It's been Professor Jordan B. Peterson Week at the BBC (Radio 4 - Start the Week; Radio 3 - Free Thinking; Radio 2 - The Chris Evans Breakfast Show; and BBC 2 - The Daily Politics).
The main structural difference between the two I heard - Start the Week and Free Thinking - was that Free Thinking was a one-against-one encounter (Philip Dodd v Jordan Peterson) while Start the Week was a four-against-one encounter (Tom Sutcliffe, Louise O’Neill, Hashi Mohamed and Lawrence Wright v Jordan Peterson). Free Thinking, being fairer in its set-up, was the more interesting and enjoyable discussion. It was good to hear two minds grappling with each other. Start the Week left a much sourer taste in the mouth.
From what I have seen, Peterson is a threat to the BBC groupthink for two reasons. Firstly, his acclaim is born out of his postings on Qora and You Tube where he has countless followers. Thus, he owes nothing to the BBC or the MSM in general. Secondly, he welcomes views which oppose his own. He uses these arguments to modify his own views or to confirm them. Open debate is of no threat to him - but it is to the BBC - in which their stars are shown to be Peterson's inferiors, both intellectually and personably.
ReplyDeleteI've been amazed at Peterson's patience in the face of closed minded interviewers and "fellow" panelists. Peterson brings a breath of intellectual honesty.
ReplyDeleteI concur Andy. I am a little surprised that there has not been more blog response to the BBC attitude to Jordan Peterson. His meteoric rise to mega-star status, his demolition of Kathy Newman, and his points win over Anne McElvoy are a direct challenge to the post-modernist neo-Marxist orthodoxy which seems to permeate the BBC, so it was no surprise that they responded with a broadside during ‘Peterson Week’ and wheeled out one of their heaviest intellectual guns - Philip Dodd, no less. His manner was that of an attack dog from the opening sentence, which used a rhetorical trick to implant the idea that Peterson is a 'fascist mystic' and from then on, Dodd’s sneering sense of superiority and his own importance confirmed to me that Peterson has the upper hand. Though Peterson was clearly irritated, he held his ground and Dodd was forced to keep changing tack. It was an open debate, which was refreshing, but no-one has argued their way past Peterson yet as far as I can tell, and the BBC must be running out of heavyweights to take him on. Cheered me up anyway.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy the Dodd interview..... Peterson almost met his match, and although some people would say Dodd was rude at times, Peterson can bang on about the same old stuff quite a bit, the only way to challenge him is to pick on specifics and keep hammering him on them to find out what is really going on in his brain......
ReplyDeleteYeh he pulled him into specifics. Using sweeping statements with arguments derived from Jungian archetypes has thrown most but when Dodd brought up Hillsboro and justice he seemed for the first time caught off guard. Thing is he’s playing catch up with his popularity and is getting more and more dragged into politics rather than psychology. I’m sure he needs a holiday to read up, as opponents are pulling him into shallow waters.
DeleteHardtalk's Stephen Sackur seemed lost with his Jordan Peterson interview last night. Lost count of the times Sackur quoted statements he alleged Peterson had made only to be told by the latter he had said no such thing. Nice to see the arrogance and sometimes outright bias of Hardtalks presenters get their comeuppance.
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