I almost skipped this because of some Exodus chronology mistakes on the first page (for one: the writer says that Sinai occurred after the forty years in the wilderness). But I am glad I didn’t.
The writer of the Foreword is Dr. Norman Doidge. He writes in part because he is a friend and intellectual peer to Jordan Peterson. It also seems he was given the platform because he is Jewish and can give credible testimony that Peterson is not a Nazi or something close too it. He brings up his own family members who suffered in a Nazi concentration camp, then writes, “I relate this, because years after we became friends, when Jordan would take a classical liberal stand for free speech, he would be accused by left-wing extremists as being a right-wing bigot…. at best, those accusers have simply not done their due diligence. I have; with a family history such as mine one develops… underwater sonar for right-wing bigotry; but even more important, one learns to recognize the kind of person with the comprehension, tools, good will and courage to combat it, and Jordan Peterson is that person.”
This paragraph made me furious because it reminded me what fantastically vile accusations have been spread about Peterson. No one should have to suffer such lies.
After describing Peterson’s personal history and life briefly, Doidge addresses the oddity that he is popular because he promotes rules. “…alongside our wish to be free of rules, we all search for structure. The hunger among many younger people for rules, or at least for guidelines, is greater today…” Doidge believes this is because these young people have been raised under the dominance (and contradiction) of post-modernism.
Along with the brief discussion of post-modernism there is also a brief discussion of virtue, which Doidge helpfully distinguishes from ethics. (In my opinion, Solomon used the word “wisdom” to point to most of the realities covered by the term “virtue.”)
Doidge also defends what Peterson is doing by suggesting the “rules” might be considered guidelines. But…
So why not call this a book of “guidelines,” a far more relaxed, user-friendly and less rigid sounding term than “rules”?
Because these really are rules. And the foremost rule is that you must take responsibility for your own life. Period.
That last complete sentence, I think, explains the popularity and hostility that Peterson attracts. I think it also probably summarizes the purpose of the book.
But we’ll see as we continue to read it.