Understanding Stories
Good evening readers and readerettes! This week I passed the one year anniversary of me leaving my day job to write full time, and I made the resolution to get a bit more active on the blog updates in addition to sharing thoughts on various subjects and issues.
Today I want to talk about a conversation I listened to between Jordan Peterson and Bret Weinstein that occurred back in 2017. You can view the section I’ll be referring to here. If you’re familiar with Dr. Peterson, you might know that he has had several landmark debates with one of the greatest thinkers of our time, and a prominent Atheist, Sam Harris. Now, I’m going to set aside the political baggage that figures such as these have in modern society and focus solely on a single point that frequently comes up between them: the importance of the old stories (usually referring to the Bible among other religious texts) and the argument that they should continue to be studied and updated.
On a personal note, I more often than not find myself of a mind with Mr. Harris than I do Dr. Peterson. This isn’t necessarily because I think Dr. Peterson’s arguments are without merit or poorly formed, but more for reasons that Mr. Harris points out on the volatility that comes with literal and fundamental interpretations of texts, and how those interpretations shape and damage our societies.
It should also be noted that this particular conversation focuses more on the nature of truth, and how religious texts to varying degrees of success throughout the years have helped us identify and understand the world around us. Again, you can see the video for the examples given of this (the disease malaria, the danger of feces, dietary restrictions), but I’m not going to delve too deep into those.
Around the 4 minute mark, Peterson brings up the story of Pinocchio, a 19th century children’s story I’m sure most people reading this are familiar with. Peterson spends most of his time talking about Geppetto, Pinocchio’s father, and how he is the representation of the “Good King”. Despite knowing that Pinocchio is just a puppet and a mischievous one at that, he still wishes for him to grow and become a real boy. Here, Peterson draws the connection between Pinocchio and the biblical texts.
Peterson believes that there in an instantiation of evolutionary accumulated wisdom of the stories of the past, but they are ultimately in the past. In Peterson’s words, “They’re still dead…They can’t participate in the updating of the process.” You need an active force that’s involved in the updating of the process.
I think this distinction that Peterson makes is both correct and very important. It is difficult to appreciate the reality that people faced in their day-to-day lives even a century ago, let alone several millennia. Even today, there are many people who feel very comfortable with the scientific process. But even that has been used time and time again to mislead people. From the theories of phrenology of the 19th century to the inane and dangerous tripe that body-positivity activists spit out today, they all have “data” and “real studies by real scientists” to back up their claims. In an age where the wisdom of the world is at our fingertips, we’ve found ourselves increasingly adrift in a sea of apathy and deceit.
This brings me back to Peterson’s call that we need an active force that is involved in the updating of the process. We often find that the oldest stories are often the most powerful. And while many take the old stories to be the literal and unquestionable word of God, it is important to remember that many more have not. Now, I don’t believe that makes the stories any less important. If anything, I think it increases their value. Many of the lessons taught in some of the oldest religious texts will never not be applicable. Not murdering people is good. Honoring your parents is also good.
Even in some of the more obscure chapters, I’m sure you could find meaning and brilliance if you search for it. But, like Peterson says, it can’t just be taken at face value. We aren’t first century desert-dwellers existing as part of an empire that still sacrifices cows to appease Jupiter. Concerns that were mentioned and addressed in the world of Judea simply do not exist or have no purpose here in the 21st century. Still, I don’t think these facts devalue the old stories. If one can dive into them with a clear mind, I think there is much that could be gleaned not only on what once was, but what ought to be.
At its heart, this is what a story should be. A desperate attempt to grasp at the smoke that is the human condition. An attempt to describe what is and what is not. A sincere search for meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. A story is not just a sequence of events surrounding a group of characters written in an order for the purpose of entertainment. They are as deep and meaningful to us as the navigating stars in the night sky. And while I might disagree in the implementation of religions around stories, I do think they will continue to give purpose to billions for millennia to come.
This post has dragged on long enough. There is much that has been left out here for the sake of brevity, and much more that could be said about each of these issues, but I’ll leave it here. Be kind to one another. Don’t be too quick to throw away the old, just like you shouldn’t be too quick to disregard the new. It’s a vast universe out there, and we’re still just swimming along the surface.
-C
