A Few Words of Praise for Jordan Peterson

Twelve Rules for Life? Who goes around giving people rules these days? Jordan Peterson spent much of his adult life studying and teaching the psychology of religion. Maybe that’s where he got the idea. According to the Bible, God gave Moses ten rules for life, and Jesus gave his followers quite a number of guidelines. But rules seem to have gone out of style, especially lately. We like lists a lot. We like suggestions, about what to eat, what to wear, how to be productive, how to get the abs we want, and sometimes even how to find fulfillment. But we don’t usually like being told what to do. Who are you to say? Isn’t it all relative?

Peterson certainly doesn’t flinch from telling people what they ought to do. In 12 Rules for Life, “should” appears 135 times, “must” 168 times, and rules replace chapter titles throughout. This isn’t the gentle touch we’ve come to expect from self-help books. And this is a self-help book, though that’s not always apparent. There...