Dr Jordan Peterson was interviewed by Rita Panahi on Sky News recently. What a remarkable intellect of a man he is; he is so strategic in his thinking about now and the future. My brain and ability to think on my feet are only a fraction of his, not to mention his decades of experience. I am entranced by his mind. We are indebted to him.
Towards the end of the interview he outlined a number of gripping truths that I had not really considered before. They troubled me deeply, yet profoundly moved and inspired me at the same time.
The gist of Peterson’s argument went something like this, and I’m paraphrasing. We seem to think that with the current ‘climate change’, ‘energy crisis’, ‘indigenous sovereignty’ and ‘culture wars’, which conservatives are currently battling and have been losing badly for decades, there will be some peaceful way forward whereby we can still win, that is, we can rationally and logically argue and fight this good fight without cost to ourselves, without fear of being attacked, hurt or criticised; that we can fight it ‘nicely’ to victory. And worse still, if we don’t do it, someone else will do it for us. Wrong.
Peterson made it very clear that’s not an option. It’s way too late for that. Peterson convincingly argued that the totalitarians are already here and they’re already coming for you. They are not going to leave you alone. You will not be able to just lie low and somehow hope to be overlooked. No. His question was, do you stand up and fight now, or do you go along with what’s happening, patiently waiting for it to end, for sanity and rationality to magically reappear, for things to turn around and for life to go back to normal again. He was emphatic “That’s not going to happen”.
So now it’s Hobson’s Choice – there is a choice, but there is no choice. Ultimately, as Peterson persuasively and painfully argued, we can take a stand now and really start to fight, and that will cost us personally and dearly, or, referencing Mao’s 100 million dead, or indeed, Stalin’s 60 million dead, we can eventually allow ourselves to later be quietly marched into the box cars, submissively herded into the cattle wagons. The choice is ours, the choice is individually yours, and that choice is not later on, not next week, not next month or next year – it is now!
Peterson’s exhortation though was that we should not be cowered into living in fear. He admonishes that we either stand up against tyranny and fight now, whilst it’s still possible and comparatively easy to do so, or we wait until our lives have become unbearable and intolerable. Either way – we will eventually have to fight back or our way of life as we knew it will perish.
Peterson was clear and spoke ‘tough love’. If you’re not prepared to stand up and be counted now, to get involved in the fight now, then whatever happens in the future will be your own fault! You will deserve what you get! His clarion call to personal accountability is right. There is just no escaping the fight to preserve our rational and democratic ‘western’ civilisation. We must fight for freedom, and to escape from the ever encompassing clutches of authoritarian state control and the tyranny that will inevitably result. However, let me clear, Peterson was not making a ‘call to arms’ or to violence, anything but. He is exhorting everyone, every conservative in the community, to peacefully stand up for what they believe, to become involved at their own micro and macro levels, and to peacefully speak out about the tyrannical cultural corruption by the radical Marxists that now so infects the ‘west’. His point is, that will not be easy, and it will come at some considerable personal cost, but it is a sacrifice that each individual must make now before it becomes so much more difficult.
Like me, Peterson is not a man of ‘faith’ yet he’s happy to echo profound biblical truths as need be. I’m the same and am reminded of Isaiah 6:8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” This is Peterson’s exhortation to us all.Don’t live in fear now, hoping that things will get better, because they’re not going to. Stand up for the truth, because if you think the fear you have now is bad, just wait until the totalitarians are in complete control – then you’ll really have something to be scared about, and by then you may even have cause to fear for your life.
So Peterson’s message is ‘don’t be scared’ – however, are you going to tell the truth or are you going to live with the lie – these are your only two choices. There is no third choice and there is no peaceful path. You may sacrifice temporary peace for now, but you will eventually end up in hell because of it. As Peterson said “believe me, telling the truth now, and living with the criticism that may come your way from that, is way better than living the lie and enduring the hellish consequences of what will result.”
The more people who stand up against tyranny now, the more likely it is for tyranny to back down, as is being seen in Iran and China right now. Even though the barbarians are at the gate, they have battered down the doors, they have occupied the buildings, they have corrupted the institutions, and the Trojan Horses have discharged their vile cargo into our very midst, we must still not be afraid to fight against what seems like insurmountable odds.
This might take everything we’ve got – but if we don’t stand up and be counted now, there will be no-one to come and rescue us, to save us, once the totalitarians have won. There is no peaceful path, and we must not be afraid to stand and fight.
Dr David Barton is a proud Celtic and Anglo-Saxon man with a long generational family history in Australia and lives in Central Victoria.
