I Just watched some videos from Jorden Peterson and it opened a
new world in front of me. He has a fresh perspective on most of the subjects
and although I can see there are several controversies around him on the internet,
when he explains things, his opinions hardly appears controversial.
Dr. Jordan B Peterson is a Professor of Psychology at the
University of Toronto, a clinical psychologist, a public speaker, and writer of
several books including the best seller “12 Rules for Life”.
Preferred Pronoun
Controversy
I think the biggest controversy about him was related to his
disinclination to address a transgender person by the choice of pronoun as per the
wish of that person. This was a new law created in Canada. Jorden questions why
should government try to make such a law and why should not it leave the matter
on the people. When an interviewer asked him why can’t be agree to the person’s
demand, e.g. if a person looking like a lady asks him to address her as “he”,
what objection did he have. His answer was interesting. He said “it depends” on
the situation and he will make a decision about it as he feels right with that
person. If that person (e.g. transgender) was genuine then he would readily agree
to address using the preferred pronoun but if that person appears to be using
the demand for preferred pronoun as a means to manipulate then he would not
agree and he would use his own judgement to use either “he” or “she”. Listening
to his this explanation, his decision appears fine. Then why so much
controversy was created?
I remember sometime back there was a controversy about which lavatory
should a transgender person be allowed to attend. Should it be based on the biology
(i.e. what type of organ (male/female) the person has got) or should it be dependent
on the physical appearance and attire. The problem with first choice is that no
one can verify it. The problem with second option is that some wrong persons
may dress like female and go to female lavatory and this may be objectionable
to other females using the lavatory at that time. Therefore, we can realize
that all such decisions are tricky and hard to make and need a sharp intellect
or clarity of thought. And hence many times if government makes such a law,
some super intelligent people can just successfully challenge the law, proving
it stupid readily. But then at times government is confused if it should make
laws which would require lot of time to explain, or just follow the “popular
opinion” and appease the masses. For politicians in the government, this later
option may sound beneficial (satisfying the masses even through stupid laws may
lead to help during election time).
Gender Pay Gap Explanation
Gender Pay Gap Explanation
Again, his opinion on gender pay gap appears to be fine. He
argues that while there is a general average pay gap between men and women, it
is not “because of gender” but it is because of several other factors. And he
is totally right. I know many women who accept less salary or no promotion if
they can get more flexibility e.g. less working hours, more work from home etc.
This would of course lead to women earning less. But the interviewers or the
journalists have hard time understanding this small thing which is a right
argument. It is because media and everyone has done such a strong conditioning
of our mind that we have become biased believing that women are discriminated
against and women should never be blamed no matter what.
Jorden Peterson with
Bill Maher
William Maher is an American comedian, political commentator,
and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with
Bill Maher and here is a video about Jorden Peterson’s appearance on this show.
Jorden shares his thoughts and theories while Bill and his audience makes
unnecessary ridicule of Donald Trump.
Jorden Peterson Full
Interview
One more good interview video is below:
- Rahul Tiwary
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