I’m going with a friend to see Jordan Peterson speak in San Francisco on Thursday. This morning when I was surfing YouTube, I found a 4-minute segment in which he had an interaction with an audience member in Australia.
I particularly liked the way he didn’t simply ignore the insult and go on to answer her question. Instead, he insisted that she ask the question without the insult. To her credit, she did.
The whole thing reminded me of an interaction I had had in Monterey in 2004 with a local California politician who, a few years after this interaction, became a much more powerful California politician. Here’s my reporting on that interaction. The title is the one I chose. I based the title on this book. The title in the link is one that I did not choose.
READER COMMENTS
Mark Bahner
Apr 29 2019 at 5:01pm
I would never have responded even as well as Jordan Peterson did, because I don’t think well “on my feet” (or sitting down, as he was ;-)).
But here’s how I would have answered the woman, after first doing the good job he did defending himself. Here’s what I would ask…and what I think the bottom line of the responses would be:
1) Q: “So you think global climate change is a huge crisis, and you think young people agree with you?” –> A: “Of course!”
2) Q: “You think it’s a global problem, and that one person or even one country or one group of countries can’t solve the problem?” –>A: “Yes.”
3) Q: “Do you agree with me that the solution is going to lie in making cleaner technologies much cheaper than fossil fuels, rather than trying to simply trying to have a worldwide mandate that people don’t use fossil fuels, even if the fossil fuels are much cheaper than the cleaner alternatives?” –>A: I’m not sure what the answer would be here. I think it would be, “Yes.”
Then I would say, “Well, if you and/or young people think that global climate change is a huge crisis, and you think that the solution is to have very inexpensive clean energy, then I think you and young people should be working to identify and bring about those inexpensive clean energy technologies as quickly as possible. For example, perhaps you or some young person thinks that perovskite photovoltaic panels are a potential breakthrough. You or that young person can quit your job and try to find a job in the industry. Or if you or the young person don’t think you’re qualified to do that, you could spend all the money you earn from whatever job you have investing in people who are working on perovskite solar cells. Whatever you choose, actually acting to bring about the inexpensive clean energy that you say is needed is much better than simply complaining about people who don’t share your belief that global warming is a huge crisis. Talk is cheap.”
Hellestal
Apr 30 2019 at 9:25pm
It looks like they updated the title for you at the link.
The website address I believe has the old title, but the title on the page itself seems to have changed.
David Seltzer
May 2 2019 at 4:37pm
Read your debate/confrontation with the elected official. It seems you’re being civil and reasonable went a long way!
David S
May 6 2019 at 5:38pm
I wish I had read this before Thursday. I was at the event and would have liked meeting two of my intellectual heroes. Did you enjoy the talk?
Comments are closed.