12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Jordan B. Peterson (Author, Narrator), Norman Doidge MD (Author), Random House Canada (Publisher)

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What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant, and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith, and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its listeners.

Listening Length

15 hours and 40 minutes
Author

Jordan B. Peterson, see all
Narrator

Jordan B. Peterson
Audible release date

Jan. 23 2018
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Canada
ASIN

B0797XNVYZ
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	15 hours and 40 minutes
Author	Jordan B. Peterson, Norman Doidge MD
Narrator	Jordan B. Peterson
Audible.ca Release Date	January 23 2018
Publisher	Random House Canada
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0797XNVYZ
Best Sellers Rank	#9 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1 in Ethics & Morality (Books) #1 in Applied Psychology (Books) #1 in Philosophy (Audible Books & Originals)

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Top reviews from Canada

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Corinna

Beautiful Book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 18, 2023

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This is a great book. It did arrive a bit damaged (the book covering came a bit dog-eared) but nothing too horrendous. Shipping was fast. I like the illustrations that accompany the chapters and Jordan Peterson has a way with words, as always.

Helpful

Someguy

Immensely helpful, but dense

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 11, 2023

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I first came across Dr. Peterson through his online lectures and so I thought I would try this book.
While, as my title suggests, I have found this book immensely helpful in helping me to sort out some of my daily life, I found it hard to read at times.
For someone like myself who doesn’t have a terribly expansive vocabulary, I did find it hard to read in that the language he used, in my estimation, is there to make the readings sound more intellectual than they need to be.
Now, I’m not entirely sure how true that statement is because in listening to JP talk both in lectures and interviews he sure goes deep into the “Webster” well in pulling out his vocabulary.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is it would have been nice to have the language toned down for those people like myself who may not have the same level of literary education.
So that’s one complaint.
The 2nd complaint that I have and have seen mentioned in other reviews is the heavy reliance on Christianity in this book. Specifically the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Although I can see where and how he is using these examples to tie into some of the rules, again, it makes for a tough read.
At times I found myself having to re-read the same page because I had zoned out. Or found myself having to “push through” certain sections.

All in all the book is a wonderful tool in trying to make improvements in Being. I have found it in some ways life changing. Well worth the time

19 people found this helpful

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David Brasko

Wish this book would have been available much earlier in my life!!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 18, 2023

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So much good stuff in here! The sooner one reads this book in ones life and applies what one has read, the better your life will end up as you age!!

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Kelly

I wanted to know the man better

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 21, 2023

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A friend of mine professed a somewhat worshipful opinion of the author; I was derisive of the author, not fully knowing what the man stood for other than that what I had read of him in left leaning publications.
After reading this book I have revised my opinion of him, not to say, a person to idolized but a decent human with a strong sense of Being.
Peterson is a passionate writer, able to connect to his readers with emotional antidotes. This book has encouraged me to reflect deeply on who I am, and who I ought to be. I have never been fully swayed be antidotes so it’s good to see so many citations to so many credible sources. You may wonder why I have only given it 4 stars, well, one, nobody is perfect and two, I had a few exceptions to some of what he wrote; maybe a little too black and white, maybe a little misleading, or maybe I’m just a little to pedantic?

8 people found this helpful

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Nathaniel

Full book, hard cover, new as advertised.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 6, 2023

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You get the full hard cover book, no a summary. Regarding the book contents, very beneficial content, rich in is depth and understanding of the concepts. Can be hard to read if you're used to straight forward books. Reads less like a how to manual for life, and more a philosophical / historical exploration of human nature that will eventually circle back to each rule if you stick to it. Overall rich and meaningful content you may need to read over a couple times to digest, at least for me

One person found this helpful

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Dominic Zampino

Good but not always an easy read!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 18, 2023

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Good book. Made me realize certain things but you must go into it with an open mind. There are some passages that are a bit harder to follow. He gets deep into intellectual and philosophical stuff which I imagine would feel like a drag to some people. Just sit through it and think how can you implement the rules to your life.

One person found this helpful

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JustB

Great Book!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 12, 2023

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In a world of chaos, is good to start with setting some rules! Especially if they make you a better person!

