The last part of my analysis of Jordan Peterson’s '2017 lecture The Equality Authoritarians Must Be STOPPED NOW!- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7HPbjsYYGg- probably the most bizarre section.

Not only does it have very little sense of social history, which by now might not shock anyone, it also credits the Gods of the Free Market for everything awesome about life in the rich countries of the Global North. There is also just some really questionable reasoning going on in this section and a lack of empathy or even knowledge of current struggles against poverty in the UK, the US or any country that fits into the Jeep’s frame.

Almost everything that the Jeep credits to the ‘free market system’ is the result of state, federal governments or social movements. They are also all very much vulnerable to attack from free-market revanchists who have been circling since the introduction of neoliberalism in the late 1970’s. Since the financial crash, the governments of the UK, Spain, Greece and many state and city levels in the United States have been telling their residents that they need to live within their means, as a justification for cutting social programmes and regulations. Sometimes I just don’t feel like I am living in the same world as the Jeep, and this part of the talk really got my back up as a social researcher.

From 16.07- ‘By historical and current world standards, people in the West are well-housed and well-fed. In fact we are more currently threatened with obesity than starvation. With few exceptions, everyone has indoor plumbing, central heating, access to education and connections to worldwide web...'

Okay before we go into anything else- don't you find it interesting that he doesn't mention healthcare here. I mean it would seem like a pretty fundamental service for human flourishing, but ignoring 30 million uninsured US citizens and millions more under-insured was a bit far for the Jeep. This is surprising because he is willing to overlook a lot even with his celebratory cheer for supposedly universal food, housing, plumbing and education.

‘Obesity + Starvation’ - Alienating and Bizarre Body Weight Accounting

Okay, now here the Jeep does some totally bizarre body weight accounting tricks with bodies and full-bellies. He says that in western Europe and North America, ‘obesity is more of a threat than starvation’. I am sorry but I don’t think that is much consolation for the people who are food insecure or showing up to doctors surgeries in the UK with nutrition related conditions like rickets. It also assumes that obesity is a condition of affluence and abundance (even indulgence) although this is not supported by research in this area, which suggests it is far more complex (Cockrell Skinner, Ravanbakht, Skelton, Perrin and Armstrong, 2018). Obesity has just as much to do with our food environment, as well as stress and poverty which impact both eating habits and the accumulation of body weight. It is also unclear, whether being overweight or obese (according to the BMI scale) is actually that useful a predictor of overall health and mortality, beyond cases where someone is far out-with the typical range of body types (Campos et al, 2006).

I don’t endorse the Jeeps understanding of this topic, but even if we accept his premise that obesity and starvation are two ends of the calorie intake spectrum- doesn’t that suggest that the capitalist distribution of food might not be the most efficient possible, if it is so easy to become obese but also to go hungry within the utopias of Peterson’s description? The issue malnutrition doesn’t even get a mention by the Jeep, even though it is far more complicated than his little construction about the ‘full of food’ bodies of Western citizens as compared with absolute starvation.

Indoor Plumbing and Housing are not Free-Market achievements

I think that this is where the Jeep veers most off of the cliff-edge of reality for me. It is one thing to create a burning effigy of Karl Marx or to make some vague insinuations about Venezuela, but the Jeep is actually clashing with the lived experience and compassion of most of his Western audiences with this. Now, yeah, housing, indoor plumbing and central heating are fantastic and to be celebrated, but it doesn’t take much contact with the world to realise these are far from guaranteed in Western Europe and North America. It also doesn’t mean that they are entirely the result of free market capitalism, as so much of the housing in the UK is former council housing stock or is still socially-rented housing.

The wonders of indoor plumbing might not have been realised were it not for New Deal programmes, such as the Civil Works Administration (1933) in the United States which extended the urban and rural infrastructure of clean water- that was when big government guaranteed jobs for unemployed people! In Scotland we still purchase the water that runs through these pipes as part of our council tax bills from Scottish Water, a nationalised water company, and at lower costs than our neighbours in England where water has been commodified.

Glaring exceptions to the Jeep’s celebratory cheer about Capitalist Development

The exceptions to the Jeep’s celebration of Western development are multiple and devastating. In the UK, where I stay, the number of families staying in temporary homeless accommodation has increased over 60% according to the National Audit Office (2017). This is over the course of less than 8 years, much of that time being heralded as the economic recovery from the banking crash, but changes to welfare entitlements and insecure tenure with private landlords ensure that much of Britain isn’t feeling the flush of recovery. Rough sleeping numbers also increased last year in England, with approximately 4,751 people bedded down or bedding down on England’s streets, parks and bus shelter in the Autumn of last year.

While living on a Scottish street, your life expectancy drops to 39, because it is such a vulnerable situation to be in (according to research by Streetwork, 2017). Even in the sprawling, gentrified metropolis of New York city, 100,000 elementary school children have experienced homeless. If improvements aren't made, that could be 1 in 7 in years to come. This picture is only of the sharp edge of the housing issues of countries in the Global North, although issues with overcrowding, damp and inadequate housing quality mushroom the set of challenges facing communities in housing.

In the UK also, we also have a persistent problem of fuel poverty, with people having to spend an unaffordable chunk of their incomes on heating their homes for winter. This situation is dicey and shameful, as people, even the elderly might not put their heating on when they need it and are at risk from conditions such as hypothermia.

