how could you not degenerate, rage, and sin, and come to hate even hope itself? I want you to know how you might resist that decline, that degeneration into evil. To do so--to understand your own personality and its temptation by darkness--you need to know what you are up against. You need to understand your motivations for evil--and the triad of resentment, deceit, and arrogance is as good a decomposition of what constitutes evil as I have been able to formulate."

RULE X

 On Page 267 of his book, BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson writes out this rule: "Plan and work diligently to  maintain the romance in your relationship."

No relationship can tolerate neglect, and the relationship between a married man and woman needs to be a well-tended garden. So much of what Jordan advises is just useful.

Truthful Speech

 On Pages258-260 of his book BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson explains how speech or the word is a faculty of creativity to shape both possibility and the void.

God created humans and gave them dominion over the earth. He made men and women equally in his own image, and that the creation of humans was good. 

God gave humans speech and the responsibility to help shape and bring forth creation. This is to be conducted in the modes of Love, Truth and Courage.

I believe Jordan has captured well what is the human role in the world, and what God expects from us.

Our Twin Objectives

Jordan Peterson, on Page 256 of his book, BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, writes this: "The twin ideas that we all are, as sovereign individuals, first voluntarily participating  in the act of creation itself and, second, determining the quality of that creation with the ethics of our choices finds reflection in the myriad manners within our relationships, private and public. These ideas are also encapsulated and represented in the narrative, the fundamental narratives, that sit at the base of our culture."

Jordan, though no egoism ethicist, affirms that we as sovereign individuals participate in God's grand but unfinished drama of creation, and the quality of our ethical behavior flavors positively that creative output. If we were to maverize, we would work to achieve these twin objectives on a grand scale, qualitatively and quantitatively.

The Long Quote

 On Pages 254 and 255 of his book, BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson describes our moral duty as well as I have ever see it laid out: ". . . Not only do our choices play a determining role in transforming the multiplicity of the future into the actuality of the present, but--more specifically--the ethics of our choices play that role. Actions based on the desire to take responsibility; to make things better; to avoid temptation and face what we would rather avoid; to act voluntarily, courageously, and truthfully--these make what comes into Being much better, in all ways, for ourselves and for others, that what arises as a consequence of avoidance, resentment, the search for revenge, or the desire for mayhem. This means that if we act ethically, in the deepest and most universal senses, then the tangible reality that emerges from the potential we face will be good instead of dreadful--or at least as good as we can make it."

My response: Jordan is warning each of us that everything we do personally and collectively matters--we have real input and impact on what the future will be--will we make it a bit more heavenly or a bit more hellish? We will choose how we will influence the world, and our choices directly shape that future, the coming world.

Jordan continues: "Everyone seems to know this. We are universally tormented by our consciences for what we know we should have done yet did not do. We are tormented equally by what we did but know we should not have done. Is this not a universal experience? Can anyone escape the pangs of conscience at four o'clock in the morning after acting immorally and destructively, or failing to act when action was necessary? And what is the source for that inescapable conscience? If we were the source of our own values and masters of our own houses, then we could act or fail to act as we choose and not suffer the pangs of regret, sorrow and shame. But I have never met anyone that could manage that. Even the most psychopathic of people seems motivated at least to mask their malfeasance with a layer of lies (with the depth of that layer precisely proportionate to the severity of the impropriety in question). Even the most malevolent, it appears, must find justification for his or her evil."

My response: Jordan is accurate in premising that each person in naturally/supernaturally equipped with a conscience. God's voice always wells up from within us, especially when we fall short, or fail to do our duty.

This universal conscience that we are born with is why Jordan scoffs at Nietzsche's and my claim that we can create our own values. I still think I am right, but the values an individuator would construct would not much conflict with supernatural voice of God welling up within us. Indeed, our new values would build on old ones as hand in glove as the New Testament builds upon but does not replace the Old Testament.

Jordan also nails down the close kinship between the concepts of good, conscience, godliness, and truth. Note how the evildoer must lie to bury but not extinguish his critical conscience still barking at him for his voluntary misdeeds and rebellion against the Mother and Father.

RULE IX

 On Page 229 Of his book BEYOND ORDER 12 MORE RULES FOR LIFE, Jordan Peterson writes out Rule IX: "If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely."

One of my greatest failings is my near total inability to let old memories, bad one, go, and move on, forgive and forget, and find peace as I am aging. It sounds as if this Rule was meant to help many people, that, like me, are unwilling or unable to let go the past and move on.

On Page 230 Jordan writes, "Learn from the past. Or repeat its horrors, in imagination, endlessly."

I am trying to make peace with the past and move on, and to some degree I have been successful.