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Ludovic

Gréât book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 15, 2023

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Peterson bring a nice perspective on how live and face challenges

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Top reviews from other countries

Matthew Hosier

A needed voice

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 27, 2018

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Jordan B. Peterson has been much in the news. His courageous stand against the totalitarianism inherent in Bill C-16 (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about) suddenly made him a public figure and then with that interview everyone was talking about him. Peterson did that interview while in the UK publicising his book, 12 Rules for Life: An antidote to chaos. It has been a long time since I've read a book that has caused me so many out-loud oohs, ahs, ahas, sighs, and laughs. Here is a chapter by chapter summary.

Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back
This is the chapter about lobsters.

Cathy Newman and other commentators have been choking on the crustaceans Peterson offers as evidence for his first rule, but I wonder if they have actually read the chapter. It's all pretty self-explanatory and obvious: dominance hierarchy is "an essentially permanent feature of the environment to which all complex life has adapted." That's true for lobsters, and it's true for humans: "It's permanent. It's real. The dominance hierarchy is not capitalism…It's not the patriarchy."

If you're at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy - as either lobster or human - life is harder on you. Low status lobsters and humans produce less serotonin. "Low serotonin means decreased confidence. Low serotonin means more response to stress and costlier physical preparedness for emergency…higher serotonin levels…are characterized by less illness, misery and death."

So what to do? Put your shoulders back! "Walk tall and gaze forthrightly ahead. Dare to be dangerous. Encourage the serotonin to flow plentifully through the neural pathways desperate for its calming influence."

Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
This is the chapter that explains why people will buy prescription medicine for their dog, and carefully administer it, but fail to do the same for themselves.

It boils down to this: "Why should anyone take care of anything as naked, ugly, ashamed, frightened, worthless, cowardly, resentful, defensive and accusatory as a descendant of Adam? Even if that thing, that being, is himself? And I do not mean at all to exclude women with this phrasing."

That humans are like this provides Peterson with what I think might be the most important insight into the problem of evil since Augustine identified original sin with pride. This is how JP describes it: "We know exactly how and where we can be hurt, and why. That is as good a definition as any of self-consciousness. We are aware of our own defencelessness, finitude and mortality. We can feel pain, and self-disgust, and shame, and horror, and we know it. We know what makes us suffer. We know how dread and pain can be inflicted on us - and that means we know exactly how to inflict it on others. We know we are naked, and how that nakedness can be exploited - and that means we know how others are naked, and how they can be exploited."

The solution? "You could help direct the world, on its careening trajectory, a bit more toward Heaven and a bit more away from Hell. Once having understood Hell, researched it, so to speak - particularly your own individual Hell - you could decide against going there or creating that. You could aim elsewhere. You could, in fact, devote your life to this. That would give you a Meaning, with a capital M. That would justify your miserable existence. That would atone for your sinful nature, and replace your shame and self-consciousness with the natural pride and forthright confidence of someone who has learned once again to walk with God in the Garden."

Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you
This is the chapter about not casting your pearls before swine.

Sometimes helping is beyond us.

"But Christ himself, you might object, befriended tax-collectors and prostitutes. How dare I cast aspersions on the motives of those who are trying to help? But Christ was the archetypal perfect man. And you're you. How do you know that your attempts to pull someone up won't instead bring them - or you further down?"

Ouch.

So, how to help? "Before you help someone, you should find out why that person in in trouble." The thing is, that often takes more effort than just helping - it's easier to throw money at a problem than really understand why the problem is there. But that is to cast our pearls before swine - and it was Jesus, not just Peterson, who warned us against that.

And help yourself, by making friends with people who are going to genuinely help you - with people who are prepared to put the work in, because they want the best for you.

Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
This is the chapter about silencing your internal critic.

