In my previous post, I discussed the book ’12 Rules for Life’ by Jordan Peterson and the meaning of Rule 1: ‘Standing up straight with your shoulders back’. Jordan Peterson has become a well-known household name across western society with his inspirational lectures that articulate uncomfortable but necessary truths. He is associated with one particularly famous phrase: “Clean up your bedroom” insists Peterson. It has become a popular meme across the internet. On the surface it appears as a modest and simple rule, something your parents might nag you to do. But simply cleaning up your room has a far more profound impact than just sorting your shirts.
What is the affect of making your room more tidy? It isn’t just the physical appearance, although there is a certain reduction in anxiety and stress from having a clean living space. It is taking responsibility for the mess you have created, either intentionally or accidentally. It is ordering and organising items where they belong. It is incrementally setting an example of how to set the world in order, by starting with small, easy to accomplish tasks. Using the framework of cleaning your room, one can then set about undertaking more complex and critical issues facing society, whether that be in your career or in your intimate relationships.
Peterson understands there is a sense of pride linked to responsibly making the world a better place. By starting small, we acquire skills necessary for solving more complex problems. A bit like eating an Elephant, it is critical to compartmentalise and take small chunks of the larger issue. It is fascinating to witness the sale of responsibility to young people in the audience of Peterson’s lectures. It is by no means a desirable construct. Parents have been urging their kids to take responsibility for decades.
In Peterson’s book ‘Beyond Order, 12 more rules for life’, he addresses an abandonment of religious practices, especially in the western world. Rather than following religious principles, we in the west have been peddled a life based on freedom, ‘YOLO’ culture, filled with a laissez-faire lifestyle that emphasises comfort. It is any wonder more young people feel lost today? The importance of the religions was to emphasise that life is difficult, and to offer a framework of how to behave. Whether suffering be symbolised by the cross in Christianity, the remembrance of pain and suffering in Judaism or the impermanence and fleeting joy of life in Buddhism.
Peterson persuasively argues that the only way to offset the suffering of life is to adopt responsibility. That way when you wake up at 3am with your mind spinning, at least you can say “I’m taking care of this and making that a better place than it was yesterday”. You need to bare a heavy load and walk up a hill, much alike a pack animal. Not just for yourself, your family and friends, but for the progression of society. And that journey starts with organising yourself and cleaning your room.