The Democrats’ 20-Million-Dollar-Man Problem

Opinion|The Democrats’ 20-Million-Dollar-Man Problem

It’s not every day that a stranger cries right in front of you.

But that’s what happened to me in 2018. I had been invited to speak at Grove City College, a small Christian college outside Pittsburgh, and a young man picked me up at the airport for the 90-minute drive to the school.

During our conversation, he asked me, “Do you know who Jordan Peterson is?” I said yes. Peterson’s self-help book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” which had been released earlier that year, was an enormous best seller. It has sold 10 million copies worldwide.

I’d read the book and liked it. It’s not a political tome. It’s written to provide meaning and purpose for a generation of young men who too often don’t know what to believe or whom to trust.

The book’s “rules” — such as “make friends with people who want the best for you” and “compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today” — provide a kind of common-sense road map to living a life of greater meaning and purpose. At its core, it’s a self-help book. Think of something like Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” but with far more biblical references.

Peterson “saved my life,” the man said. He choked up. After he’d finished his enlistment with the Marines, he left the Corps with no job, very few friends and no plan. He descended into depression. But Peterson taught him to find meaning in small accomplishments, in making the next day better than the last, and now he was on his way — he had a job, he was finishing a degree and he was making something of his life.

That young man is not alone. If you dive into the Jordan Peterson universe, especially in the days before the pandemic — before his politics (and manner) became more bizarre and conspiratorial — you’ll hear countless stories like that.