By Mason Mohon | @mohonofficial

Jordan Peterson is attempting to use Jungian psychoanalysis to make your life better. His position in society is somewhat akin to that of a rockstar. His book, 12 Rules for Life, is an international bestseller. And it’s a pretty good book, too. I find it both enjoyable and helpful. It fills itself with practical steps that the reader can apply to his or her life and make it one worth living. I regard myself as a fan of Jordan Peterson because of this. But the problem comes in when one takes Peterson as the arbiter of truth. This is particularly problematic in the case of Postmodernism.

Peterson identifies the problem with Postmodernism as its apparent cover-up for Marxist philosophy. He explains that once Marxism became taboo because of the failure of the Soviet project, postmodernists swept in to save the day. They hid Marxism behind a complicated and convoluted veil that meant it would be able to further progress. But this is an incorrect proposition. Postmodernism centers itself around the idea that grand narratives are incorrect and critique them.

Marxism teaches us that history is somewhat determined and that historical forces are pushing forward so as to bring forth a new epoch of the worker. The forces of historical materialism drive this trend. This is obviously a grand narrative that many postmodernists would reject. And many Marxists reject facets of Postmodernism as well.

One of my favorite Postmodern thinkers, Todd McGowan, explains in his book Enjoying What We Don’t Have some of the problems with the Marxist goal. The idea of progress is inherently problematic to him. As an adherent to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, he realizes that moves towards a beneficial end goal will only be frustrated because they don’t embrace what Freud called the Death Drive. McGowan’s critique of Marxism is one of the many Postmodernist critiques.

Postmodernism is not even an inherently leftist way of thought. Some, if only a few, right-wingers I know have begun to adopt this Postmodernist philosophy for their own individual ends. In my interview with Cody Wilson, he explains that his primary influence for creating the ghost gun was the French thinker Jean Baudrillard. Cody Wilson is not a left winger at all.

In addition, the Youtube creator Truediltom has made many videos concerning various postmodernists, primarily focusing on Deleuze. In his video titled “The Metaphysics of War“, he explains his reasoning for looking into authors that are very far out of the mainstream. He does this because even though we may disagree with their conclusions, they are usually capable of identifying problems that are more difficult to spot through a mainstream lens.

Jordan Peterson groups all Postmodern thinkers together, usually only referring to Foucault and Derrida. This is dangerous because it takes away our ability to judge each thinker on his or her own individual merits. Peterson realizes that when we analyze race or class in this way, it leads to negative societal consequences. But he has no problem grouping all Postmodernists together and using Foucault and Derrida as a representative sample.

I was a Jordan Peterson NPC. I let him dictate the code in my mind. One code that I let him implant was “POSTMODERNISM = BAD”. But this isn’t necessarily true. I think Peterson would agree with me that we shouldn’t accept everything someone says as true just because we like some of the things that they say. I was doing this with Peterson, but thankfully I have stopped and begun reading many Postmodern books. Don’t be a Jordan Peterson NPC because there is a lot of valuable knowledge to be gained from those we disagree with.

Reading Baudrillard, Schmitt, Marx, and McGowan has taught me that you can learn a LOT from people you disagree with. Don’t be afraid to read your opposition ? — Mason Mohon (@mohonofficial) January 6, 2019

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