Brainster
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- May 26, 2006
- Messages
- 21,964
A friend of mine suggested this event, which was originally scheduled for April but had to be cancelled. I had encountered Peterson during the Covid year, while surfing through Youtube. I found him an interesting and entertaining lecturer/philosopher, and I was particularly struck by how thoughtful he was in the sense of thinking hard about what he was saying and attempting to be very precise in his language. I definitely found that it took several watchings to fully process the videos.
Tonight's event was at the Arizona Financial Theater, a 5000-seat venue that appeared to be nearly full. Seats were very cramped; this ain't like your local AMC. Fortunately we were in the nosebleeds and there was some space there so we could manspread a bit. Crowd was mostly male but a lot of girlfriends and wives, definitely mostly but not exclusively 20s-30s.
Event started with about twenty minutes of classical guitar by a Canadian artist whose name I forget. Not bad, but I've seen Al Di Meola so not likely to be impressed.
Peterson's wife came on to do the introduction but first some business about the apps that they are coming up with... and then Jordan himself enters.
Mostly standing ovation but not with roars or anything like that. Definitely a positive crowd. This is about 8:15 or so, about 45 minutes after I had hoped things would get started.
Jordan goes into a spiel about the new videos he's doing on Exodus (the chapter in the Old Testament). There were some interesting bits comparing totalitarian regimes like Ancient Egypt with Nazi Germany, but I think for the most part it fizzled, and seemed nothing like a lecture on the stated topic (Which Was 12 More Rules for Success) and more an ad for his next video. Still he is a spellbinding speaker and goes off onto wild and interesting tangents, so the 45 minutes devoted to the actual lecture went by fast.
And then we got to the Q&A and here Peterson became more interesting (and I hope less scripted although the format leaves the question quite open). His wife pulled upvoted questions off their app (a little cross-selling there), and the first one was how do you choose between the right wife and the hot wife. Much amusement in the crowd but Peterson riffed off the question brilliantly. First he went onto the obvious point that everybody wants their wife to be hot, but they'd prefer not them not to be so hot that everybody else is coming onto her, or she might realize she can do better. So their men will undercut them a bit--try to convince their girlfriend /wife that he is actually better than they deserve.
Peterson's suggestion: Don't try to convince your girlfriend that she doesn't deserve you because you are putting both of you down. If you really don't believe you deserve her, try upping your game. Roar of applause, and it's hard to argue he didn't hit the nail. OTOH, the whole answer took about 20 minutes because he went off onto this long tangent about how some men might balk at telling their wife how hot they look because they are worried this might be indulging their lust. My eyes definitely glazed over there.
One thing I should mention is that although it took place the night before election day there was virtually no mention of politics at the event. Peterson did mention something the Far Left believed but it was in the context of what several other groups believed and just an aside. Zero mention of the election, zero mention of Republican or Democrat although it's pretty obvious from the associations that he mentioned (Ben Shapiro's the Daily Wire is apparently hosting his series on Exodus) that he is on the right.
I will also say that although religion was a constant background theme it was not at all preachy despite the "12 More Rules" title. Peterson explained it more as learning to listen to your conscience when faced with difficult decisions in life. Not consult this psalm, or ask WWJD. Zero sense this was some sort of religious revival.
At about 9:30 his wife cut him off and the event was over.
Tonight's event was at the Arizona Financial Theater, a 5000-seat venue that appeared to be nearly full. Seats were very cramped; this ain't like your local AMC. Fortunately we were in the nosebleeds and there was some space there so we could manspread a bit. Crowd was mostly male but a lot of girlfriends and wives, definitely mostly but not exclusively 20s-30s.
Event started with about twenty minutes of classical guitar by a Canadian artist whose name I forget. Not bad, but I've seen Al Di Meola so not likely to be impressed.
Peterson's wife came on to do the introduction but first some business about the apps that they are coming up with... and then Jordan himself enters.
Mostly standing ovation but not with roars or anything like that. Definitely a positive crowd. This is about 8:15 or so, about 45 minutes after I had hoped things would get started.
Jordan goes into a spiel about the new videos he's doing on Exodus (the chapter in the Old Testament). There were some interesting bits comparing totalitarian regimes like Ancient Egypt with Nazi Germany, but I think for the most part it fizzled, and seemed nothing like a lecture on the stated topic (Which Was 12 More Rules for Success) and more an ad for his next video. Still he is a spellbinding speaker and goes off onto wild and interesting tangents, so the 45 minutes devoted to the actual lecture went by fast.
And then we got to the Q&A and here Peterson became more interesting (and I hope less scripted although the format leaves the question quite open). His wife pulled upvoted questions off their app (a little cross-selling there), and the first one was how do you choose between the right wife and the hot wife. Much amusement in the crowd but Peterson riffed off the question brilliantly. First he went onto the obvious point that everybody wants their wife to be hot, but they'd prefer not them not to be so hot that everybody else is coming onto her, or she might realize she can do better. So their men will undercut them a bit--try to convince their girlfriend /wife that he is actually better than they deserve.
Peterson's suggestion: Don't try to convince your girlfriend that she doesn't deserve you because you are putting both of you down. If you really don't believe you deserve her, try upping your game. Roar of applause, and it's hard to argue he didn't hit the nail. OTOH, the whole answer took about 20 minutes because he went off onto this long tangent about how some men might balk at telling their wife how hot they look because they are worried this might be indulging their lust. My eyes definitely glazed over there.
One thing I should mention is that although it took place the night before election day there was virtually no mention of politics at the event. Peterson did mention something the Far Left believed but it was in the context of what several other groups believed and just an aside. Zero mention of the election, zero mention of Republican or Democrat although it's pretty obvious from the associations that he mentioned (Ben Shapiro's the Daily Wire is apparently hosting his series on Exodus) that he is on the right.
I will also say that although religion was a constant background theme it was not at all preachy despite the "12 More Rules" title. Peterson explained it more as learning to listen to your conscience when faced with difficult decisions in life. Not consult this psalm, or ask WWJD. Zero sense this was some sort of religious revival.
At about 9:30 his wife cut him off and the event was over.
.