Why We Need Meaning in Life | Jordan B. Peterson

Part of how society solved the problem of the world's complexity for you was by investing a billion dollars into a 15-year construction project so that the community could sit in peace and tranquility so they may concentrate on something of intellectual merit together.

It becomes increasingly fascinating that technology has been able to do this at scale and bring this same experience directly into people's homes worldwide.

A broader sense of shared civilization is created.

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[LetsBeClear]

Peterson is the best at distilling the worlds best wisdom, I don’t know how he synthesizes it all and communicates it so effectively — but I’m grateful. Honestly, the lives he’s touched just via youtube is probably uncountable, given the ripple effect of positive change.

[GrantL]

Thank you Dr. Peterson. I was drifting through life and had no purpose or meaning I have found my meaning in my life with your teachings and other great minds. I am over 8 months sober now and about to complete my first semester of school.

[mcmc]

Mr Peterson sir you have helped me through a few things now 😊I would just like to say you truly are one of a kind and thank you

[winstonsmith]

My husband passed away in October. I lost my job in July. Huge pats that gave great meaning to my life are gone.
Grieving while trying to assess what's working in my life. Syarting with gratitude and my health and immediate environment.
Dr. Peterson, no matter what his topic helps and inspures me. He gives me hope though days are bad.
I wish everybody here best wishes and thank Dr. Peterson for his work.
Pkease keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

[vwmpxnm]

The chairs say "face the stage" AND THERES A STAGE!

I love this

[kevinclasper-inglis]

Jordan Peterson is the best thing to come out of Canada in so long.. and Letterkenny

[ItsWithakayLee]

Meaning is more important than happiness

[angelogandolfo]

I don’t need to say this, but I will anyway. Fascinating, captivating, thought the entire speech flew by in moments. Thank you, Dr Peterson.

[travisthechosenone]

Something I know you hear and read every day. You have changed my life

[penhtola]

He is the person that plays important role in my self-discovery journey. Thank man for your contribution. I come across your lectures on YouTube for more than a year as I can remember. You are more helpful than many many other motivational videos and speakers.

[spenceroc]

We can be prone “to miss the forest for the trees.”
The gorilla study reminded me of that expression.

[jenniferespiritu]

It's a complex but it understood in more senses, the empathy and intuition of once being....God bless Professor Jordan Peterson

[BLAISEDAHL]

Thank You Jordan!!!! Trying to figure out how to get my sister to listen to you

[rogermueller]

i work for a lot off older folks.i love them .sometimes i imagine that if i was an evil monster, how easy it would be to knock them on the head and take the money and run but i see that i am doing this mental exercise as a defense to think what i might do in their defense.

[JoyceWSolomon]

I love your content Jordan. Keep up the good work

[swissapologetics]

*Zechariah 3, 8-9* (written 500 BC)
8 “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men *symbolic of things to come:* I am going to bring *my servant, the Branch.*
9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone,  and I will engrave an inscription on it, ’ says the Lord Almighty, *‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.*

*Zechariah 12, 10* (written 500 BC)
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: *and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, * and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in *bitterness for his firstborn.*

*Isaiah 11, 1* (written 700 BC)
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, *and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:*

*Isaiah 53, 1-12* (written 700 bC)
1 Who has believed our message and *to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?*
2 *He* (the arm of the Lord) grew up before him *like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.* He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
[...]
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and *he was numbered with the transgressors;* and he bare the sin of many, and *made intercession* for the transgressors.

*Isaiah 59, 16* (written 700 bC)
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that *there was no intercessor:* therefore *his arm* brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

*Luke 22, 37*
It is written: *‘And he was numbered with the transgressors;* and I (Jesus) tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

*Isaiah 52, 10* (written 700 bC)
The Lord will lay bare *his holy arm* in the sight of all the nations and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

*Isaiah 63, 5* (written 700 bC)
I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support;
so *my own arm* achieved salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me.

