Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin analyze the Trump administration's "odd reversal," where figures like RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard now hold power, suggesting Democrats effectively run the government. Peterson contrasts this with his ARC keynote on Exodus, framing the twelve tribes as future scouts who must maintain optimism against Malthusian zero-sum theories. Despite his Academy flourishing with 50,000 students, he warns against complacency, urging an attitude of "awake and dancing" while acknowledging life's fragility and the constant need for religious humility in a world where miracles occur only to the observant. [Automatically generated summary]
Well, one of the interesting things about that story is the insistence that you have a moral obligation to be optimistic about the future.
And the future, well, the future is akin to the present.
It will be occupied by many of the same people.
It's rife with formidable and even apocalyptic challenges.
And that's always the case.
And the question then is, what's the appropriate moral attitude in the face, even truly, of a potential apocalypse?
And the answer to that always is faith, courage, and the optimism that springs from faith and courage and that isn't naive.
You're required to do that morally.
In some ways, that's even the defining characteristic of faith.
And so what does that mean?
It means what...
Caleb and Joshua do report to Moses when they're sent to Canaan to scout out the future.
They say, well, it's a place of formidable challenge, but if we maintain our upward aim and our covenant with the divine, then there's no desert we can't make bloom.
And I think that's right.
I also think that's the right rejoinder to the Malthusians, even from a biological perspective.
Their notion is...
It's a zero-sum game and we'll multiply till we consume all possible resources.
And the rejoinder to that is, human beings transform the idea of resource itself, and the future is a place of unlimited possibility, if you maintain your upward aim.
I think that's true.
And so, if it's true, you're called upon to be a forthright and optimistic scout of the future.
And then, you're the people who lead the lost to the promised land.
That never happens, I would say, because the dimensions of congruence become more complex and the requirement for congruence becomes greater as you ascend, so to speak, as your obligations multiply.
The price you pay for making a mistake increases and the level of commitment that you have to bring to bear on the problems increases.
The amount of attention that you have to bring to bear increases because the cost of failure is higher and higher and the standards become higher and higher.
And so that congruence is a constant pursuit rather than a permanent attainment.
And it's always an error.
Part of the reason you fortify yourself in relationship to that is to surround yourself with people who are also helpful and awake.
You know, and I have a lot of good people on my team.
My wife is very helpful, my kids, my security staff, all the agents that work with me.
You know, they're always reminding me and tapping me and making sure that everything's on track.
And so far that's going well, but...
It's not like I would ever presume to assume that that's a fait accompli, right?
It's like surfic.
It's like surfic.
There's a balance there, but you're still in the waves, and you better watch the hell out.
Do you feel that there are threshold moments throughout that where you feel like, oh, well, now I've accomplished this or reached this level or something, and now I won't?
Turn back on that sense, and now I can just grow from here.
I think you have to maintain that underlying awareness of fragility.
I think that's also part of gratitude.
When things are going well, you have to remember how unlikely that is.
You know, when Tammy has been accompanying me on stage a lot, and...
I don't know, she's probably opened a hundred times now, and she's got to be a pretty good, maybe even a very good public speaker.
And one of the enabling factors that make that possible is the cultivation of the right attitude towards the crowd.
The music helps because we have a musician that plays before our lectures, but we're always trying to remind ourselves, and it's the same with this convention, This is very unlikely.
You should never take it for granted, even for a second.
It's the same when people approach you on the street and they want to talk to you.
You know, you don't want to be dismissive.
You don't want to ever be above that.
Maybe you have to speed along because you have a priori commitment, but you want to not...
Part of that religious humility is not taking...
Anything for granted, and realizing that there's a thousand ways to fail, and success is unlikely, and if it happens to be visiting you now, you should be very, very cognizant of that and aware of it.
You know, people often believe that if a miracle occurred, they would now be a dedicated follower of the divine, and that's not right.
What's right is that there's miracles happening in front of you all the time, and if you were awake, you'd see that, and maybe that would bolster your faith.
And my sense is that if you're speaking to a multitude and they're not throwing stones at you, then you bloody well better be pretty happy about that, because it could be seriously otherwise.
And so, at the moment, there's many things happening.
In my life that are insanely positive.
The Peterson Academy is flourishing.
We have 50,000 students.
My kids are doing well.
The public response, as it is at ARC, is very positive.
And there's an unlimited horizon of opportunity in front of me.
But by the same token, you're a fool to take any of that for granted.