Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life

The book of the week for March 22, 2021, was Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s newest book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. If you’d rather watch the review on YouTube or Rumble, or listen to it on Podcast, follow the links. Or keep reading.

Now, like many people, I was first introduced to Dr. Peterson by the “So what you’re saying” memes of his interview with Cathy Newman.  Then once I looked him up, I remembered hearing about the Canadian professor who argued against the passage of Canada’s bill c-16.  Unlike most of the MSM and screeching harpies of the left, I listened to his reasoning for his objections.  And they had nothing to do with hating trans-people or wanting to trample trans-rights.  His objection was that this was the first step towards the government legislating speech.  Which turned out to be highly prophetic. Anyway, if you actually listen to Dr. Peterson talk, he’s said on several occasions that if a trans-person wished to be addressed by a preferred pronoun, then he would have that discussion.  His objection was strictly to government mandates in the use of gender pronouns.  But none of that logic was heard, the left screamed, and in response, Dr. Peterson was catapulted into global fame where he basically became the voice of reason to a generation of young men and women who had been ideologically abandoned by the shrieking harpies of the left.

His first book, 12 Rules for life, was a monumental success, selling millions of copies, and while I do intend to review that book eventually, his new book was released on March 2, 2021, and I pre-ordered my copy back in November, so here we go.  Dr. Peterson writes his books by noting the rule, then explaining through stories what he means.  It’s very effective.  Mankind evolved by storytelling, and his stories are well thought out, to the point, and engaging.  So I’m going to try to mimic him with this, by telling you the rule, which he’s been releasing on social media for a few months, and telling you how it’s affected my life. So, let’s go.

Rule 1: Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement: people need people. You need friends. You need family.  You need hierarchies and structure.  Contrary to post-modernist bullshit slung about with such abandon on University campuses, hierarchies are not primarily about power, at least healthy ones aren’t. Hierarchies are built around competence.  It’s the Peter principle, wherein you are promoted to the level of your incompetence.  Remain competent, and you move up the hierarchy, until you hit a level where your skills no longer function. This is largely because skills needed for one job are not necessarily the skills you need for another.  Does not mean you specifically are a failure; it just means you lack the skills for the job you’re applying for.  This also does not mean the patriarchy is keeping you down. I am an excellent seamstress.  Despite appearing in these videos usually in t-shirts, I generally make most of my own clothes, and the clothes I wear professionally are all hand tailored by me, for me. Does this make me automatically suited to run operations at Gucci? Same industry. Different skills.  The back half of this: do not denigrate creative achievement.  As surely as we need social structure in our lives, we need art and beauty to give that structure meaning. Art gives the soul something to think about and strive toward when a hierarchy IS bad and corrupted by power play, rather than effectively run through competence. Art helps the soul sing.

Rule 2: Imagine who you could be, then aim single mindedly at that. Each of us has SOMETHING. Some skill, some passion, whether for art, science, politics, mechanics…SOEMTHING that draws us to it.  Direct quote from the book “You do not choose what interests you. It chooses you.”  It took me a long time to figure out that the reason I drift from one topic to another, not just in these books, but in hobbies in general, is that I want to know ALL THE THINGS.  The old saying “Jack of All Trades, but Master of None” fits me.  All my friends are specialists.  I have friends who have built literal careers around rebuilding 18th century wardrobes from the shoes up. Friends who have spent their entire lives engaged in the arts as professional photographers, dancers, musicians, wood sculptors.  I am not professional level in any of these things, but I dabble enough to blend into each group, chameleon like in skills. The whole saying “Jack of all trades but master of none, is often time better than master of one.” I LIKE knowing a little bit about a lot of things. It’s certainly possible that I haven’t found my ONE thing that will become all consuming. But it’s just as likely that my ONE thing is exactly what I’m doing. Pursuit of knowledge.

Rule 3: Do not hide unwanted things in the fog. Don’t pretend problems don’t exist.  Problems that are ignored don’t go away.  Pretending they don’t exist makes them grow in silence, until they explode in your face. My husband and I have had our fights. We didn’t used to, and you might think that’s a good thing, to not fight with your spouse. But it’s really not. If it’s a matter that’s important to you or your spouse, then it’s worth having the fight over.  Otherwise, you find yourself 20 years into an unhappy marriage for lack of honest and FAIR communication. All that anger builds up. We would have civilized WASP disagreements.  Until about 3 years ago when we had a major blow up.  We each let everything out.  Everything either of us had ever done to the other.  We talked for hours. And came out the other side deciding that we had more good than bad, and that we did not want to let the bad destroy us, which would surely happen if we let it build up again.  And since then, we’ve made very sure to keep our lines of communication completely open. We don’t let the fog build up. If something is bothering one of us, we talk it out right then.  If your love is worth saving, then it’s worth the conversation. 

