Jordan Peterson: A Professor Against Political Correctness

Maps Of Meaning: The Architecture Of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson 

FROM DAVE SIM:

Carson -- Please post your 9 January fax to AMOC with this reply. It will either start a discussion that might lead somewhere or will at least mean I only have to address the on-going Jordan Peterson question this once.

Carson Grubagh;
My original letter was typed directly into the FaxZero website I use to communicate with Dave so I do not have a copy of what I sent. Dave has been informed of this, but has not sent me scans of the fax, so I will summarize what was said:

During a phone conversation I pointed out to Dave that he would probably enjoy listening to Jordan Peterson. Apparently Dave hears this a lot. Dave commented that he should probably send Dr. Peterson a letter. The more I thought about it the better the idea sounded. It strikes me that Peterson, with his interest in archetypal meta-narratives would really enjoy Cerebus. It also seems that he would be impressed that Dave was twenty years or so ahead of the curve on the battles Peterson himself is now fighting.

I outlined the kind of viewership and Patreon support Peterson receives, the fact that he often interviews other figures who have been ground down by the SJW war-machine, and proposed that a conversation between Dave and Peterson would probably be very interesting and could lead to a strong uptick in sales of Cerebus through cerebusdownloads.com. 

It wouldn't be right to just ask the man for publicity, so I suggested Dave watch Peterson's interviews with Dave Rubin and Camille Paglia to get an overview of where he stands now, as well as read Maps of Meaning to get a more robust understanding of his central theses, then write Peterson a thoughtful letter on the works and send along a complimentary set of Cerebus GNs to initiate a discussion.

Doing this asap struck me as prudent, given the typical time span of internet celebrity.

Hi Carson: 

I was kidding about contacting Jordan Peterson. 

Kid. Ding. 

Short answer: Canada doesn't work like that. In Canada, particularly in Toronto, particularly at the University of Toronto, I would be seen as a high-school dropout first of all. Even acknowledging that a high-school dropout exists and should be acknowledged for some reason would severely hurt Peterson's Canadian "higher-ed cred" and gain him nothing. "Has everything eroded in the General Trumpian Malaise to the point where we're actually listening to high-school dropouts now? That kind of thing. 

Second of all, in Canadian frames of reference, I wouldn't be seen as a writer or an artist. To be considered a writer or an artist in Canada, you have to get Canada Council Grants and/or be a member of the Order of Canada (which consists only of liberals and Liberals for the most part) or be "tapped into" the clique that has always controlled arts in Canada. No one Jordan Peterson knows and/or respects would have any idea who or what Dave Sim is. And if they did, they would pretend that they didn't because, in Canada, Dave Sim is "not on". 

The fact that I run my own publishing company would register as a) "vanity press" (you publish yourself because the handful of elite Canadian publishers who decide who is and who isn't a writer or an artist in this country don't consider you good enough to publish) and b) vulgar. Publishing is a tainting necessity in Canada which no real writer or artist would, themselves, participate in except insofar as signing a book contract and having an agent. 

That having been said, there's no reason that any CEREBUS fan who thinks a prominent blen pensee individual like Jordan Peterson should be alerted to the fact that Dave Sim was addressing all this stuff 20 years ago can't take the bull by the horns and alert him. I mean, you can trying wagging your own academic credentials at him, but, in Canada, that's just going to tar you with the same brush, I think. "You have a (whatever degree from whatever legitimate American college/ university) and you're listening to what a high-school dropout is saying? How very ... American ... of you," is my guess as to what Jordan Peterson's default setting would be/will be. 

It's happened before, behind the scenes, where, at the urging of a CEREBUS fan I have sent Person X an autographed copy of my book or "Tangent" issue. I have never heard back from anyone in that situation. I don't "register" with anyone, so I spend-my time trying to figure out how to keep the whole lurching juggernaut going on a shoestring budget (to shoestring budget) (to shoestring budget) and how to form a succession which will be impervious to the worsening politically correct currents in our society. That doesn't work well but it works a lot better than expecting help from outside comics and inside comics celebrities. 

I agree with you that if Jordan Peterson wanted to help save CEREBUS, he could probably drive some traffic to cerebusdownloads.com. But that would require swimming very hard upstream against what I assume are his own presuppositions about high-school dropouts, unknown-to-the-Canadian-elite Canadian writers and artists, people who taint themselves by engaging in "vanity press" and Dave Sim, generally, being "not on" in Canada. 

Call it the HORTON HEARS A WHO Conundrum. "WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!" Find out Jordan Peterson's contact information — whatever his e-mail address is at the University of Toronto — and deluge him with requests to interview Dave Sim and try to get more people buying CEREBUS trade paperbacks and 6,000 page digital collections. And tell him how well-educated you are, particularly if you went to school he would have heard of.

a) I can't picture CEREBUS fans doing that b) I can't picture Jordan Peterson giving me a second thought. He would just consider it weird Spam, I think.

Best,

Dave

So, what do we do folks? Do we campaign for Dave or do we let Dave have his peace and quiet out of the public eye? My guess is that if the contact does not come from Dave himself it will be even easier to ignore. I am sure Peterson receives WAY TOO MUCH MAIL. The only option to guarantee contact is dropping $200 to Peterson's Patreon which would buy a 45 min conversation.
 ~ Carson