Is this the very heart of Petersonism? Perhaps so. Certainly, it's something I've heard him talk about in pretty much every clip and lecture of his I've listened to. It's this:

"Aim small. You don't want to shoulder too much to begin with, given your limited talents, tendency to deceive, burden of resentment, and ability to shirk responsibility. Thus, you set the following goal: by the end of the day, I want things in my life to be a tiny bit better than they were this morning. Then you ask yourself, 'What could I do, that I would do, that would accomplish that, and what small thing would I like as a reward?' Then you do what you have decided to do, even if you do it badly. Then you give yourself that damn coffee, in triumph. Maybe you feel a bit stupid about it, but you do it anyway. And you do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. And, with each day, your baseline of comparison gets a little higher, and that's magic. That's compound interest. Do that for three years, and your life will be entirely different. Now you're aiming for something higher. Now you're wishing on a star. Now the beam is disappearing from your eye, and you're learning to see. And what you aim at determines what you see. That's worth repeating. What you aim at determines what you see."

Peterson is brutally honest about the human condition: "What do you know about yourself? You are, on the one hand, the most complex thing in the entire universe, and on the other, someone who can't even set the clock on your microwave. Don't over-estimate your self-knowledge."

So, you - amazing, ignorant you - aim at something, and "compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today."

Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
This is the chapter every parent needs to read.

If you are a parent you must read it. And if you are not a parent but know someone who is, you need to persuade them to read it.

Peterson sees, "today's parents as terrified by their children." We are heirs of the revolutions of the 1960s and have forgotten what children need and what parents are meant to provide. What children need is parents who will give them the right kind of attention, and that means parents remembering that they are parents. "A child will have many friends, but only two parents - if that - and parents are more, not less, than friends. Friends have very limited authority to correct. Every parent therefore needs to learn to tolerate the momentary anger or even hatred directed towards them by their children, after necessary corrective action has been taken."

Parents must learn to correct their children, and socialise them. After all, "Two-year-olds, statistically speaking, are the most violent of people." If parents don't take this responsibility seriously, their children will be disciplined by the much harsher realities of the world. "If a child has not been taught to behave properly by the age of four, it will forever be difficult for him or her to make friends. The research literature on this is quite clear."

So what should parents teach their kids? Peterson suggests the following:

"Do not bite, kick or hit, except in self-defence. Do not torture or bully other children, so you don't end up in jail. Eat in a civilised and thankful manner, so that people are happy to have you at their house, and pleased to feed you. Learn to share, so other kids will play with you. Pay attention when spoken to by adults, so they don't hate you and might therefore deign to teach you something. Go to sleep properly, and peaceably, so that your parents can have a private life and not resent your existence. Take care of your belongings, because you need to learn how and because you're lucky to have them. Be good company when something fun is happening, so that you're invited for the fun. Act so that other people are happy you're around, so that people will want you around. A child who knows these rules will be welcome everywhere."

And that is why so many children are unwelcome, pretty much everywhere. If you are a parent, don't let this be your child.

Rule 6: Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
This is the chapter that tells you to take responsibility for yourself.

"Don't blame capitalism, the radical left, or the iniquity of your enemies. Don't reorganise the state until you have ordered your own experience. Have some humility. If you cannot bring peace to your own household, how dare you try to rule a city?"

Rule 7: Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
This is the longest and densest chapter.

"Life is suffering. That's clear. There is no more basic, irrefutable truth. It's basically what God tells Adam and Eve, immediately before he kicks them out of Paradise." The way to deal with this is by learning delayed gratification - that is, to work and to sacrifice. Be Abel, not Cain. "Cain turns to Evil to obtain what Good denied him, and he does it voluntarily, self-consciously and with malice aforethought." Don't do that. Aim higher.

It is here that Peterson gives the clearest definition of his ethic, his "fundamental moral conclusions":

"Aim up. Pay attention. Fix what you can fix. Don't be arrogant in your knowledge. Strive for humility, because totalitarian pride manifests itself in intolerance, oppression, torture and death. Become aware of your own insufficiency - your cowardice, malevolence, resentment and hatred. Consider the murderousness of your own spirit before you dare accuse others, and before you attempt to repair the fabric of the world. Maybe it's not the world that's at fault. Maybe it's you. You've failed to make the mark. You've missed the target. You've fallen short of the glory of God. You've sinned. And all of that is your contribution to the insufficiency and evil of the world. And, above all, don't lie. Don't lie about anything, ever. Lying leads to Hell. It was the great and the small lies of the Nazi and Communist states that produced the deaths of millions of people."

