I propose another counter point to one of Jordan Peterson’s flagship precepts. And that is that we need each other to keep each other sane.
So again, like my previous retort to a JP axiom, this is not to bash his position but to investigate the flip side of what he’s getting at.
I do agree that sanity and people are important for the sake of, ya know, keeping each other sane and, people. I wager though that there has to be consideration of what the insane person is bringing to the table.
An apt analogy would be the blending of two colors of paint. Imagine one, a great dollop of green, representing the sane, the well behaved, the non self speakers and neck twitchers. And imagine another, minuscule droplet of blue, to represent the insane, the isolated, the scoundrel, the separated.
The way that Jordan Peterson seems to set up the dynamic implies the eventuality of the blue person, the coocoo one, coming back into meaningful, prolonged contact with the green glob of the good group and being fully enveloped by the green until all becomes green and all becomes good. Sanity reasserting itself en masse. But I beg to differ. And I beg to ask why we wouldn’t want a bit more venetian, a bit more teal in our end mix.
I propose that the insane is having reciprocal impact on the sane that cannot be gotten rid by the mere everlasting imposition of sane forces. No the mix is now a bit blue: a hint, a streak, a highlight, or a new homogenized hue.
Why do I say this and why does it mean anything. Well I know that Peterson has a great affinity for the realized individual, for the hero. And he also has, or at least had when I was listening to him, an affinity for Joseph Conrad’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which Conrad emphasizes that a hero must, and always has in recorded histo-mythology, leave the people, leave the realm of the sane, of the safe, of the known. And ya know I think that means some, a little bit, maybe, neck twitching when he shows back up on the scene. Who knows I can’t seem to fucking stop.
Now Peterson will tell you he slays the dragon and returns home to share the bounty, but fuck it if the dragon doesn’t do some damage on Prince Charming. Fuck it if the burn marks don’t go away. And fuck it if those burn marks aren’t essential for his people to see as they receive the great bounty they have been graciously given.
A reminder of the journey and the peril.
It is that burn mark, that deep tragic scar of going up against the leviathan that spurs on the next great hero; thinker; Man. It is not the glimmer of the crown or the luster of court, it is the dents of the armor, the scuffs of the shield, and the dulling of the blade that prove the hero and revitalize– redeem the future.
And oh my god sanity is so damn boring!
J.W. 