Ground Zero

 

Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance.

Albert Maysler.  [Was he thinking of the BBC`s reporting?]

You may initially think the recent video above has nothing to do with the BBC and its bias, an interview between Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson, but in fact things said here are central to this site and why we need to keep on challenging the BBC’s narrative.  In the interview we hear views and ideas that are directly opposed to everything the BBC believes, beliefs that it uses as ground zero, its baseline worldview that shapes its approach as to how it reports on the world and the perceptions and values it presses upon its audience.  Peterson, and Brand, unlikely you may think but true, topple the BBC iconic views on the world, on equality and Capitalism, around which much of the BBC utopian idealism is based.

Brand is far more subdued and less taken to wild, rambling, complex rhetoric than usual though not totally…Peterson politely slaps him down when he did indulge himself by saying Brand’s complex, multi-faceted and wide-ranging questions or statements are a result of an open mind, a creative mind.  The sting was that though such divergent thinking is good, Peterson said it is hard to ‘catalyse an identity’ if you take nothing as read, if you have no solid beliefs or values, everything is relative and you refuse to make judgements.  You can see already we’re into BBC territory.

Russell Brand was pretty much in awe of Peterson and indeed admitted they were getting on famously, ‘on the same frequency’. Brand frequently looked for approval for his own thoughts from Peterson.  It was indeed pretty much a meeting of minds…a bit of Christiano/Buddhist mind-melding.  This meant the interview was far more revealing and we were allowed to see so much of Peterson’s thoughts and ideas.  Brand raised the Cathy Newman interview as a contrast and Peterson said the difference is that in this interview they were trying to discover something whilst Newman was trying to prove something.  Another lesson perhaps for BBC interviewers who take an aggressive stance trying to prove one small point rather than just asking what do you believe, what are you doing and how will it help?

The interview showed that far from being ‘alt-right’ or someone from the ‘intellectual dark web’ as Brand introduced him, Peterson is pretty apolitical, not really Right or Left…he has harsh things to say about both…the Right don’t care about inequality [or they do but they believe in merit sorting out the deserving from the undeserving] whilst the Left’s policies are based not upon care for the poor but upon hatred for the rich….they thrive on resentment, destruction and corruption.  Peterson doesn’t say if he believes in God but much of his approach can be seen as coming from Christianity or religion in general…he says religion is a natural balance of good and bad whilst political systems offer unablanced promises of only the good….Christianity says be useful and generous, the Right say be useful, the Left say be generous….Peterson says we need to bring the two together…which of course is society in the West today with all its faults.

Peterson also says that he has received 35,000 messages [he’s counted] from ‘right-wing’ people who have seen his lectures and have said he has saved them from a dark place, that being too far to the extreme Right, which goes against the idea peddled by his critics that he is some sort of Far-Right Peter Pan.

Interestingly Brand admits he himself is sort of apolitical in that he can’t bring himself to support any of the mainstream parties as they take a narrow approach ‘due to the power of trans-national organisations and the irrelevance of sovereignty now when it comes to ordinary people asserting their power’.  So Brand must be a Brexit supporter then…take back control?  Oddly, though he says he understands people voting for Trump, their rage and frustration, but he still hates Trump….strange for a peace-loving Buddhist who says the problems of the world can be solved not by politics but by ‘accessing the transcendant…be kind, loving and compassionate to all.’  He has realised this on his ‘journey of self-realisation‘ as his ‘epiphanies coalesced’.

As said this was pretty much a love-match, a Buddhist/psychologist union of minds…both agreeing on pretty much everything.  Even Peterson’s belief that inequality does not derive from Capitalism but from society, human-nature and the natural course of events…inequality has been with us long before ‘Capitalism’, large C, was invented by the Marxists.  Brand agreed with this huge contradiction to his own beliefs which blame Capitalism for all the ills of the world.  That’s the beauty of Peterson, he says things so clearly and which are so obviously true that you can have no real argument with him and which is why he is now getting such large audiences and acclaim.  Brand does have a stab at defending his anti-Capitalist stance but it’s half-hearted as he suggests ‘well it [Capitalism] can’t help’ and later that ‘Capitalism is a manifestation of greed’.   Capitalism as an ideology, an ‘ism’, was invented by the Marxists, it was a necessary evil that allowed them to sell Socialism…if people don’t have a problem then they don’t need a solution…hence Capitalism was invented as the problem with Socialism as the solution.

Peterson dissects Brand’s own success saying that as Brand became successful he then got offered more and more opportunities to do things that then increased his bank balance and his fame and thus again increased his opportunities.  This is how life works….money goes to money put bluntly….it’s inequality but it’s not an ideology, it’s not an ‘ism’, it’s life and the natural course of events as people try to make a living and it’s a result of specialisation.  Brand’s success is due to his specialisation, his skill at doing his job.  He gets more famous and more people want to book him for shows…it’s a virtuous circle, for Brand, that everyone else is cut out of…the opportunities are solely available to him and thus the world becomes more unequal as no-one else can just walk in and do his job…it’s the same for businessmen who go global…they make more money from a global market with factories across the world and the BBC complains about their fortunes compared to a British worker…which is a completely false comparison….Brand is effectively the same as these globalised businessmen…these Capitalists…he just fails to admit it.

It is an irony that all capitalism is in fact a result of ‘socialism’, or ‘tribalism’, the end of the totally self-sufficient individual and the creation of the division of labour as jobs [such as metal working] became specialised and higher status and surpluses could be produced and traded.  As Lenin said …. ‘The fundamental process of the formation of a home market (ie., the development of commodity production and capitalism) is social division of labour.’ He added capitalism was ‘progressive’ and that ‘working for oneself is transformed into working for the whole of society’.

Lenin also told us that capitalism was an essential first step in the creation of a socialist paradise, saying that it would of course be eliminated as the socialist society and economy bloomed, not admitting he knew capitalism was there to stay.  Where does all the money come from to pay for the grand social projects like the NHS, schools, roads, housing, security, emptying the bins etc etc?  It all comes from business.  Shame Corbyn and the BBC forget that.  Maybe they should read a bit more Lenin.

One of the main points from the interview was about the causes of inequality.  Peterson said it came more from psychology than sociology…the solution was to strengthen the individual by giving them confidence in their own abilities, giving them the realisation that there are so many jobs that they could do if only they had the confidence and belief in the future to try for them…this would come from psychological interventions not sociology….as proven in experiments in the Netherlands where low performing migrants were powered to the top of the pile by not only upskilling them but by increasing their aspirations and expectations. Inequality.  It’s mostly in the mind.

If you don’t believe you can do something you won’t try…a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Peterson’s ‘wisdom’ is nothing new really, it’s as old as the hills….for instance he says people must do ‘what is meaningful not expedient’.  They must be long term and not self-centred, don’t go for the easy-life avoiding hardship and confrontation…tackle your demons.  That’s, he said, ‘where the gold is.’  Where the good mental health is…through fire all things are renewed….Brand was in Buddhist heaven…he even had his own little quip…

‘Don’t follow your bliss, follow your blisters’.

Watch the video, it is long but fascinating and Brand almost shuts up letting Peterson really expand on his thoughts….all good common sense, which is why the BBC types may not like him.