I think I stalled in my review of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life at Rule Six because it was the hardest to read (hardest in the sense of painful). It deals with suffering and malevolence.
Rule Six is Set Your House In Perfect Order Before You Criticize The World.
He quotes one of the Columbine High School killers who wrote;
The human race isn't worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore.
I thought when I read this of David Attenborough saying that human beings are A plague on the Earth. And of a man discussing how young men come to be radicalised - You are a young man seeking adventure. Do you want to stack shelves in Wolverhapton or be a Desert Warrior?
I admore people who are willing to bravely address the tragic aspects of life.
Around the time I was reading Rule Six I heard on Private Passions (my favourite programme on BBC Radio 3) barrister Sarah Langford. She is a defence lawyer representing criminals - from thieves to child abusers.
Articulate and honest, her insights into lives most of us can hardly imagine, were riveting, if painful to hear. She has written a book called In Your Defence.
I don't know if I could bear to read it.
In his very dense chapter, well worth reading, Peterson gives examples of people who emerge from terrible pasts and do good, not evil, and he ends with two pages of advice to those who think they may be heading to despair and nihilism.
I am full of gratitude to people who do difficult work with in Sarah Langford's words the mad, the bad, and the broken.
Rule Seven will be light relief!
If you can access it Private Passions with Sarah Langford can be heard here (and I loved her choice of music!)
Rule Six is Set Your House In Perfect Order Before You Criticize The World.
He quotes one of the Columbine High School killers who wrote;
The human race isn't worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore.
I thought when I read this of David Attenborough saying that human beings are A plague on the Earth. And of a man discussing how young men come to be radicalised - You are a young man seeking adventure. Do you want to stack shelves in Wolverhapton or be a Desert Warrior?
I admore people who are willing to bravely address the tragic aspects of life.
Around the time I was reading Rule Six I heard on Private Passions (my favourite programme on BBC Radio 3) barrister Sarah Langford. She is a defence lawyer representing criminals - from thieves to child abusers.
Articulate and honest, her insights into lives most of us can hardly imagine, were riveting, if painful to hear. She has written a book called In Your Defence.
I don't know if I could bear to read it.
In his very dense chapter, well worth reading, Peterson gives examples of people who emerge from terrible pasts and do good, not evil, and he ends with two pages of advice to those who think they may be heading to despair and nihilism.
I am full of gratitude to people who do difficult work with in Sarah Langford's words the mad, the bad, and the broken.
Rule Seven will be light relief!
If you can access it Private Passions with Sarah Langford can be heard here (and I loved her choice of music!)
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