#313 Jordan Peterson: Life, Death, Power, Fame, and Meaning

Whatever the 'environment' is ... I don't even know what that is. That's everything, the environment. 'I'm concerned about the environment.' How is that different than saying 'I'm worried about everything.' How are those statements different semantically?

It's not like the universities are threatened by the right; they're threatened by the left, 100% ... That threat made it impossible for me to continue in my profession the way I was, and it cost me my clinical practice, too. And that's not over yet, because I have 10 lawsuits against me right now from the College of Psychologists.

I've been tortured nearly to death multiple times by bad actors on the left ... It put my family at risk in a big way ... I've been canceled like 40 times.

It appeared, in some sense, that the reason I was ill was because I was taking benzodiazepines, but that isn't why. I was ill, and then I took them, a very low dose, and I took that for a long time. And it helped whatever was wrong with me, and it looks like it was an allergy or maybe multiple allergies. And then that stopped working, and so I took a little bit more for about a month, and that made it way worse. And so then I cut back a lot, and then, then things really got out of hand.

If you take an entry-level job and you learn, and it's a reasonably decent place, you will not be in an entry-level job for long, because everyone who's competent is desperate for competent people. And if you go and show yourself as competent, there'll be a trial period, but if you go and show yourself as competent, all sorts of doors you didn't even know were there start opening like mad.

When you fast your body, logically and obviously, if you think about it biologically, well, what does your body scavenge first? Well, damaged tissue. I know the literature on fasting to some degree, and it's very compelling literature. If you starve dogs down, I think it's 20% below, rats too, below their optimal body weight, they live 30% longer.

Take on some responsibility. Do something for other people. You're doing something for yourself while you're doing that, even if you don't know it.

If you gaze into the abyss long enough, you see the light, not the darkness.

What's bugging you? This is such a cool thing. It's like, where is my destiny? Well, what bothers you? Well, that's where your destiny is. Your destiny is to be found in what bothers you.

There are things I would like to ask Mr. Musk about. The Mars venture, I don't know what he's up to there. It strikes me as absurd in the most fundamental sense, because I think, well, it'd be easier just to build an outpost in the Antarctica or in the desert.

I think it's a terrible problem that... the West, for example, is no longer at replacement with regard to birth rate. It means we've abandoned the virgin and the child in the most fundamental sense. It's a bloody catastrophe, and Musk, he sees it, clear as can be—where everyone else is running around going, 'Oh, there's too many people.' It's like, nope, got that.

I do think Putin believes, to the degree that he believes anything, I do believe that he thinks of himself as a bulwark for Christendom against the degeneration of the West.

If you have memories that are more than 18-months-old that bother you when you think them up, part of you is locked inside that ... That's why it still has emotional significance.

Beauty is daunting; it scares people. They're terrified of buying art, for example, because their taste is on display. And they should be terrified, because, generally, people have terrible taste.

Not only do you have to face death; you have to face death and Hell before you can get to Paradise.

God, in the highest sense, is the spirit that you must emulate in order to thrive. How's that for a biological definition?

I'm more afraid of Hell than death ... I don't know if it follows or if it's always here. I think we're going to find out.

It isn't obvious to me that I'm in any position to evaluate Elon Musk. I would like to talk to him and find out what he's up to and why. But, I mean. he's an impossible person. What he's done is impossible, all of it.