(Part 2) Best products from r/JordanPeterson

Book here on the modern conservative movement, it has very little to do with Adam Smith, who disapproved of right wing mis intrepretations of his work.



>“This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains. . . . If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be” – NPR

An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, and change the Constitution.

Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect—the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan—and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority.

In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us.

Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan’s work in teaching others how to divide America into “makers” and “takers.” And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy.

Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government.

https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Chains-History-Radical-Stealth/dp/1101980966



>Which is ironic because now the "liberals" are trying to distinguish themselves from full blown lefties.


They don't have to distinguish themselves, they are the neoliberal left, not "lefties".

The left have little to no time for them

[Identity] politics is not an alternative to class politics; it is a class politics, the politics of the left-wing of neoliberalism. It is the expression and active agency of a political order and moral economy in which capitalist market forces are treated as unassailable nature.

An integral element of that moral economy is displacement of the critique of the invidious outcomes produced by capitalist class power onto equally naturalized categories of ascriptive identity that sort us into groups supposedly defined by what we essentially are rather than what we do. As I have argued, following Walter Michaels and others, within that moral economy a society in which 1% of the population controlled 90% of the resources could be just, provided that roughly 12% of the 1% were black, 12% were Latino, 50% were women, and whatever the appropriate proportions were LGBT people.

It would be tough to imagine a normative ideal that expresses more unambiguously the social position of people who consider themselves candidates for inclusion in, or at least significant staff positions in service to, the ruling class.

>https://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/

For anyone saying that Islam is only a political system coupled with bible verses. Political interpretations of the biography of the Prophet (pbuh) have been made in the last 100 yrs in the midst of decolonization mouvements in the middle East. Political power was not what motivated Muhammad. If it was, he would have accepted the deal the Quraich tribe came with, which was to give him any riches, any power that he wanted in exchange of stopping to proclaim that there was one God. Slaves, poor people and some youth were attracted to his message (because it was empowering) and it was causing trouble to rich and powerful members of the tribe that saw that as an assault on their honor and a challenge to their authority and customs. So to the propositions, he answered : "May you would to put the moon in one of my hand, and the sun in the other one, I would never stop to say that there is one God." Something like that. Along with reciting verses from the Quran. How about considering that he had very very few follower for 12 first years, that they were prosecuted and banned from their city only for saying that they believed in one God. I mean, what are the chances that this strategy would have been seen as the most effective and the best one to gain power over the arab tribes and form a state ? Like, seriously ? You have seen a lot of historical figures that were politically motivated that their main strategy was to proclaim that there was one God against all of people around them. Give one example of an historical figure that used that deliberate strategy to gain political power. So, read another biography that is not motivated by political ideologies applied on history. I recommend this one and a contextualized version of the Quran like this one for furthering research outside of anti-muslim or pro-islamist narratives. Peace !

I'm partial to Jungian psychology so I recommend anything dream-related by him or those he worked close with, namely Marie Louis Von Franz (IMO). A simple—and I mean simple—and good intro would be the book 'Inner Work' by Robert Johnson. It addresses a four-step approach to dream interpretation and active imagination. After that, I'd just read as much of Jung's writings about dreams as you can. Start with Dreams (from the Collected Works). Since Jung's psychology is so much about the unconscious, virtually everything you read will be relatable to dream interpretation in some way. There is a nice compendium edited by Joseph Campbell called The Portable Jung that features a great and mind-blowing essay called something like 'Relation Between the Ego and Unconscious,' and actually, now that I think of it, excerpts from the 'Dreams' book as well. 'Man and His Symbols' by Jung was the last thing he wrote and was intended to introduce the general public to his psychology, so you can also start there if you haven't checked out any Jung before. Get the one with pictures.

I think I have the perfect start to what you are looking for. Here is a scholarly article called THE CONCEPT OF THE PERFECT MAN
IN THE THOUGHT OF IBN 'ARABI AND MUHAMMAD IQBAL:
A COMPARATIVE STUDY.

