Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "Jordan Peterson’s Vision for Conservatives | Part 1" video.

  1. Dr. Peterson makes some good points and the vision he outlines does have the potential to provide a more stable state of affairs at the macro-level. Three are however two points I think he should have elaborated on or incorporated. The first is the acknowledgment of God. He danced around it with references to objective truth, natural law, and Abrahamic traditions but the vision is largely secular in nature. Perhaps that is by design. As C.S. Lewis put it, "Aim at Heaven, and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth, and you will get neither.” I know the arguments for against because I spent a considerable amount of time in both camps and the conclusion I came away with is we are better off when we have a relationship with our Creator. I'm not talking about religion and dogma, I'm talking about an active relationship with the living God. “For although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give Him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools…And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.” ―Romans 1 Look around and consider the validity of those words. Put your views on religion aside for one moment and consider what Paul is describing in relation to what is happening today. The second point I'd like to make is that Dr. Petersen left two attributes off his list which I believe lie at the core of much of the problems we face today. The first is virtue. Our Founding Fathers put great stock in the importance of virtue. Did they fall short themselves? Of course. I'm not here to debate that. But they understood the need for virtue in a self-governing society. We take self-government as a given but in the 18th Century it was truly a revolutionary idea. Democracy was seen as too messy and unwieldly and the assumption was at some point people would look for a strong hand to maintain order. That didn't happen because great men like Washington gave up power voluntarily. Civic duty meant something once. Now it is an arcane notion. I was in a university classroom when I heard a professor say that anyone who joined the military or some other low-paying profession out of some misguided sense of altruism was a fool. And that was decades ago. Things have only gotten worse. The other attribute is courage. The advent of social media and cancel culture have made cowards of too many people. This is not some unique phenomena. Alexander Solzhenitsyn tried to warn us about this tactic in an address he made at Harvard University in 1978: “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country…Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.” Want to know why people who ought to know better can't define what a woman is? It's not that they believe it, that's not the point. It's not that they are trying to make you believe anything that is patently incorrect, that's not the point. The point is to get you to participate in the lie when you know it's not true or to remain silent out of fear. That is power. That is the lifeblood of tyranny. “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn Anyway, that was a rant. I doubt anyone will read this but I felt like saying it all the same. We are at a crossroad as a society. I believe nothing short of Divine intervention will get us through but that's me. I'm not saying you have to believe that. All I ask is that you consider the points I made and judge them against the way things are, not the way some say things are. When all else fails, fall back on Nancy Reagan's old rule: "Just say no." Imagine what would happen if one day everyone who sees the world for what it is did that. What an amazing day that would be. God Bless and stay safe out there.
    1