Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order, 12 More Rules For Life

 This review from the Guardian seems decent, though I quibble with parts of it. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/02/beyond-order-by-jordan-peterson-review-more-rules-for-life

If you have read 12 rules, then reading this one is a good idea, but not an urgent one. I loved "12 Rules For Life", I really like "Beyond Order".

Rule V, "Do Not Do What You Hate", is a good one for our time. It opens with the story of a woman struggling with the daily idiocy of life in a large bureaucratic corporation in the age of Woke ... something I have lots of sympathy with after a 34 year IBM career. Her specific example was "Flip Chart" being banned in her workplace because it was problematic to Filipinos ... a claim supported here.  

I personally know of a case where "blacklist/whitelist" had to be removed from a computer tool for racial concerns. In the age of Woke, EVERYTHING has racial, sexual, or God knows what hidden implications. 

This makes it virtually impossible to not to end up stepping into a PC pothole -- as Dr Seuss, Pepe Le Pew,  and unfortunately, Aunt Jemima have. Tragically, Aunt Jemima was once a great success story. Even if you ARE very careful, as was Amy Coney Barrett, when she said in her confirmation hearing in the AM that she had never discriminated on the basis sexual preference". Webster agreed that was fine in the AM, by the PM it was "offensive". 

Corporate, government, families, and basically everything are  becoming Woke minefields, and it is hard to love working and living in a minefield. 

Rule X, "Plan and work diligently to retain the romance in your relationship" ought to be read by every couple, and especially by people considering, or avoiding marriage. The overarching of the chapter is NEGOTIATE! Which means you are both honest and you both talk rather than evade. It points out the now sad fact that virtually all women deep down want to be mothers, and sometime as they approach 30, their biological clocks start screaming. For the secular society that worships evolution, it is hard to understand why this is not obvious. Procreation is a MAJOR foundation for natural selection. 

Perhaps nature is just weeding out those too blinded by ideology to figure that out? Rule VI, "Abandon Ideology" would aid in clearing this hurdle. 

Like pretty much all of Jordan's (and the Bibles) or for that matter, Buddhist, teaching, the necessity of Rule XII "Be Grateful in spite of your suffering" is woven through the book. "Life is suffering" (Buddha), "Take up your cross" (Christ).

As with "12 Rules", being a practicing Christian would cover 90%+ of what Jordan preaches -- but the number of us practicing Christians is shrinking. Can Jordan "save" you / us / Western civilization ? I surely don't believe so ... we are in a condition where we require GRACE to save us. Even AA says one needs a "higher power" to escape addiction to alcohol. Alcoholism is just one form of avoiding the reality of suffering ... workaholism, video game addiction, constant entertainment distraction, and many others are other pitfalls. 

I highly recommend both "Order and Chaos"  ;-)  for both Christians and secularists. The advice is good -- I'm just not sure you can keep much of it without the Holy Spirit. 

"Civics Secures Democracy Act" Secures CRT

 https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-greatest-education-battle-of-our-lifetimes/

"CRT" Is "Critical Race Theory" ... BLM, Intersectionality, "Be Less White". etc. 

So we have a bill to attempt to make CRT the standard curricula for US students. 

In effect, we are looking at an effort to impose a new federal Common Core in the politically explosive subject areas of history and civics. Worse, the program in each of these areas does more than just lean a bit toward the left side of the political spectrum. Instead, it sharply breaks with fundamental assumptions in American education, first by promoting illiberal Critical Race Theory, and second by turning what should be a politically neutral classroom into a training ground for leftist advocacy and lobbying.

Another term we need to understand is "Action Civics" ... essentially teaching how to protest America. 

Action Civics conceives of itself as a living laboratory in which mere civic theory is put productively into practice. Students, it is held, best acquire civic know-how through direct political action, for example by protesting in favor of gun control or lobbying for legislation to address climate change.

You must "teach your children well" to hate their own country.  

New Edition Of Old Fake News Story

 https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/the-story-was-a-hoax-donald-trump-hits-out-after-stunning-washington-post-retraction/news-story/4316de0c552800a040bc59332cd79964

The media makes up stories that are harmful to Republicans. Wow, news at 11! 

Why would anyone believe fake media? Certainly not me ...  very rarely even turn it on. Mostly I just listen to the retractions in the rare cases they get caught and actually report it. 

