He’s Not a Tame Lion: A Meditation on Dr. Jordan Peterson’s Eleventh Rule for Life

Do Not Bother Children When They Are Skateboarding

As a single mother of two little boys who are part mountain goat, part octopus, and wholly fearless adventurers, I have taken Dr. Jordan Peterson’s eleventh rule very much to heart. My boys have a great relationship with their Dad, who takes them on age-appropriate dangerous adventures and teaches them safety.

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But as I am their primary caregiver, I’ve had to think seriously about what kind of boys I want to bring up. I want to raise them to be strong enough to be gentle, able to defend themselves and those they love, apt to wrestle with ideas as well as flesh and blood, to be protectors and providers instead of perpetrators and predators. In short, I want them to be the good dangerous. 

The instincts to protect their family from predators and to hunt for food are born in them, and I believe that repressing those instincts will make them weak and dangerous men. And as Dr. Peterson writes, “If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” I have seen it, and it is not a pretty sight. It is not something I want for my little boys. 

I’ve picked up a skateboard for my eldest and a scooter (kind of a skateboard with handles) for my youngest at the transfer station, and I don’t bother them when they’re playing on them. And that’s the core theme of Rule Eleven: letting kids take risks teaches them to grow up tough and self-reliant and dangerous in the best possible way. But what is the difference between good dangerous and bad dangerous? 

From nearly the first moment of his rise to notoriety, Dr. Peterson has been branded as “dangerous.” There is an article published back in 2016, entitled I Was Jordan Peterson’s Biggest Supporter. Now I Think He’s Dangerous. Every few months, the article makes the rounds again, and embittered former fans solemnly warn newer fans to avoid Dr. Peterson like deadly nightshade and poison ivy.

I know the backstory of that article, and it is a sad one. The friend who wrote it never ever sat down with Dr. Peterson and talked everything over with him, and in fact refused to answer calls and messages. Perhaps if those conversations had taken place, the article need never have been written, and a long and cherished friendship could have been preserved. 

 Ta Nahisi Coates (one of John McWhorter and Glenn Loury’s “people of three names”) saw fit to depict Dr. Peterson as “Red Skull, magical super Nazi.” Now mind you, given some of the sentiments Coates has expressed in his other writings, I would consider his good opinion an insult, and I would take his denouncement as a compliment of the highest order and a sign of the times in which our culture has deemed “good, evil, and evil, good; sweet, bitter, and bitter, sweet.” However, it is not my opinion but Dr. Peterson’s that matters, and this depiction hurt him to the core. Jordan Peterson’s depiction as Red Skull reflects the liberal entertainment industry’s view of him: he is dangerous. 

And so we arrive at the million-dollar question: Is Dr. Peterson dangerous? 

Well, it depends upon what you mean by dangerous. A manipulative, violent controlling person, who lives by lies— in other words, a dark tetrad person— is dangerous in an evil way. A man who has a family whom he loves more than life itself is very dangerous should anyone touch those dear ones to their hurt. “Dangerous” does not always equate to “evil.” 

Dr. Peterson has often explained that a man should be possessed of the ability to be dangerous. He explains that a truly meek man is a man in possession of a weapon, who knows how to wield that weapon, but whose strength is in keeping it sheathed and judging the proper time to draw it. 

Some of the wisest and most beloved archetypes of literature have been very dangerous men. Consider Aslan the Lion, the archetypal Christ figure,  and the embodiment of sacrificial love in “The Chronicles of Narnia.” In discussing him in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Susan asked if he was “quite safe.”  “Safe?” said Beaver. “Who said anything about safe?  Course he isn’t safe. … But he’s good.” 

Just as Dr. Peterson became deeply acquainted with the horrors of totalitarianism, a fact which his friend considered “dangerous,” Aslan was well acquainted with the dark powers of the Deep Magic. And it was because of that acquaintance with the evil that both were able to choose the good.  Another character said of Aslan, “He’s not a tame lion.”  Neither is Jordan Peterson. 

A small group of us listeners and readers glory in nicknaming Dr. Peterson “Gandalf the White” after the wise and gentle warrior wizard of The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf once described himself as “very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.” It was this very quality that made him so powerful. Gandalf knew the temptation of using the One Ring to his own ends, out of a desire to do good, and he knew that he could not wield it. Similarly, Dr. Peterson became aware, as he says, of his own authoritarian tendencies and knew that he could not wield those for good. 

In Jo Rowling’s Harry Potter novel, Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore prophetically says, “Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon, we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” In order to make that choice, we have to be dangerous.

Good dangerous. 

Author’s Note: If you have enjoyed this essay, look for the continuation of my meditations on the Twelve Rules.