“Do you believe in life after death?” the boss asked his employee.

“Yes, sir,” he replied.

“Well, then that makes everything fine. Because after you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother’s funeral, she stopped in to see you.”

Or how about the two men who were having a discussion and one concluded, “Let’s just agree to disagree, and have you thrown out of the building.”

A week ago 600 people signed a letter asking the Arts Commons in Calgary to throw Jordan Peterson out of the building and cancel his appearance. They claimed Jordan’s controversial talk would attract extremists and could present safety concerns to the numerous people in the facility.

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The Canadian university professor responded by saying, “It is amazing to see such serious accusations levelled without a shred of supporting evidence … all in the attempt to block an event that several thousand people clearly wish to attend.”

The Arts Commons responded to the letter by saying the event would go on and reasoned, “Freedom of speech means not censoring someone because we don’t agree with what they have to say.”

It turns out there were zero safety concerns at the event, and the most vigorous response to Peterson appearing on stage was a standing ovation by the 3,000 people in attendance, applauding his influential work. Peterson said he was glad to see the folks who run the concert hall had a spine and didn’t cancel the show, because you can’t stand up straight without a spine.

Peterson’s fame has gone from a few thousand followers two years ago, to a public following of over a million. In spite of his high-level academia status, he manages to present simple yet profound concepts to his audience and readers.

And who makes up the largest portion of his audience? It was observed that the audience consisted primarily of young men, looking for meaning in their lives. Young men who were more engaged than they would have been in any university lecture. Peterson’s ideas seemed to give their lives purpose and direction. So let’s look at some of Peterson’s ideas ….

“You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, vengeful and worse).”

“You should be humble enough to understand that if you can’t order your own life, you shouldn’t be trying to order anything more complicated than that.”

“The thing that sustains people in life is the lifting of a worthwhile burden.”

“If a child has not been taught to behave properly by the age of four, it will forever be difficult for him or her to make friends.”

“There are no atheists. There are only people who know, and don’t know, what God they serve.”

“When you’re involved in a genuine conversation, you’re listening, and talking – but mostly listening.”

Overall Peterson’s message encourages people to assume responsibility for their own lives. A young man in attendance at the Peterson event said he was a whiner and a complainer who constantly played the victim card throughout his adolescence. Peterson made him realize that complaining about his problems was a waste of time and his time would be better spent focusing on the things he can control, like developing his character and values.

So we have hundreds of people trying to prevent Peterson from speaking in public, while thousands of young men leave the event with renewed meaning and direction to their lives.

I think one of Peterson’s own quotes serves as a good response to those who are in opposition to his talks: “Always look for new information in the off chance that somebody who doesn’t agree with you will tell you something you couldn’t have figured out on your own. It’s the antithesis of opinionated.”

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