Savage Messiah, How Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization

 https://spectator.us/book-and-art/jung-love-jordan-peterson-jim-proser/

The title is over the top, as is the book. I do however love the title if the review, "Jung Love" ... just the kind of sophomoric humor that I know I'm not supposed to like, but do. Sort of like "Spinal Tap" ... whose appeal is becoming "more selective" ...

Much like Biden, who went to the basement to be on the same level as his core supporters, the dead, who don't care about energy, because they consume very little. At least they were really happy to mail in their votes. 

The book is blatant hagiography fan mail ... much like the MSM "reporting", or lack thereof on the Biden "presidency". I hate the title, thought it is a proper warning -- Jordan is in no way a "messiah", nor does he claim to be. He is also totally not "savage" ... he is very compassionate and easily emotional. 

Spectator is honest about the "fanboy" nature of the book, and the review is still useful as long as you keep that in mind. It does give some insight into the life of Jordan, his struggles both personally and publically as he fearlessly (and correctly)  points out the dangers of the totalitarian left. Will that save us? No, but being aware of danger is better than being clueless -- even if you can't do much of anything to mitigate it.

We live in the age of one dimensional hype and marketing on all sides and everywhere. It is all leftist politics all the time. This book is on the other extreme. 

Since I share Jordan's depressive nature, as well as to a lesser degree his drive (compulsion?) to read, study, and write, I somewhat share Prosser's possibly over compassionate and admiring view. 

Prosser reminds me a bit of the Obama fawning groupies ... BO thought he WAS the "messiah" as did the MSM. 

HR 1, Feel The Fascism

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/h-r-1-is-a-partisan-assault-on-american-democracy/

I hate it when they say "American Democracy". Yes it is true that we are sliding closer and closer to mob rule ("democracy"), however I'd really like more people to understand that we were founded as a REPUBLIC for very good reasons that I'm not repeating here, because anyone that wants to be an American, as opposed to a subject of Wokeistan (which we now all currently are), and as HR1 shows, we are probably going to take another step toward even more pure totalitarian fascism. 

It would be an understatement to describe H.R. 1 as a radical assault on American democracy, federalism, and free speech. It is actually several radical left-wing wish lists stuffed into a single 791-page sausage casing. It would override hundreds of state laws governing the orderly conduct of elections, federalize control of voting and elections to a degree without precedent in American history, end two centuries of state power to draw congressional districts, turn the Federal Elections Commission into a partisan weapon, and massively burden political speech against the government while offering government handouts to congressional campaigns and campus activists. Merely to describe the bill is to damn it, and describing it is a Herculean task in itself.

Democrats are intent on cementing their policy of massive voter fraud by making it illegal to even marginally attempt to regain election integrity.  (not that we have had any for a very long while)

State voter-ID laws are banned, replaced simply by a sworn voter statement. The dramatic expansion of mail-in voting during the COVID pandemic is enshrined permanently in federal law. States are banned from the most elementary security methods for mail-in ballots: They must provide a ballot to everyone without asking for identification and may not require notarization or a witness to signatures. States are compelled to permit ballot harvesting so long as the harvesters are not paid per ballot. Curbside voting, ballot drop boxes, and 15 days of early voting are mandated nationwide, and the bill micromanages the location and hours of polling stations, early voting locations, and drop boxes.

If this bill becomes law, we will have catapulted farther down the path where the 70 million people that loved what was once America and voted for Trump, will be further silenced to the point that the tiny number that courageously vote against fascism will be identified and  punished up to and including incarceration and worse.  

The Madness Of Crowds, Douglas Murray

 Here is a Review From National Review.

There are a lot of tabs in my copy, which means that Murray covered a lot of points that I find important. 

As I got to the afterward, I was struck by Murray's observation that while he had stepped on some of the most contentious issues of our time (gays, women, race, and transexuality), he had largely been treated "fairly", and the book was popular. My view is that the fact that he considers himself to be gay is the reason for that ... as he covers in the first section of the book, gay is the "foundation" of Identity Politics -- a member of that identity can pass through the "minefield" of identity if they step carefully. Murray seems to have largely achieved that. 

He does a good job of pointing out the absurdities of our age relative to his four categories. One of the themes is; what is "hardware" in humans ("nature" -- wired in, part of DNA); vs what is "software" (  "nurture", changed by environment, learnable, teachable).

The base of this discussion ... "hardware is fixed and therefore morally OK" seems fatally flawed. Certainly sexual drives are "hardware", however there is such a thing as celibacy, and monogamy, which are socially (imperfectly) standards. In the age of "if it feels good, do it", it seems that the "hardware vs software" a distinction without a difference. It seems applicable to many things ... obesity, addiction, pedofillia, ...

