Primarily I’m writing this blog in order to get better at writing and better at speaking about the world as I see it.
Jordan Peterson, a laudable defender of freedom of speech has recently argued – while students attempted to no-platform him at McMaster University – that “there’s nothing more powerful than someone who’s articulate”.
I think I’ve understood this for a long time. People understand it without knowing – it’s why we are impressed by certain speakers even if we disagree with them and, indeed, it’s why an extremely articulate speaker like Peterson is so vigorously protested by those who disagree with him. Because he is fluent, confident, prepared and civilised, he is identified by those who disagree with him as a particularly potent threat.
If you can’t solve things by speaking there are only two other options: one is violence and the other is submission. I am not a naturally violent person, therefore it seems to me that if I don’t speak I will become submissive.
By this, I mean that I will surrender my own voice and let others speak for me. I will be, in Peterson’s terminology, a marionette, a Pinocchio.
I’d rather be a real boy.
Peterson at McMaster University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1P_1mLlJik. The quotation is from around 42:00.
Peterson lecturing about marionettes and individuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN2lyN7rM4E&list=PL22J3VaeABQAT-0aSPq-OKOpQlHyR4k5h&index=7
Orienteering 