And that leads us to the next chapter…

Rule 8: Tell the truth - or, at least, don't lie
This is the chapter to put courage into your moral spine.

We lie in order to make others like us more than they otherwise would, to make ourselves look better, to avoid difficult tasks or conversations - because we think lying makes life easier. But lying makes things worse:

"If you say no to your boss, or your spouse, or your mother, when it needs to be said, then you transform yourself into someone who can say no when it needs to be said. If you say yes when no needs to be said, however, you transform yourself into someone who can only say yes, even when it is very clearly time to say no. If you ever wonder how perfectly ordinary, decent people could find themselves doing the terrible things the gulag camp guards did, you now have your answer. By the time no seriously needed to be said, there was no one left capable of saying it."

Rule 9: Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't
This is the chapter Cathy Newman should have read.

Peterson is not only an academic, he is a clinical psychologist, and he knows how to listen. He has some things to teach those of us who aspire to hear people.

Peterson recounts the case of 'Miss S' who came to see him, saying, "I think I was raped. Five times." Peterson explains how he could have convinced her of the truth, which could have been either, "You are an innocent victim" or "You have made yourself a victim." To have done so would have been to give her advice; but Peterson didn't give advice, he listened.

Peterson gives advice (ha!) about how to listen well. And it is this that Cathy Newman should have read and applied before tangling with the clinical psychologist:

"When someone opposes you, it is very tempting to oversimplify, parody, or distort his or her position. This is a counterproductive game, designed both to harm the dissenter and unjustly raise your personal status. By contrast, if you are called upon to summarize someone's position, so that the speaking person agrees with that summary, you may have to state the argument even more clearly and succinctly than the speaker has yet managed. If you first give the devil his due, looking at his arguments from his perspective, you can (1) find the value in them, and learn something in the process, or (2) hone your positions against them (if you still believe they are wrong) and strengthen your arguments further against challenge. This will make you much stronger. Then you will no longer have to misrepresent your opponent's position (and may well have bridged at least part of the gap between the two of you). You will also be much better at withstanding your own doubts."

Rule 10: Be precise in your speech
This is the chapter that might save your marriage.

The world is only simple when it is working. That is so obvious we miss it all the time. Peterson illustrates with the story of a woman who believes herself to be in a happy, stable, marriage, only to discover her husband is having an affair. Suddenly chaos roars, the dragon is unleashed. This is what happens when we don't communicate, precisely.

"One day it bursts forth, in a form that no one can ignore. It lifts the very household from its foundations. Then it's an affair, or a decades-long custody dispute of ruinous economic and psychological proportions. Then it's the concentrated version of the acrimony that could have been spread out, tolerably, issue by issue, over the years of the pseudo-paradise of the marriage. Every one of the three hundred thousand unrevealed issues, which have been lied about, avoided, rationalized away, hidden like an army of skeletons in some great horrific closet, bursts forth like Noah's flood, drowning everything. There's no ark, because no one built one, even though everyone felt the storm gathering."

So, how about this suggestion?

"Maybe a forthright conversation about sexual dissatisfaction might have been the proverbial stitch in time - not that it would be easy. Perhaps madame desired the death of intimacy, clandestinely, because she was deeply and secretly ambivalent about sex. God knows there's reason to be. Perhaps monsieur was a terrible, selfish lover. Maybe they both were. Sorting that out is worth a fight, isn't it? That's a big part of life, isn't it? Perhaps addressing that and (you never know) solving the problem would be worth two months of pure misery just telling each other the truth (not with intent to destroy, or attain victory, because that's not the truth: that's just all-out war)."

Like I say, this chapter could save your marriage.

Rule 11: Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
This is the chapter that refutes the "postmodern/neo-Marxist claim that Western culture, in particular, is an oppressive structure, created by white men to dominate and exclude women."

Boys and girls are different. Sexual difference is biological in basis. Sexual difference is not a cultural construct. The current cultural narrative that denies these things is bad for boys - and for girls. Boys don't know how to compete when they are forced to compete in the girls' hierarchy. "Girls can win by winning in their own hierarchy - by being good at what girls value, as girls. They can add to this victory by winning in the boys' hierarchy. Boys, however, can only win by winning in the male hierarchy. They will lose status, among girls and boys, by being good at what girls value. It costs them in reputation among the boys, and in attractiveness among the girls." If we insist on going down this path, soon there will be no men left that any self-respecting woman would want to form a relationship with.