He arrives at essentially the same conclusion as Christ as in "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God", ie, a fixed unchangeable morality is what we need. Nietzsche says we have culturally killed God, so we seek to create a new "god" via science, culture ... POWER. Thus the fight. From this review:

Murray spends a significant amount of time considering how we got to this stage and declares that it derives from an absence of meaning from the loss of “grand narratives.” Presumably, by this he means the loss of a conviction that our great, Liberal utopia is no longer worth saving, let alone maintaining. Tantalizing as this may be, the loss of this conviction is not discussed at much length in The Madness of Crowds, although it does feature extensively in The Strange Death of Europe.

On page 256, he takes a shot at this; "A sense of purpose is found in working out what is meaningful in our lives and then orienting ourselves over time as closely as possible to those centers of meaning".  

Although he doesn't admit it, he is basically declaring what everyone since Nietzsche has discovered -- we try valiantly to pull ourselves up to meaning by our own bootstraps, and discover that it comes back to FAITH ... in something that we are going to make to be "transcendent" ... therefore an idol. This is covered very well in "Moral, Believing Animals". 

His closing sentence is; "To assume that that sex, sexuality, and skin color mean nothing would be ridiculous. But to assume that they mean everything will be fatal." 

Eternally, "sex, sexuality and skin color" DO mean nothing. We are all equally sinful, and equally redeemable in the eyes of God. There was even once a country called "america" that declared that: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

No creator, no "unalienable". Or on the terms of the "leader" of Wokeistan, "endowed by the thing" ... the once shining nation on a hill is gone. 

America Is Back - To Bombing Syria

 https://spectator.us/topic/certainty-life-death-middle-eastern-airstrikes/?utm_source=Spectator+USA+Email+Signup&utm_campaign=5c663bb522-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_8_31_2020_19_27_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_edf2ae2373-5c663bb522-154689905&mc_cid=5c663bb522&mc_eid=43b2a02730

Tweedle dum, tweedle dee ... except the MSM is fine with it when Democrats do it. 

The Splendid And The Vile, Eric Larson

 Here is NPRs review of the book. 

If you haven't read lot of Churchill books, this is a good one to cover especially the early war years. Larson is very readable, and tends to approach things from somewhat of a "woman's perspective".  Romances, affairs and unrequited loves are documented -- not the typical fare of such books. He also tends to go more into the relationships between the players -- in some ways it reads more like a novel than a historical book. 

As in any decently written Churchill book, it makes it clear that Winston was the indispensible, very unique, and somewhat eccentric man. 

What Do We Have In Common?

 Powerline Link

Good description of the divided concerns in Wokeistan.  

I happen to have just finished "Bully Pulpit". Sadly? Or happily? Things have not changed much since the early 1900's. Oh, the players may be somewhat different ... Republicans are now more "Free Traders", and while there are still political machines on both sides, the big ones are mostly Democrat.  These days, "The Malefactors of Great Wealth" are now the Davos elite, mass media, world government bureaucracy,  and the tech titans. The "bourgeois middle class" is now largely bureaucratic administors (in and out of government), + medical and some higher level tech rather than farmers, small business, etc. 

"Division" has been baked into all human systems since we lived in caves. Sure, it ebbs and flows, but "Tom Brady, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates" sort of people are always going to make A LOT more than Benchwarmer Bob, the corner grocer, and your cleaning lady. Tools only make it worse -- the more powerful the tools, the greater the division. 

Can you fix it? Sure! See Churchill! 

‘The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.’

-Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 22 October 1945

Certainly a simplification (as he well knew), but totally true in general. Since Socialism inherently produces much less weath, there is less inequality. The elite will still be far more wealthy that the commoner, but except for imports, the goods will be of a lower quality. 

The Internet is a tool that lets you be nastier, more isolated, and more tribal. We seem to be using it "well". 

Vernon Jordan, Civility

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/03/remembering-vernon-jordan.php

The linked is a nicely done remembrance of Vernon Jordan, a big time DC power broker, civil rights activist, lawyer, Democrat. 

My main reason for posting is a comparison of how Democrats are often treated when they die by conservatives, vs how conservatives like Rush Limbaugh are treated by liberals and media when they pass. 

We all have death in common, it is a great opportunity to show a bit of civility relative to political difference could maybe be dispensed with in the face of eternity. 

Many left wing reactions though, tend to resemble Jack Nicholson's character in Batman. 

When one side of civility dies, can the other be far behind?