I mean, how boring and ignorant it is to run away from all responsibility and distress in life by labeling it all as “pointless” and therefore indirectly agonizing our own existence and human experience. I, personally, enjoyed very much the parts where he criticisized nihilism and poked holes in it’s core belief. Throughout the book, this portrayal gets deeper and takes on dimension as the rules are laid out. First of all, Peterson’s portrayal of Being, as in the state of existing, is something worth spending time to think on. It’s partly inability.I’d like to elaborate more on the ideas and explanations that I found to be enlightening and thought-provoking without giving you any spoilers(?) since I strongly advise you to read this book. It is in this manner that those who fail to learn from the past doom themselves to repeat it. Repeated use of the same faulty tools produces the same faulty results. People create their worlds with the tools they have directly at hand. Freud called this a “repetition compulsion.” He thought of it as an unconscious drive to repeat the horrors of the past-sometimes, perhaps, to formulate those horrors more precisely, sometimes to attempt more active mastery and sometimes, perhaps, because no alternatives beckon. Or, perhaps, they don’t want the trouble of better. Such people don’t believe that they deserve any better-so they don’t go looking for it. “Sometimes, when people have a low opinion of their own worth-or, perhaps, when they refuse responsibility for their lives-they choose a new acquaintance, of precisely the type who proved troublesome in the past. That simply cannot be the proper path forward.”

That would make the shortcomings of the world, which can make everyone who thinks honestly question the very propriety of the world, worse in every way.

If that stark fact meant, however, that we had no responsibility to care, for ourselves as much as others, everyone would be brutally punished all the time.

Everyone falls short of the glory of God. You may therefore have to conduct yourself habitually in a manner that allows you some respect for your own Being-and fair enough. You should take care of, help and be good to yourself the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued. You are, therefore, morally obliged to take care of yourself. You have some vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. You are important to other people, as much as to yourself.

12 rules jordan peterson