https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=dsY7ZSucCaw
How do you keep yourself humble? You have in the last, I don’t know, what is it like four years, maybe you have, have had this like amazing rise in popularity and amazing rise in influence. And I’m sure you’ve had tens of thousands of people reach out to you directly and share with you how you change their lives for the, for the better, right? Have you maybe saved their lives? I’m sure there’s tons of people that were suicidal and they started getting into your stuff and they’re like, no, there are other things that I should live for. Thank you so much, Dr. Peterson. How do you not let that change your disposition? How do you, how do you check yourself? You, you’re not a religious man per se. Where is your check? I would say that I’m a religious person. Okay. I, I know people have asked me if I believe in God. And I said that I act as though he exists, which for me is a fine definition of belief because I think that people, the best indication of someone’s belief is actually their action rather than their, their statements about their beliefs, let’s say. So, um, I have all sorts of checks apart from that. I mean, there’s a responsibility that goes along with being someone who people turn to when they’re in trouble. And so I have that in mind all the time. I also understand that many of my ideas, perhaps most of them, perhaps all of them for that matter, it’s not appropriate for me to claim them because I’ve read so many great ideas of so many great people. And I’ve been able to synthesize them and to put them perhaps in a new form and maybe in a form that’s more accessible. But that’s partly due to the technological, uh, wonders that are at our fingertips, which really don’t have much to do with me either. And I’m very cognizant of the fact that I’ve been influenced by the great thinkers that I’ve had the privilege to read. Um, and I have friends and family who are watching what I’m doing all the time and, and helping me. And then I also don’t, probably don’t really have the temperament for rampant egotism, you know, I tend towards the depressive end of the spectrum. And so, that’s your superpower. Maybe that’s your check. I suppose. I, I wonder like, and look, you’ve studied all these people. You studied these people with mass influence, ideologues, you studied these leaders, right? And as you’ve become a leader, do you have like a new empathy for what they went through? Do you look at some of these like philosophers and you look at some of the things that they were talking about and like, you didn’t understand it before you had the influence and the responsibility. And now you’re like, Oh shit. Okay. Well, I think I have a new empathy for celebrities. I understand a lot more clearly what it’s like to live in, in, in the public eye. So, and, and to see the upside and the downside of that. I mean, it really produces a radical transformation in your life. And it’s hard to, it’s hard to grasp completely. I mean, you’ve become very popular. How long has it been now for you? Um, at this, at this level, maybe the last like, what, two, three years, something like that, maybe at this level, last two, three years, I had a little fame earlier in that, my career, then it kind of went away. And then when it came back, I was more kind of like ready and understood what it was going to be. I felt more comfortable in my own skin. Initially, I thought that I had to like, um, prove I was funny to every stranger. I met on the street. Uh, I had to like justify where I was. And then right when I, you know what I mean? Like it went away. And then when it came back, I was like, Oh yeah, I don’t have to do that. I know, I know what I am. I know who I am. And if I have an interaction with someone and it’s genuine on the street, that’s not going to change their opinion of me. And if it is, who cares? But at first, yes, it was, there was that like almost imposter syndrome. I must really this person they think I am. Right. Well, it’s also, it also play wreaks some havoc with, with who you think you are because part of who you think you are is a consequence of how you’re reflected in the eyes of others. And you know, people say, well, you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t base what you think of yourself on what other people think of you. Of course that’s complete nonsense because the only person who doesn’t base their own concept on what other people think is a psychopath, right? You have to be sensitive to public opinion, which doesn’t mean that you should be nothing, nothing but a creature of public opinion, right? But when you’re a public figure, let’s say, and you are reflected continually in the public, then it does tend to wreak havoc with your own conception of yourself. And that’s certainly the situation that I find myself in because while I’m not working at the university anymore, I’m on extended leave and I don’t have my clinical practice. So those were two primary sources of my, let’s say professional identity. And now I’m constantly beset with the question of exactly who I am. I can’t tell because I’m reflected all sorts of ways publicly and it isn’t obvious which of those I should be paying attention to. So I try to pay attention to as many of them as I can, but it’s very confusing because there’s a, you might say there’s a very wide range of opinions about me. You got a broad spread, a broad spectrum. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, it’s somewhat daunting. And so I have some sympathy for celebrities who, who are now exposed in a radical way to the public. I’m in a strange position though. I would say in some sense, even compared to most celebrities, because movie stars, for example, they’re famous for the parts they play, right? But I’m famous because I’m not famous for playing a role. I wasn’t an actor. And so that makes things, I think somewhat, well, it’s different, whether it’s more complicated or not, I can’t be sure, but I think that’s different. I think that’s in a lot of ways better. I always thought it was really difficult being like Ross from Friends because they don’t like you. They like Ross from Friends and like dealing with that every single day when they interact with you, they want you to be Ross, you better be goofy and say things that are self depra, deprecating. Like you can’t be anybody that’s not that character. So this, this, you went into this business, not you, but as an actor, you go into this business, right? Because you want love, you want the pats on the back, there’s a hole that you need filled and all of a sudden it’s kind of filled, but deep down, you know, it’s not for you, you know? And I don’t know, for me, at least being a standup comic, it’s rewarding knowing that like what I put out there, I’m the decider of what I put out there. And if they enjoy that, it’s like, ah, you kind of, you like this part of my personality that I choose to give to you. That’s, that’s cool. So what you’re putting out has to be a part of you. I don’t think you’re playing a character except in your Red Skull comic book. That was fantastic. But thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Great job. Great job. But like you are giving me my makeup artists for that. Come on down here to Miami, man. We’ll take care of you little son. But yeah, it’s, it’s, I don’t know. I feel like you’re giving yourself. So the love that you’re getting is for who you are. I’d imagine when you get hate for who you are, that’s a devastating feeling. I don’t know. Is that what you struggle with? Like, do you, you don’t think that you don’t think you know who you are? Are you, are you letting the public sway your identity? Oh, yes, I would say so. I’m, I’m, I do what I can to resist it, but it’s, it’s not, it’s, it’s a rather irresistible force in some sense. I mean, there’s so much, I suppose I could lock myself away from it, but I don’t really know how to do that because I’d have to lock myself away from my world fundamentally, and then I wouldn’t know what to do exactly. You know? So, I mean, I enjoy the YouTube videos. I do the interviews that I do. I, I have to have an active professional life. I’m still writing. I want to stay engaged with the world as much as I possibly can, but that also means simultaneously exposing myself to all the commentary that’s associated with what I’m doing and trying to puzzle my way through it.