This is a big topic and I think both slider’s “Part of the problem about such tibits of wisdom that they are about big swath of experience/information and kind of need that supporting infrastructure.” and Christian’s “It seems to me that the skillset towards which you are pointing is a part of hypnosis” are important parts of it. In particular, hypnotists like Milton Erickson have put a lot of time into figuring out how to best convey the felt sense that there is a big swath of experience/information in there that needs to be found, and how to give pointers in the right direction. Hypnotized people can forget their own name without understanding any of the supporting theory about how this is even possible, and religious people can live on commandments even though they do not grasp or have an ability to convey the wisdom upon which they rest. Knowing who to trust and how to believe things that one does not yet understand can be very important life skills, and it doesn’t come naturally for those of us who like to “think for ourselves”.
The reason Peterson can be so powerful in how he expresses these “platitudes” is that to him they aren’t platitudes. He actually did the work and developed the wisdom necessary for these things to stand on their own and not drift away as a “Yeah, nice thought, heard that before”. When you see the effects of people breaking the relevant commandments enough that you start to get a gut level appreciation of what it would be like if you were to allow yourself to make that mistake, it starts to have the same intrinsic revulsion that you get when trying to eat Chinese food after it gave you food poisoning the time before. It’s a different thing that way.
If you look at someone who makes a living spouting feel good platitudes that they do not themselves live by or understand, how do they respond when challenged? How would you respond if you had tried to tell people to “clean their rooms” as if it were a solution for everything up to and including global warming, only to have BS called on you? Here’s how Peterson responds. He does not falter and lose confidence. He does not back away into more platitudes to prevent engagement. He actually goes forward and begins to expound on the underpinnings of why “clean your room” is shorthand for a very important principle (in his view, at least, and mine as well) about how social activism is best done. He does it without posturing about how clean his room is and without accusing his accuser of having an unclean room herself. This part is a bit subtle as he makes no apologies for her behavior and his models do suggest unflattering motivations, but he doesn’t go so far as to make it about her or about deflecting criticism from himself. He keeps his focus on the importance of cleaning ones room so that one can do good in this world and not be led astray by psychological avoidance and ignorance, and this is exactly what you would expect from someone who is actually onto something real and who means what they say. This engagement is crucial.
Even if “clean your room” isn’t terribly informative or novel itself, his two minute explanation is more. Even though that’s not enough, he does have books and lectures where he spells it all out in more detail. When even a book or two isn’t enough, there’s clearly a lifetime of experience and practice under there beyond immediate reach. You can get started with a YouTube video or a book, but back to slider’s point, there’s a big ass iceberg under there and you have to piece the bulk of it together yourself. The YouTube videos and books are as much an advertisement as they are a pointer. “Here are [short descriptions of] the rules he endeavors to live by, and the results are there to judge for yourself”. When people see someone who practices what they preach and whose results they like at least in part, it creates that motivation to learn more of what is underneath and, in the meantime, to accept some of what they can’t understand on their own when they can see that the results are there to back it up.
You can’t just say “She’s happier now in heaven” and expect words that are meaningless to you to convey any meaning. But when “She wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy” is true and relevant and not just a pretense in attempt to avoid the real hurt of real loss… because the suffering they’re going through isn’t just plain grieving but also beating oneself up out of some mistaken idea that it’s what a “good” husband would do… then absolutely those words can be powerful. Because they actually mean something, and you would know it.
When the meaning is there, and you know it, and you are willing to engage and stand up to the potential challenges of people who might want to push away from your advice, then even simple and “non-novel” words can be very novel and compelling thing. Because while they may have heard someone spout that platitude before, they likely have never heard anyone stand behind and really mean it.
This is a big topic and I think both slider’s “Part of the problem about such tibits of wisdom that they are about big swath of experience/information and kind of need that supporting infrastructure.” and Christian’s “It seems to me that the skillset towards which you are pointing is a part of hypnosis” are important parts of it. In particular, hypnotists like Milton Erickson have put a lot of time into figuring out how to best convey the felt sense that there is a big swath of experience/information in there that needs to be found, and how to give pointers in the right direction. Hypnotized people can forget their own name without understanding any of the supporting theory about how this is even possible, and religious people can live on commandments even though they do not grasp or have an ability to convey the wisdom upon which they rest. Knowing who to trust and how to believe things that one does not yet understand can be very important life skills, and it doesn’t come naturally for those of us who like to “think for ourselves”.
The reason Peterson can be so powerful in how he expresses these “platitudes” is that to him they aren’t platitudes. He actually did the work and developed the wisdom necessary for these things to stand on their own and not drift away as a “Yeah, nice thought, heard that before”. When you see the effects of people breaking the relevant commandments enough that you start to get a gut level appreciation of what it would be like if you were to allow yourself to make that mistake, it starts to have the same intrinsic revulsion that you get when trying to eat Chinese food after it gave you food poisoning the time before. It’s a different thing that way.
If you look at someone who makes a living spouting feel good platitudes that they do not themselves live by or understand, how do they respond when challenged? How would you respond if you had tried to tell people to “clean their rooms” as if it were a solution for everything up to and including global warming, only to have BS called on you? Here’s how Peterson responds. He does not falter and lose confidence. He does not back away into more platitudes to prevent engagement. He actually goes forward and begins to expound on the underpinnings of why “clean your room” is shorthand for a very important principle (in his view, at least, and mine as well) about how social activism is best done. He does it without posturing about how clean his room is and without accusing his accuser of having an unclean room herself. This part is a bit subtle as he makes no apologies for her behavior and his models do suggest unflattering motivations, but he doesn’t go so far as to make it about her or about deflecting criticism from himself. He keeps his focus on the importance of cleaning ones room so that one can do good in this world and not be led astray by psychological avoidance and ignorance, and this is exactly what you would expect from someone who is actually onto something real and who means what they say. This engagement is crucial.
Even if “clean your room” isn’t terribly informative or novel itself, his two minute explanation is more. Even though that’s not enough, he does have books and lectures where he spells it all out in more detail. When even a book or two isn’t enough, there’s clearly a lifetime of experience and practice under there beyond immediate reach. You can get started with a YouTube video or a book, but back to slider’s point, there’s a big ass iceberg under there and you have to piece the bulk of it together yourself. The YouTube videos and books are as much an advertisement as they are a pointer. “Here are [short descriptions of] the rules he endeavors to live by, and the results are there to judge for yourself”. When people see someone who practices what they preach and whose results they like at least in part, it creates that motivation to learn more of what is underneath and, in the meantime, to accept some of what they can’t understand on their own when they can see that the results are there to back it up.
You can’t just say “She’s happier now in heaven” and expect words that are meaningless to you to convey any meaning. But when “She wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy” is true and relevant and not just a pretense in attempt to avoid the real hurt of real loss… because the suffering they’re going through isn’t just plain grieving but also beating oneself up out of some mistaken idea that it’s what a “good” husband would do… then absolutely those words can be powerful. Because they actually mean something, and you would know it.
When the meaning is there, and you know it, and you are willing to engage and stand up to the potential challenges of people who might want to push away from your advice, then even simple and “non-novel” words can be very novel and compelling thing. Because while they may have heard someone spout that platitude before, they likely have never heard anyone stand behind and really mean it.