In fairness I must admit that Jordan Peterson has no idea of who I am. But his fundamental message aligns seamlessly with my own personal philosophy. On Oct. 20 The Daily Wire posted an article on Peterson entitled: “The difference between a life by design and a life by default.” The title succinctly summarizes the essence of the Existentialism I came to embrace during my university years.
Sartre and Camus transcended the various religious narratives designed to assure a Moral Mode of Being by simply invoking the facts of Human Consciousness. As Intelligent Beings, they said, we are capable of discerning which of our non-rational impulses are worthy of pursuit and which are not. We have Free Will and, while perhaps unable to transcend the oppressive circumstances to which we are born, are nevertheless fully responsible for the integrity of our beliefs, values and behavior. Self-Awareness, obviously, is key to the Inner Freedom that defines Existential Man. His is a life lived by “design” rather than one mindlessly given to “default.” While Peterson’s psychological perspective aligns perfectly with the philosophical beliefs of Sartre and Camus, it is utterly incompatible with the Neo-Marxist Determinism of contemporary “progressivism.”
In its embrace of that Determinism, the brain-dead Left basically excused the Black Lives Matter movement of the 2 billion dollars in damages it inflicted on blameless Americans in 2020 because the death of George Floyd apparently entitled it to do so. This is but one example of the Left’s relegation of various demographics to the status of Victimhood by which they are literally absolved of responsibility for the moral-intellectual quality of their lives. Hence 200 lb. males now claiming to be women who feel entitled to destroy biological females in various athletic competitions because they are the members of a “persecuted minority.” While I fully empathize with the difficulties confronting transgenders, they are in no way justified in the sort of ignorant, self-indulgent behavior to which many of them are prone. But such behavior is the predictable result of a political philosophy which exonerates a significant portion of the species from the sort of honest, liberating self-appraisal endorsed by Sartre, Peterson, etc., by declaring them to be nothing more than helpless slaves to their environment.
Inner city Black Americans who resort to lives of crime, drug abuse, etc., are deemed by the “compassionate” Left to be no more than victims of America’s racist past. Yet millions born to the same circumstances have managed to transcend the poverty to which they were born and live lives of relative prosperity. Tell me, which vision of the species is likely to lead to a more civilized future, one which focuses on our capacity to transcend the challenges by which we are beset, or the Neo-Marxist notion that we are no more than helpless animals subject to the dictates of both our environment and our basest of impulses?