Ibn Arabi was very influential to Carl Jung according to this book Becoming Whole: Jung's Equation for Realizing God. Arabi was a mystic around the 1200's and had a lot to say about living an ideal life, which he called "the Perfect Man". He is one of the most revered Sufi's in history.

Muhammad Iqbal was a reformist Muslim, around the 1900's, who was well read of Nietzsche and his concept of the Uberman and used the lens of Islam (and Arabi's concept of the Perfect Man) to inform his own concept of "the Perfect Man." He even wrote a book called The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, which blew my mind because it was a synchronicity for me, because I was calling what Peterson was saying "Reconstruction" before I knew about this book. I thought it aptly describes my encounter with his material and also obviously contrasts linguistically with the term "deconstruction" with which he has been very critical of.

Basically ties together Jung, Nietzsche, Islam, and Sufism into something that can start resembling what Peterson talks about, and I found the first article very fulfilling reading and I'm not a Muslim. I have been meaning to post this here but haven't got around to it, but I saw your question and knew this was the right time.

OK, it's only been happening now a couple of generations, but I'm increasingly thinking it's worth seriously addressing the proposition that intelligence in women is selected against.

Not saying this is a good thing - it's plainly not - but it is true that the more intelligent a woman is then the less children she has.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/06/25/childlessness-up-among-all-women-down-among-women-with-advanced-degrees/

https://www.amazon.com/The-Intelligence-Paradox-Intelligent-Choice/dp/0470586958

Where that goes is speculation, but as there is a selective pressure we would expect some outcome - and these things can happen over a surprisingly few generations (as the siberian foxes demonstrate)

I really like what u/jediknight offered:

>If you love something and let it consume you, you embody the archetype and all should be well

people stumble into success in the unlikeliest of places. if somebody can write a book about a nerd who's good at pushing buttons sequentially & find an ecstatuc audience, you can figure something out too.

oh btw, some important text (by non-muslims ;) .. just to keep it fair )

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by David Levering Lewis

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215

https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Crucible-Making-Europe-570-1215/dp/0393333566

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by Lesley Hazleton

The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad

https://www.amazon.com/First-Muslim-Story-Muhammad/dp/1594632308/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542462869&sr=1-1&keywords=lesley+hazleton

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by Carla Power

If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran

https://www.amazon.com/If-Oceans-Were-Ink-Friendship/dp/0805098194/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542462955&sr=1-1&keywords=if+the+oceans+were+ink

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Manufacturing Consent was good for it's time. Politically I consider it Chomskey's best and most important work.

The modern version is "Trust me, I'm Lying" by Ryan Holiday.

https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator/dp/1591846285/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491383790&sr=8-1&keywords=trust+me+I%27m+lying

Eh, Marx was inevitable. He took the ideas of a genius, Hegel, and the idea of the historical dialectic and inverted it.

Marx made a good observation about a way of interpreting the driving forces behind human history. He was ultimately wrong (historical materialism is too simplistic), but that idea was going to happen one way or the other.

We ought to blame Marx as much as Stalin and Mao as well as everyone else who behaved like a total fuckwad when it wasn’t necessary to behave like a total fuckwad.

I recommend everyone to listen to Peter Singer summarize Hegel

https://www.amazon.com/Hegel-Short-Introduction-Peter-Singer/dp/019280197X

And Marx

https://www.amazon.com/Marx-Short-Introduction-Peter-Singer/dp/0192854054

Edit: Lots of overlap between Peterson and Hegel btw. Though Hagel was highly critical of the Classical Liberal notion of freedom.

Edit: Fixed spelling for all anal retentives

Google is your friend, friend :

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/01/immigration-wall-open-borders-trillion-dollar-idea/

https://www.amazon.com/Open-Borders-Science-Ethics-Immigration/dp/1250316960

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/open-borders-immigration.html

Just type "open borders". The information superhighway is easy and fun.

