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Why You Should Get Your Crap Together Before Becoming Politically Active

11/20/2017

7 Comments

 
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Most of us want to think that we are a force for good in the world. But if we haven't done a lot of introspective work aimed at overcoming our own faults, it might be safer to assume that we are actually a force for chaos. Becoming virtuous usually involves self-discipline and a lot of difficult introspection. 

Aristotle teaches us that those who are enslaved to passions, who never rise above their animal natures by practicing the virtues, do not have the most worthwhile opinions. Anger clouds good judgement. Those who exercise reason and attain practical wisdom on how to best live their own lives, order their household, and finally, when sufficiently wise and mature, should ideally venture opinions on how to best order the political community.

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto. Peterson echos both Aristotle and the same sentiment that I wrote about in my post A Revolution Inside. He argues that unless we both understand and have control of our own negative qualities (or shadow self) we will project our worst impulses into the political arena while wearing a "mask of virtue." We need to work on ourselves first if we want to be an effective force for good and not end up doing more harm. If we want to see the world change, we must first concern ourselves with healing our own lives.
I recently stumbled across Peterson's work since one of my favorite hosts, David Rueben, has interviewed him several times. Their most recent interview on Peterson's book, 12 Rules of Life, is extremely fascinating. The conversation ranges all over, but the first half hour is especially robust. If you don't have time to watch the entire video, I suggest just starting around 8 minutes in ending around 20 minutes in. 
​

Some other highlights from the video interview include:​
  • Our lives are our own responsibility.
  • We can work to better ourselves by becoming more organised and self-disciplined.  
  • Life can be unfair and tragic. We should accept this. 
  • ​Assume that you are a force for mayhem and trouble unless you have worked to become very disciplined and self aware. 
  • There is no perfect political system because such systems are extensions of us (humans) and we have many flaws.
  • The right level of focus is the individual doing what they can, not necessarliy the political level. 
  • Start working to improve yourself little by little.   

One way to do the important work of bettering yourself is to use Peterson's Self Authoring Suite. I'm currently using it and I actually began working on it before I knew who Peterson was (beyond his being an academic psychologist). The Suite has 3 parts: past, present and future. The Present Authoring suite includes analysis of your specific faults and virtues. The Future Authoring Suite involves working on overcoming your faults and achieving other life goals.

Here is a third party review of Peterson's Self Authoring Suite from the Freedom and Fullfillment blog if you are interested in learning more about it. I may write a reivew here once I am finished the suite. Enjoy the video and please leave me a comment here if you are so inclined!


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You May Also Like:
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7 Comments
Nanocyborgasm
11/26/2017 10:43:30 am

Rubbish article. How long should I wait until I’m ready for political involvement? When I have mastered myself so much that I have superpowers and can see into the future? No, this is contrary to reason and a platitude. Furthermore, Peterson is a known crank who has appeared with avowed alt-righter Molyneux.

Reply
Leah
11/26/2017 11:05:20 am

Hello,

Thank you for commenting. If you think about it, you are kind of proving his point...you aren't ready for political debate if you can't make your point without being rude and using ad hominen arguments both of which you have just done. We try to be polite here even when we disagree.

Reply
Jonas Salzgeber link
11/27/2017 01:12:57 am

Interesting read, Leah!

I agree, people should put their crap together before becoming politically active.

It reminds me of a part in Massimo Pigliucci's book How to be a stoic. I quote:

"Your character is your best calling card, and if you interact with good judges of character, that's all you'll need.
I thought of this while watching the 2016 presidential primaries unfolding in the US, which happened to take place at about the same time as the local elections in Italy... What seemed pretty obvious to me was that Diogenes would have found most of the candidates... obviously deficient in character."


The point Pigliucci was making seems clear: get your crap together before you get into politics.
You need to know about political stuff such as climate change, foreign affairs, inequality and so forth, but you also need to be strong in character to deal with all this.

Keep it up!

Reply
Leah
11/27/2017 05:28:27 pm

Hi Jonas,

Thank you for commenting. That is a really great point...didn't Diogenese carry a lantern around Athens in the daytime saying he was looking for an honest man? I think its pretty rare in politics. There is something about positions of power that attracts a lot of pyscopaths.

I personally would never want to be a politician and have to deal with those types of issues. There would always a down side to every decision that you make and no matter what you do someone is going to suffer for it. Sometimes even life and death decisions are necessary. I don't think anyone has that authority over others really. I would never want that on my shoulders or on my conscience.

What I mean specifically, and perhaps I should write a follow-up post about it, is that something about politics brings out the worst in people. When I say political involvement, I was actually thinking more about the person getting into angry flame wars on Facebook, to the activist screaming at people indignantly or beating people up, biased journalists, and so on.

The first step is to be self disciplined enough to disagree with someone without attacking them, being rude, violent, etc. And like you say, having the strength of character to tackle difficult issues.

Reply
Jonas Salzgeber link
11/27/2017 08:55:09 pm

Haha, I haven't heard this story yet.

Agree. Although I think it's different whether you actually go into politics or you're an activist. And the people beating other people up on social media - well I wouldn't count them. It's just haters. They will always be there.

So I'd say they need to get their crap together on different levels. Some (politicians) on a very high level, others less so. If that makes sense :-)

Leah
11/29/2017 06:37:01 pm

Hi Jonas,

I suppose you man character is especially important for politicians because they are in positions to do quite a lot of harm if it is lacking. That makes sense. It's also important for their own protection. If they have skeletons in their closet they can be threatened with blackmail of exposure if they don't keep in line. This happens often I think.

Reply
Jonas Salzgeber link
11/29/2017 09:09:27 pm

Hi Leah,

Right. I just mean that for politicians it is more important to get their crap together than for haters on social media.

Reply

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