Peterson also ignores the issue of slumlords, who can allow the living conditions of their tenants to deteriorate, leaving people vulnerable to everything from accidents to respiratory conditions from damp and rot. In the UK, our parliament, whose benches are full of landlord politicians recently voted against legislation which would have ensured that that properties for rent had to be fit for 'human habitation'. The UK is also having to bring in specific laws which prevent landlords from sexually harassing female tenants, in requesting sexual favours in exchange for housing. Seriously, whenever I hear this guy talk about the freedom of citizens in countries in the Global North, I am going to smash up a toy Jeep with a hammer and sickle.

So I am not saying that Peterson is totally wrong in his assertion here, it is just that the cracks in society where you might not be guaranteed any of those things are gaping, deep and widening. The issue isn’t only the supply of housing and safety, but that certain barely accountable people act as gatekeepers to the basic conditions of life and ideological government cuts to the social safety net. These matter and if it makes me an equality extremist that I will continue to focus on the cases where people are in terrible, vulnerable, distressing or life threatening conditions even in wealthy countries, then I guess that is what the Jeep would call me. I think that makes his scale wack and corrupt though- I certainly don’t get his idea of ‘well housed'.

In comparing and contrasting what the Jeep calls ‘centrally planned’ societies with developed societies, there is the total erasure of any forms of social movement or government provision from the history of the latter type of country. Whether through the ‘New Deal’ reforms, welfare states or active and powerful trade union movements, much of what is credited to capitalism has its roots or foundations in state investment- from medicines to the internet.

What are the Implications of this

From food insecurity to slumlords and homelessness, the Jeep is sorely lacking insight or sympathy. I don't know if he considers concerning ourselves with these issues obsessing over equality of outcome, which we know he thinks is evil and authoriatian. This is why an anti-social justice crusade or anti-egalitarian tirade is so dangerous. Almost everything about the quality of life that a lot of people enjoy in the rich North-West of the globe have been achieved by strikes, direct action, Marxists, Feminists, civil rights activist, workers movements, a fear of revolution and the extension of a Soviet influence as much as scientific breakthroughs, town planners and economic development. Any other account of history is partial, naïve and reckless.

A Human Rights Based Approach

Now the Jeep is also puts forward a rousing defence of the 'meritocratic' systems of the Global North. He states that 'it is not what you intrinsically deserve, it is the worth that others deem for your offerings', which may explain part of why he is so casual about people having housing, heating, education and why exceptions, including massive gaps in healthcare coverage, don't keep him up at night. I fundamentally disagree with him on this, as I think that sentient beings and all human life have instrinsic worth and that many people have no chance to develop their talents and passions within their situation. It is also not clear that someone would be compensated fairly for works of creativity or genius- the history of great artists and inventors doesn't show them to be bathing in coin during their working lives.

There are other ways of looking at this problem of how to allocate resources- such as a Human Rights based approach. With a human rights based approach, human dignity is viewed as intrinsic and inalienable and states who have ratified the Treaty on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, are bound to providing services to their citizens. Some standard of living, healthcare- including for mental health conditions, education, unemployment insurance, access to trade union representation, are actually protected to varying degrees within this treaty.

This is not the only, or exclusively a leftist perspective, and the Human Rights based approach can be very individualistic- however in Canada, Denmark, Spain or the UK, if the state were to begin to bring in new restrictions to healthcare or education or greatly reduce standards, they would leave themselves open to challenge based on this Convention. So while the Jeep may believe that it is more healthy to judge your value and worth based on the arbitrary economic compensation of your skills or creations, which seems like a shocking thing for a clinical psychologist to say, according to the UN and most of its member countries, your right to life and everything required for your development are the official position of the state!

My facts don't care about your 'crisis of authoritarian leftism' Jeep. The facts, in fact, have/care about feelings x

Sources

Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity in US Children, 1999–2016

Asheley Cockrell Skinner, Sophie N. Ravanbakht, Joseph A. Skelton, Eliana M.Perrin, Sarah C. Armstrong

Pediatrics Mar 2018, 141 (3) e20173459; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-3459

Caitlin Logan at CommonSpace on the amendment passed by the SNP (largest party of Scottish Parliament) Conference 2017 on sex for rent- https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/11843/snp-members-back-creation-new-law-against-sex-rent

Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness (2017) On the Map, The Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City 2017- http://www.icphusa.org/new_york_city/map-atlas-student-homelessness-new-york-city-2017/

Jeremy Vine radio show on BBC radio 2- my mum is a fan of this and it came on during our 'snow days’- pretty emotional accounts from women impacted by the ‘sex for rent’ type-cases, TRIGGER WARNING for discussions of sexual abuse for this one.

The Living New Deal information on the Civil Works Administration- https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/civil-works-administration-cwa-1933/

Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (2017)- Rough Sleeper Statistics- https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/682001/Rough_Sleeping_Autumn_2017_Statistical_Release_-_revised.pdf

National Audit Office (2017)- Homelessness- https://www.nao.org.uk/report/homelessness/

Rachel Graham at openDemocracy comparing privatised water to public water in the UK -https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/rachel-graham/water-in-uk-public-versus-private (this article is from 2014, though the most recent data I could find from Scottish Water, backs this up, with only one English water provider, Severn Trent, being cheaper for the average household than Scottish Water)

Savage, Michael and Lee, Dulcie, (2017, 23rd of December), ‘I regularly see rickets: diseases of Victorian-era Poverty retune to UK, in The Observer- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/23/poorer-children-disproportionately-need-hospital-treatment

Support Solutions UK - Rough sleeping and life expectancy in Scotland info- http://www.supportsolutions.co.uk/blog/client_groups/homelessness/scotlands_homeless_have_a_life-expectancy_of_just_39.html

UN international Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights- http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx

Image of Fifth Harmony- https://www.flickr.com/photos/152522464@N05/35033513914/