The suggestions here are good. In addition I recommend , 'Trust Me, I'm Lying': https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator/dp/1591846285

This book gives you a good idea about the consequences of Postmodernism - at least, the toxic method of simply deconstructing anything to the point that nobody knows what is 'true' or even that some things might be more 'true' than other things.

It must be this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Full-Surrogacy-Now-Feminism-Against/dp/1786637294/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Sophie+Lewis&qid=1558220734&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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Please read the editorial reviews.

Why is she not focusing on suppressive systems in, for example, Saudi Arabia where she can truly help women? Or in North Africa where genital mutilation is still common practice (women against women)?

She needs to get out of her comfort zone and into the real world (on a bus with the editorial reviewers).

> Happiness is possible. Not only momentary feelings of happiness, but enduring happiness.

There is such a thing as the "hedonic treadmill". In his The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jonathan Haidt discusses this. You can get long term life satisfaction in spite of the suffering, but not constant euphoria.

IQ is actually negatively correlated with reproductive success, which on a longer timescale is all that really matters.

The Intelligence Paradox is an interesting book that goes into this.
https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Paradox-Intelligent-Choice-Always/dp/0470586958

https://www.amazon.com/Society-without-Fathers-Husbands-China/dp/1890951137

I recommend this anthropology book for anyone interested in this topic. In Na society, unclehood is considered more important than fatherhood. It's very different and interesting

I notice the first two suggestions are polemical and basically Anti-West/Anti-American. The following suggestion is a good, comprehensive world history book emphasizing cultural diffusion. It was a course text in my HS back around 1974 or thereabout:

"The Ecumene: Story of Humanity."

https://www.amazon.com/Ecumene-Humanity-William-Hardy-McNeill/dp/0065520424

Here's a quotation from an Amazon review:

"The book is, of course, somewhat dated, but this weakness is a strength - it was written in the days before political correctness."

Edit: additional sentence

the portable jung has a section on the shadow and many other bits that JP speaks about like 'the relations between the ego and unconscious' ...tis a good starting point that covers alot.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706

/u/Magnificrab a critique is not an ideal starting place for someone new to a subject.

PlzFadeMeBro when you are first learning about something it is best to start from a neutral position and then proceed to sophisticated supporters and detractors. To do otherwise is to risk becoming an ignorant and dogmatic ideologue.

Oxford University Press produces a series of books called Very Short Introductions that provide accessible introductions to different topics.

https://www.amazon.ca/Marx-Short-Introduction-Peter-Singer/dp/0192854054
https://www.amazon.ca/Postmodernism-Short-Introduction-Christopher-Butler/dp/0192802399

Read "Man's Search for Meaning" by Vicktor Frankl.

It's perfect for situations like that.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/080701429X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jOJsDbAWE6XV3

I think that the answer is not to trick yourself. By smartening yourself up and making your room (or home) as nice as you can, you are deceiving no one. So, clean your room and buy yourself some new clothes, if you can afford to. They don't need to be expensive, and should not be flashy (or trendy). You should not be out to overly impress anyone.

If you are into the latest fashions, then I cannot help you. However, if you want to look conventionally smart, then you may find one of these books useful:

Presenting Yourself: A Personal Image Guide for Men by Mary Spillane

Presenting Yourself: A Personal Image Guide for Women by Mary Spillane

You could, of course, buy designer clothes and lease an expensive car, but you will quickly be rumbled (and fall heavily into debt).

You're defining this hypothetical and any other dimensions that comes along with it. I'm not sure what kind of answer your going to expect because issues of compulsion are going to be a case by case basis on real world embodied individuals.

If you looking for modern science about the gambit of addictions I might recommend When The Master Becomes The Servant I wouldn't say Powers is a "Peterson" type but his field is about this subject.

One person Peterson has cited is Frankl. You might enjoy Man's Search For Meaning very short book.