Interview · moment 5 of 26
Resistance to Resentment and the Cost of Public Attacks
from #249 - Jordan Peterson | The Tim Dillon Show · #249
4 min
Guest
Peterson reflects on watching peers crumble under similar public attacks, admits the temptation toward bitterness during his and his family's illnesses, and explains why he worked to eliminate resentful thoughts.
- Tim worked through the answers to these questions while writing his second book's final chapter on not becoming resentful, deceitful, or arrogant.
- He's watched his professional peers who became targets of public attacks on Twitter and in newspapers generally fold up, apologize, and get hurt quite deeply.
- These attacks have given him insight into why people don't say what they need to say, because the trouble that causes is very difficult to cope with.
- Tim continually expects the attacks to stop, but they don't—he's mystified why it keeps happening.
- He's become associated with an inordinate number of memes and imagery: lobster, frog, king, red skull—a complex set of images that adds to the difficulty of sorting it out.
- Tim was tempted towards bitterness and resentment as a consequence of his illness, which created tremendous pain.
- His daughter and wife were also very ill at approximately the same time, making it difficult not to shake his fist at God and curse the structure of being itself.
- He's strived with the help of his wife and others close to him to identify and eradicate resentful and bitter thoughts, because they're not helpful or justifiable under any condition.