Rule 4: Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated. Show up. Seriously.  Someone somewhere is slacking on the job.  That’s your opportunity to show up and do the job.  Show that you are the person capable enough to do the job that others are neglecting.  That is your opportunity.  That is where your growth is. I noticed that people are abdicating the ability to think for themselves.  And so, I’m reading the books and doing the thinking for them. Joking!  Sort of. I’m hoping people will join me in acknowledging that the left does not hold a monopoly on truth.  Sometimes, I’m not even sure they have a toe in the pool.

Rule 5: Do not do what you hate. Such simple advice.  Not so easy to follow. This chapter was interesting because the story he tells is about a client of his whose work life was mired down in a bog of DIE cultists ideology.  And he talked about how she more or less fought back with facts and statistics. My own day job has recently instituted a DIE Cultist office.  I’ve been torn between volunteering so I can try and mitigate the damage, and just keeping my head down and plodding along, knowing that this is not where I’m hoping to spend the next 20 years of my life. Overall good advice.  Harder to implement.

Rule 6: Abandon Ideology. I mean, does this even need explanation? I mean, Dr. Peterson explains it. I’m not sure if I personally have an ideology. Other than extremists on both the left and the right are too stupid for words.  Is that an ideology?

Rule 7: Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.  My one thing, besides a general pursuit of knowledge, is my health.  I was well on my way to becoming a shape other than round when Covid locked down the gyms.  But I have a plan in place now to pull me back to a semblance of health.  That is what I am working on.

Rule 8: Try to make one room in your home as beautiful as possible. I love this. Last year I started with cleaning my backyard.  By the time summer hit, we were spending hours sitting in our backyard, enjoying nature and peace. It truly is important to have a haven you can escape from the world to. Beauty helps you do that.

Rule 9: If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely. I am blessed to not have old memories that upset me. But I do understand the importance of working through past stress. And writing out old memories helps process them.

Rule 10: Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationship. Your relationship is worth saving.  If it wasn’t, why did you marry your spouse to begin with? We have regular date nights. We have daily check-ins, while at work and after work.  We TALK to each other. We go out of the way to spoil each other. Something as little as a daily kiss goodbye, and a hug when we walk back in at the end of work keeps us connected. When we’re telling each other about our days, the phones go down so we can focus on the conversation. This connection helps keep the fog from rule 3 at bay.

Rule 11: Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful, or arrogant. It’s hard.  It’s hard not to become resentful when life isn’t going the way you planned.  I am relentlessly optimistic.  To the point that when I do have a bad day, my poor husband doesn’t know what to do to cheer me up. And that cheeriness helps me not be resentful.  I don’t think I’m deceitful.  I’m certainly not in this project.  I won’t review a book I haven’t read in its entirety.  I’m sure someday I’ll run across a book that I can’t read all the way through, either through lack of interest or due to bad writing that makes it hard to consume.  But at 7 weeks in, that hasn’t happened yet. Arrogance…Am I arrogant.  I don’t know.  Would you know if you were arrogant? Or is that something you only learn in hindsight or when someone tells you you’re arrogant? I’m shooting for humble with all the vast knowledge I’m absorbing in my self-improvement escapade. I guess time will tell if I become arrogant.

Rule 12: Be grateful in spite of your suffering. I am grateful. I’m grateful every day in my marriage, in that I am employed, that I have the ability to think for myself. But I can’t really say I’ve suffered much personally either.  I’ve had some hard times, but compared to some people’s suffering, my hard times are not so tough.  So, I do maintain an attitude of gratitude.  Because things can always get worse.

Not sure if I “GOT” the rules as laid out by Dr. Peterson.  Not sure if my interpretation is quite what he meant.  But that is how I read them and how I’m applying them to my life. I’m sure I’ll re-read this book several times. I’ve listened to 12 Rules for Life multiple times, and this one will go into rotation for sure.