It was alarming to hear the president of the Marxist Society at the university where my eldest daughter is a student, defend and promote communism on national radio recently. Marxist ideology always ends in starvation and murder. That has been demonstrated, irrefutably, at the cost of millions of lives. Yet it is this very philosophy that underpins so many current cultural developments. It is Marxism filtered through the French intellectuals and now dominant in our universities and media that says things like, "There are 'women' only because men gain by excluding them. There are 'males and females' only because members of that heterogeneous group benefit by excluding the tiny minority of people whose biological sexuality is amorphous." Peterson retorts, "It is almost impossible to over-estimate the nihilistic and destructive nature of this philosophy. It puts the act of categorization itself in doubt. It negates the idea that distinctions might be drawn between things for any reasons other than that of raw power."

And then he deals with the "equal pay for equal work" argument. You should read that.

This is a powerful chapter, that deserves careful reading, not angry, knee-jerk, liberal reaction. The practical consequences are profound: "If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of."

Rule 12: Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
This is the chapter that will make you cry.

The inevitability of suffering is a recurring theme for Peterson. Here he deals with it through the suffering of his daughter, who endured the misery of severe polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

How are we supposed to make sense of suffering? How are we meant to cope with it?

Peterson says that part of the answer is this: "Being of any reasonable sort appears to require limitation." It is our human limitations that make us human, and that makes suffering something we have to face. He offers wise counsel for those caught in the maelstrom of suffering - counsel about how to talk, and to listen. And he says to stop and stroke a cat: "And maybe when you are going for a walk and your head is spinning a cat will show up and if you pay attention to it then you will get a reminder for just fifteen seconds that the wonder of Being might make up for the ineradicable suffering that accompanies it."

Coda
This is the chapter in which Peterson tells us what he hopes for - he hopes for the best.

So…
So what to make of all this?

There are incredible depths of wisdom here. There is much to glean, much to feed on.
Peterson is courageous, and clear. He loves people, and hates tyranny. He is engaging and funny. Thoughtful and emotional. More of us need to share something of his courage and clarity. He is kicking down doors we should be unafraid to walk through.

In fact, my most serious complaint about 12 Rules is that the fascinating endnotes are endnotes, rather than easier to access footnotes; and that there is an incredibly irritating misnumbering of these from note 33. I don't know how that slipped through the net, but as Peterson often states, things fall apart, and chaos is always waiting to overwhelm us. What we need is order. 12 Rules will help you understand that.

268 people found this helpful

This book brings balance to the force, my life, and yours if you so choose.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2018

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I've lived my first 18 years as an upper-middle-class millennial in an Asian Communist country. This is probably the only book that would make me lift my fingers away from the chaos of life to type an earnest review about it. Oh, how easy it is for peaceful humans with good intention to blindly follow destructive ideologies and behaviors. We all want to change the world for the better, yet most of us fail to improve our own mind, body, and relationships. As a black sheep from such Asian Communist herd, I myself have witnessed enough of people's naivety either in my home country or Western countries, and Dr. Peterson's book truly resonates with me.

One common thing among The 12 Rules for Life, in essence, is "Honesty".

Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back (make your body/mind honest, straight and strong).

Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping (be honest with yourself about your shortcomings and fix them)

Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you (seek and keep honest, good friends).

Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today (focus only on your honest achievements).

Rule 5: Don't let children do things that make you dislike them (be honest with your kids about life, and prepare them for it).

Rule 6: Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world (be honest with the world about your shortcomings before bashing its imperfection).

Rule 7: Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient (live life being honest with your feelings).

Rule 8: Tell the truth—or, at least, don't lie (say only honest statements).

Rule 9: Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't (converse with an honest intention to learn).

Rule 10: Be Precise in Your Speech (make honestly condensed messages)

Rule 11: Don’t bother children when they are skateboarding (let less experienced people make honest efforts in risk-taking).

Rule 12: Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street (respect other beings - human included - that made honest efforts, despite how low their status is).

