Jordan Peterson: Why is Marxism so Attractive?

0:00 And why is it, do you think that, here we go, that Marxism is such a rooted ideology compared to things like classical liberalism or all of these other ideologies that we see? Like, this thing's been around since the mid -1800s, and it's taken over almost everything, especially college campuses. Why do you think that is? Well, that's a good question. the first communists, let's say, the Russians, let's say, for the sake of argument, they were much less reprehensible philosophically than today's Marxists. And the reason for that was, well, they had a utopian vision,

0:45 and not that that's necessarily a good thing, but they didn't necessarily know that it was a bad thing, right? And so, and the old aristocratic European structure was crumbling and there'd been a terrible war and, you know, the czarist regime was, well, compared to the communist regime, it was heaven on earth. But, you know, it had its problems. And so, even as Nietzsche said, you know, that communism would be worth it as an experiment. But he also said, and this was in Will to Power, that hundreds of millions of people would die as a consequence, which is one of the most remarkable prophecies, I think, that have ever been uttered by anyone ever. Okay, so it's attractive, it's utopian, but then there's the dark side of it, right, which means everyone who has more than you got it

1:33 by stealing it from you. And that really appeals to the Cain -like element of the human spirit, right? Everyone who has more than me got it in a manner that was corrupt, and that justifies not only my end. In a manner that was corrupt, and that justifies not only my envy, but my actions to level the field, so to speak, you know, and to look virtuous while doing it. And so there's a tremendous philosophy of resentment that I think is driven now also by a very pathological anti -human ethos that you also see at the base of much of the environmentalist movement. It's not like we're not doing some stupid things to the planet, like what we're doing to the oceans, for example, is reprehensible beyond comprehension. But,

2:24 you know, I've heard environmentalists state quite straightforwardly that human beings are a cancer on the planet. It's like, if someone says that to you, you know, you should move away from that person very, very quickly, because that statement is genocidal in its spiritual origin, and so I think there's a whole cluster of unexamined motives of resentment its spiritual origin. that primarily drive the resurgence of the Marxism, but it's also a consequence of the poor, the biased education that our children receive. You know, they know a bit about the Second World War and about the Nazis, but they don't know anything about what happened in the Soviet Union and China, like often in universities, and I

3:12 teach a personality course, it's like, that's not where you should be learning about the six million Ukrainians who died of starvation in the 1930s, but most of my students have never heard of any of that. know anything about what happened in the Soviet Union and China. It's like, what the hell? We fought a whole Cold War about that. We damn near annihilated the planet because of it. And all of a sudden it's, well, it's an inconvenient for the neo -Marxists to notice that the regimes of Stalin and Mao. were brutal beyond comprehension, so how about if we don't talk about it, you know? So there's lots of corruption that's driving this, but a huge part of it is resentment. And, like, I think the worst emotions are resentment, the worst actions are resentment, deceit, and arrogance. And you get those three working together, boy,

3:58 you've got a force that you better be careful with. Do you think it's dying off or going away? Do you think it's dying off? Do you think Marxism is dying off or going away at all, or do you think it's getting stronger? I think that what's happened is that it's transmutated into this postmodernism and identity politics, which was really, really devious, really devious. And that was a consequence of the French intellectuals, mostly, Derrida and Foucault. But it's not going away. What's happened instead is that it's taken a new strategic tack, and it's one that no one really envisioned. What's happened instead is that it's taken a new... What it's doing is taking over the administration of mid -level bureaucracies everywhere. So it's not so much a threat at the highest level of political organization, but that isn't necessarily

4:48 where much of the power over individuals resides. It resides in these smaller political structures, sub -political structures. like school boards for example or in Canada right now our law society in Ontario has made it mandatory for lawyers to produce a statement of principles that they provide a template for. They tell you what your damn statement of principles should be and they're basically equity, diversity and inclusivity statements and if you don't write out your statement of principles declaiming your agreement with these principles. and simultaneously, essentially, admitting that you're a racist, then you don't get your license. So we're fighting a big war about that right now in Ontario. We might even win. It looks

5:34 like we might win. You never know. But, and it's also partly because ordinary people are too complacent about the mid -level bureaucrats who rule over them, you know. We're willing to allow those relatively small positions of power. to be taken over by groups that are very good at doing that sort of thing and we need to wake up to that because it's seriously not good. And it's very difficult to fight back against.