We are living in an era of rampant projection, where all of our worst “sins” are present in other people, and hating them for that. In this video, Dr. Oz asks Jordan Peterson how to break that habit and stop blaming others for what you hate about yourself. Jordan Peterson thinks a part of it begins with noticing your life isn’t everything it could be. And in part, those you don’t agree with may be right in some ways. Jordan Peterson expresses that he likes talking to people who are different than him. They may cause him to have some new thoughts. That’s part of humility and sometimes we don’t have all of the answers.
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00:00 Let me shift gears and address the fact that our society, we live in an era of
00:05 rampant projection. Imposing our belief that our worst sins are
00:13 present in other people, hating them for that. How do you break that habit, that
00:17 very addictive tendency to blame others for what you hate the most about yourself?
00:23 Well I think part of it is that you notice that your life isn't
00:27 everything it could be. You're suffering in stupid ways and so you're
00:33 ignorant, you don't know, and you already think what you think. And so since you
00:37 think what you think and you're suffering like that, you're probably
00:41 wrong in some profound ways. And that means that those who you don't agree
00:45 with are right in some ways and you better listen to them because maybe they
00:48 know something you don't. And that's worth mulling over. And it's
00:53 very interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me. I don't like
00:56 talking to ideologues that much because I already know what they think. But
00:59 people who are different than me, you know, honestly different, it's like great
01:03 man, great, you think some things that I haven't thought. I'd really like to hear
01:07 what you have to say because you know I could use some new thoughts and maybe
01:11 that would just help me some infinitesimal amount and thank God
01:16 for that. And so you have to understand that that difference is something
01:21 to be celebrated, to use a terrible cliche. And so that's part of humility is
01:26 that you don't have all the answers. You're humble to say that you're
01:30 curious of what others think and I earnestly believe you are. Desperate for it.
01:33 But you're the tip of the spear and you come from a tradition of big thinkers
01:38 who ask questions that many advise us not to ask. Yes. But the essence of
01:42 reality. I want to talk about some of those questions but I want to ask first
01:47 about you because it has been true in the case of other big thinkers before
01:52 you that it hasn't ended so well for them. Nietzsche comes to mind. But
01:56 certainly it doesn't end very well for anyone really in some sense. So you
02:00 know we don't know how many terrible ends there were for people who didn't
02:03 have that possession let's say by philosophical or religious ideas. So
02:09 there's a bit of a sample bias there. So the illness that you just survived, which
02:13 many wouldn't have, is in part I'd have to say is a friend. Worsened by the fact
02:21 that you ask these questions are troubled by them, tortured by them
02:24 actually, and it may have weakened you in some ways at the same time. Do you ever
02:29 fear that this burden that you've taken, granted it's perhaps better than
02:34 the alternatives, is too much to bear? Oh yes. Yes. Always. All the time. But I don't
02:42 know what to do about it exactly. You know what, our family tries to keep
02:47 itself in order so that there's some peace there, although we've been
02:50 so preoccupied with illness and social catastrophe that it's been difficult to
02:53 maintain order in the house. So yes, it's terrifying and always, and it isn't
02:59 obvious how to cope with it. And you know one of the things I've recommended to
03:03 people is that when the stress becomes overwhelming you shorten your temporal
03:06 horizon. You know, you concentrate on the week, not the month, not the year. If you
03:13 can't concentrate on the week and then it's the day. Lots of times in the last
03:16 couple of years I've been concentrating on the minute. And you know, I've just got
03:21 to the point recently that I can think past a day. And so that
03:26 narrowing helped. But yeah, fools leap in where angels fear to tread.
03:33 But the fool is also the precursor to the Savior. So that's a conundrum.
03:39 Why is the fool the precursor to the Savior? Because he'll ask the stupid
03:44 questions that no one else will ask. Plus he's also a comedian. You know, and the
03:50 comedian can, the fool can make fun of the king. So that means the only person
03:55 the king can listen to that will tell him the truth is the fool. And that's why
03:59 you know, when you see society start to clamp down on comedians you think, "Ah,
04:03 there's a king who can't take a joke. What kind of king can't take a joke?
04:07 Tyrant." So comedians, they're canaries in the coal mine. So there was a comedian and
04:15 you know, not everybody thought he was a comedian. I think it was Count
04:19 Dankula in Britain who got nailed for teaching his girlfriend's dog to do a
04:26 Nazi salute. Which, you know, maybe you don't like that joke, but it was a joke.
04:31 But he got prosecuted for it. It's like, that was a joke actually. So who's more to
04:37 fear him or the person who prosecuted him? Well, can you take a joke or not?
04:43 You know, and I'm hoping I can take a joke.