Asians living outside the US tend to do the opposite of Dr. Peterson’s rules. Especially under the Communist Party’s tyrannical grasp of free speech. Sure, we Asians can be quite intelligent and cooperative; but because of the traditional value system that favor group over individuals, Asians can be more predisposed to let the mob mentality win over the personal sense of justice and freedom. We don’t even speak up because our government would make life harder for everyone we know and love. But because of that, we’ve ensured a dishonest, dog-eat-dog society that is far darker and corrupted under the surface than most Western country.

We Asians often tell “white lies” to earn others’ favor. But when it becomes a habit and necessity for climbing the social ladder, every lie is white. Usually, bribery goes like this: “No, I don’t accept bribes.” - “Please, sir. It’s not bribery, just a gift from our heart.” - “I will reluctantly accept it, but no promise to give you favors.” - “That is totally fine, sir. We only worry about your health and family. To us, you are like family as well.” - “Yes, and family should help each other. That is the basic principle of a good society. Don’t you agree?” - “Yes, sir! We’ll be counting on you...”

What I have seen after living in Europe and America, is that the radical left of the Western political spectrum is (ironically) transforming into a totalitarian force in the name of “Anti-Everything-Evil.” They want the government to control the free conversation and wealth distribution, in the name of anti-racism, anti-sexism (prejudice against other genders), anti-misogyny (prejudice against women) or anti-bigotry (prejudice against different opinion, which is hilarious). But let me tell you: when it comes to limiting freedom of speech and distributing wealth from the “rich” to the “poor,” Communist Asians did a very similar thing, in the name of anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, etc. Nothing good came out of it.

What happened, and may happen if Western people don’t follow Dr. Peterson’s rules of honesty, is more chaos. Those who are incompetent and dishonest will become richer, those who are talented will only manage to live their lives relatively comfortable (unless they are willing to become corrupted), and the honest poor will become poorer. The Feminists who fight for free birth control pills are ignoring the fact that China fails to protect woman and child trafficking into sex-slavery. The Liberals do not see that high taxes drove companies big or small to China, destroying the livelihood of millions of their own honest and competent countrymen. Even the Libertarians who preach "free market" idea miss the notion of "fair play" when it comes to economic relationship with China. To me, such people are not so noble, anti-evil nor anti-establishment; they are just too selfish, naive or too simple-minded to criticize the world.

For the final note, as a long-time Star Wars fan, I'd rather spend my time rereading this book than rewatching the new Star Wars movie. Dr. Peterson is the new hope, the returning Jedi sage that would bring balance to our little planet right here in this galaxy. But only if we choose to follow his 12 rules for life (plus subscribe to his YouTube channel and click the bell button).