*Isaiah 33, 2* (written 700 bC)
*O Lord, * be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: *be thou their arm* every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

*Isaiah 51, 9* (written 700 bC)
*Awake, awake, * put on strength, *O arm of the Lord;* awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

*Isaiah 40, 10* (written 700 bC)
Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and *his arm shall rule for him:* behold, *his reward is with him, and his work before him.*

*Rev. 22, 12-13*
12 And, behold, I (Jesus) come quickly; and *my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.*
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, *the first and the last.*

*Isaiah 48, 12* (written 700 bC)
12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; *I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.*
[...]
16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: *and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.*

*Isaiah 51, 4-5* (written 700 bC)
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and *mine arms shall judge the people;* the isles shall wait upon me, and on *mine arm* shall they trust.

*John 5, 22*
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

*Psalm 118, 14-23* (written 1000 bC)
*14 The Lord* is my strength and my defense; he *has become my salvation.*
15 Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: *“The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!*
*16 The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”*
17 I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.
[...]
*20 This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.*
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; *you have become my salvation.*
22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
23 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

*John 10, 9*
*I (Jesus) am the door:* by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

*John 3, 14-15*
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, *even so must the Son of man be lifted up:*
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

*Numbers 21, 6-9* (written 1600 bC)
6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and *set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.*

(Our sins will kill us. We need the Messiah, who took our sins upon Himself on the cross)

[chickenmonger]

I have seen people upset and venting about Dr. Peterson. About his following, and his ideas. And it usually boils down to the idea that what he is saying is either banal and ordinary, or proposes a morality that is too Christian, or too defensive of ideas that those individuals don’t like. Often the individual appears to be intelligent, and verbose, and they probably have to be somewhat so, to get to the point where they actually found and watched the thing.

The thing I see missed by these individuals when they comment, and by many others is that these ideas aren’t genius. And you shouldn’t like them based on their reconfirmation of your beliefs.

They are notable for being earnest in finding the Wisdom of these old thoughts, and newer analyses of the world, and it’s people, and tying it together. Bridging the gap between the fathers and the sons. The ancients, and the contemporary. And it addresses issues society has in that many of these ideas were not truly lived by our fathers, or they were not taught earnestly or honestly, when they were taught. And the hypocrisy showed. And the idea that they had any value to us was not communicated, let alone showed to be effective in their lives.

And so Jordan begins hammering out descriptions of the world, and maps how parts of the world function. How we function. And realizes the Wisdoms of those before us, and how they work. And that isn’t some great genius. You can do it if you learned how to think in those terms. And you should.

Instead folks sneer at its simplicity and reception. Or esteem it as unattainable genius. When really it is just one man devoting himself and career to understanding these things, and looking for how they work and apply. Which is apparently uncommon now. Much repressed in modern times. Where nihilism is gospel truth. And why shouldn’t it be if what is claimed as true is done so by shallow wretches, the delusional, or by liars and thieves? Well maybe it’s time someone like you and I, or anyone who’s seen the truth of this to not only speak it, but show the truth of it in our lives.

[Chrisspru]

i think meaning ( and therefore value as persuing something of value is meaningfull ) is inherently linked to conciousness. Value needs a concious determiner. Only values that keep the line of valueholder going are the most valueable. anything that benefits conciousness, as the essence of being value sharing, is meaningfull. every value system springs from conciousness necessarily, so values can not be seperated from it. therefore values can only be determined in relation to living and concious beings and death itself can not be a value. This is functional independant of there being a god or not, as god would be concious and humans are concious.
The necessity of a valueholder sets boundaries for values in what is compatible with continued conciousness in the universe.

An unbound god would still value novelty, so he can maximise his own conciousness through observation. Creating a limited universe to perceive would be valueable for such a god, because this god already perceived all limitlessness.

Concioussness prerequisits values, which are therefore actualy there, so value is valuable. By conciousness determining value, conciousness is valueable as a prerequisite for value. it is a cycle. maximising conciousness and maximising value are the same, and inherently meaningfull.
Meaning without life is a paradoxic question, as noone could ask it from this position and when somebody asks it from within life, there is automatic value through it, and therefore meaning.

[cosmicprison]

Short answer: Because objectively, there is no meaning to life. So we all have to lie to ourselves and create a subjective one to be able to justify the suffering of life to ourselves.

[holo]

Contrast makes the brain take more time to process the visual input
-Simon probably