2,010 people found this helpful

Michael X Smith

The Good Life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 28, 2021

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Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life is a self-help book, a genre with a long history going back to the Victorian bestseller, Samuel Smiles’s appropriately named Self-Help (1859), through Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac (1733) and Autobiography (1791; 1793 in English), cited by Peterson, back through Rousseau, Machiavelli, classical writers such as Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, all the way to the Bible, which could be seen as the genre’s founding text, with its rules for the good life, now and hereafter. Obviously, the self-help book is perennially popular, perhaps more so than ever in an era when personal empowerment is so relentlessly touted as a commodity, in fiction as well as non-fiction. Just look at the bookshelves in your local supermarket.
Peterson’s effort comes with the appearance of weight, certainly bulk, in paperback 370 pages of text with 19 pages of endnotes and a 20-page index. Yet, while the bulk and scholarly apparatus imply profundity, as does the author’s status as “Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology,” announced authoritatively at the end of the book’s “Overture” (xxxv), too often the result is banality.
Twelve rules are too many to discuss in detail in a relatively short review, but comment on a couple should give some idea of the problems. Peterson’s Rule 1 is “Stand up straight with your shoulders back,” in other words assume the posture of confidence and others will perceive you as confident. Taking 28 pages (1-28) for such facile advice seems redundant. Johnny Cash gave it more efficiently in a one-line song title: “Walk Tall, Walk Straight and Look the World Right in the Eye.” Unfortunately, as anyone of at least school age knows, such cliché postures are woefully inadequate to the complexities of life’s challenges.
Other rules Peterson provides are similarly limited. Rule 5 states, “Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.” The chapter is a multi-page urging for parents to “discipline” their children: “It is an act of responsibility to discipline a child. It is not anger at misbehaviour. It is not revenge for a misdeed” (124). Yet people who have been subject to parental discipline may well have experienced it as anger and violence. Peterson seems unaware of the relevance of Juvenal’s question about censors: “Who guards the guardians?” Peterson’s brief warning about excesses of parental discipline (142-43) is euphemistic, generalised and inadequate.
His method of presenting his rules sometimes involves internal dialogue, where a hopeful self argues with and persuades a pessimistic, sceptical self (94-95, for example). He even describes the method: “an internal dialogue between two or more different views of the world” (241). This method is appropriate to Peterson, for dialogue is a keystone of psychotherapy, the “talking cure.” The use of dialogue to present an argument goes back at least to Plato and even the Bible, a key text for Peterson, but sometimes the level of his technique is more reminiscent of The Simpsons, where Homer addresses his 55-IQ intellect: “Listen, brain. I know we don’t get on with each other too well . . . .” Peterson even uses The Simpsons as examples in his arguments (330, 353 and 388, n.11). Of course, an ongoing internal dialogue is a universal human trait but that Peterson’s use of the technique should remind a reader of Homer Simpson suggests the actual “conversations” are too simplistic, however well intentioned.
The conversational approach fits with the writing style which, overall, is a spoken one. The repetitiveness, the torrent of words applied to pressure and convince, to displace a more critical reading of the author’s claims, comprise an oral style. This fits well with the prominent religious strain and confessional emphasis in Peterson’s text. On page 160 there is even a drawing of the pièta. Any televangelist would recognise Peterson’s stylistic technique, probably more familiar to a North-American audience than to a current European one, though politics provides relevant examples on both continents. The strength of this vocal style is its direct appeal to a mass audience; the weakness is that it is not suited to the nuance and subtlety that the complexities of actual experience require, nor does it adequately voice counterarguments.
Sometimes the style waxes poetical into the kind of guru-speak that good editing should delete: “Meaning is what emerges beautifully and profoundly like a newly formed rosebud opening itself out of nothingness into the light of sun and God” (201). Hallelujah! At the bottom of the same page, the summary sentence, “Do what is meaningful, not what is expedient” (201), is surely a better stylistic choice.
Yet, despite problems with its rules, method and style, the book is not without interest. Sometimes, almost incidentally, the text gives detail about a variety of topics, for example, how human vision works (96-98), murder rates in different communities (121-22), the meaning of “a super-saturated solution” (236), the current state of gender relations in higher education (299-302) and the development of tampons (304-05). Such information is integrated with Peterson’s argument but is interesting in itself.
One of the book’s most enjoyable sections, in Chapter or Rule 3, is Peterson’s description of his boyhood and youth in an isolated town in Alberta, “four hundred miles away from the nearest city” (69). The sketch of small-town life and of the people he knew, of those who escaped and those who didn’t, will be recognisable to many readers. It reminded me of the novels and short stories of the twentieth-century American writer, Willa Cather, where such concerns are a major theme. See, for example, “The Enchanted Bluff” or “Old Mrs. Harris.” Cather, however, is a significant talent, while Peterson is an academic presenting assertions sometimes tending to truisms in merely competent prose to what he presumably hopes will be a large, popular audience.
Actually, it’s not clear who Peterson’s intended audience is. The everyday quality of many examples and analogies, the frequent popular-cultural references and the non-academic style suggest a popular audience, though the discussion of thinkers such as Freud and Nietzsche implies a less demotic reader, as does Peterson’s comment, “If you’re reading this book, there’s a strong probability that you’re a privileged person. You can read. You have time to read” (242). This variable focus suggests a difficulty with psychotherapy itself. The “talking cure”—and there is a great deal about talking and listening in 12 Rules—requires a reasonably intelligent, articulate patient who has the time, and money or medical insurance, for therapy. Similarly, Peterson’s text requires a reading stamina which may be beyond some self-help book fans. One wonders how many buyers of the book have actually read it all the way through. 12 Rules may be like Stephen Hawking’s bestseller on time, more bought than read. And, apparently, 12 Rules has achieved good sales figures, since the front cover of the paperback edition announces the book as “The Multi-Million Copy Bestseller,” perhaps testimony to people’s desire for answers to life’s problems, and partly the result of good marketing.
Maybe this critique of Peterson is too harsh, as 12 Rules is more ambitious, wide-ranging and intelligent than most self-help books. It is a sincere, even fervent attempt, not only to educate people in what to do in practical ways, but in how to live and relate to others, in essence, how to be. It is, in effect, an extended sermon. The book’s positive thinking, though often redundantly obvious in its advice, is neither stupid nor entirely unaware of the difficulties in implementation, but may well be over-optimistic. Peterson’s rules for a better life presume too much agency on the part of the individual and underestimate the forces over which the individual has no control, a fault which is probably typical of and even necessary to the self-help genre. The history of publishing is full of bestsellers which have offered cures or, at least, therapies for the human condition, and yet people still suffer, which, of course, ensures a continuing market for self-help books.

19 people found this helpful

Adrian Bailey

Dreadful waste of money

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

I couldn't finish this. I got as far as Rule 11 and thought to myself why waste more time. I'm some sort of media hermit obviously and hadn't heard of the author until a friend waxed lyrical about how he regularly 'beat' interviewers and 'opponents'. The style of writing may appeal to some but to me it was like syrup. As for the content, it was basic on psychology . Lobster behaviour is interesting to illuminate a tiny amount of human behaviour from a (taken for granted) evolutionary point of view, but in terms of offering an insight into human psyches (a very tiny insight would be the goal of humble thinkers) it fails to leave the ground. Among all the cloying rhetoric is the author's anger towards progressive politics which he dismisses in the usual way of libertarians - that is, without analysis or apparent knowledge. The star given here is in recognition that the text provides a small insight into the state of public consumption of shoddy, third-rate soi-disant intellectuals.

262 people found this helpful

Jason Lee

The most influential book I have read this year! From a liberal.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

I will admit this right off the bat. I knew nothing of Jordan Peterson, or any of his ideology before reading this book. I must have existed in a vacuum, as I merely picked this book up as it was given as an "Amazon Recommends."

Curious about the title, I purchased on impulse.

I am very glad I did.

I am not Jordan Peterson's "supposed" target audience. (I used supposed because I don't think he actually claims to have one).

I am a liberal, Asian, left leaning moderate with a background in philosophy, theology and film studies. I support the women's right movement, equal pay, and I find the Republican party of today rather distasteful for the anti-science movement they espouse.

That being said, this book spoke to me. It is not an easy read. I had to re-read chapters slowly to fully condense my thoughts. I agree with the critical review that stated you have to be intellectually equipped to really get the most out of this. I had to utilize my background in philosophy and religion to go beyond the surface of what the author was trying to say. This is not a book you can listen to at 2x speed on Audible and hope to retain anything, imo. You need to digest this.

That being said...

Peterson's deft weaving of theology, mythology, and just overall cogent arguments and viewpoints made me really respect and open up my mind to things I never fully thought about. I find it laughable that a Harvard professor/psychologist has been embraced by the "alt-right" when even a moderately close reading of this text repudiates all that they stand for.

Peterson is direct. He has opinions. I don't always agree with them. But he is genuinely expressing himself, and the belief that we should all try to be better. We should all try to be more compassionate, and most of all, we all should try to understand our humanity a little more each and every there.

There's no division in this book; there's just deep anguish at the current state of humanity and its capacity for evil. There's some exasperation at the way things are currently constructed in society that is in many ways lost. And most of all, there's compassion and a belief that if we all got together in a room and truly talked, the world would be a better place.

I would shy away from the noise around Peterson in the headlines, on Youtube, and in how the idealogues use him (or even his own personal media narrative) to justify their twisted beliefs. Don't let the fact that the "Alt-Right" has co-opted this man to make him a mascot.

Just read the book independently and make your own judgments. You'll be glad you did.

4,444 people found this helpful

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