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The truth is that, as of now, I haven't actually read Jordan Peterson's premier book, Maps of Meaning – I simply read the Blinkist summary of the book. Shortly before, however, I had watched The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast #34 – Coleman Hughes with Jordan and Mikhaila Peterson because I am an enthusiastic supporter of Coleman Hughes. I knew nothing of Mikhaila, only to learn that most of the conversation would be between Coleman and Mikhaila's father, Jordan Peterson.

I was impressed. What I liked about Coleman Hughes was his nuanced criticism of ideology, whether on the right or the left – and I was pleased to hear the same nuanced thinking from Mikhaila's father, Jordan. So, after listening to their conversation, I decided to return to Blinkist to see if summaries of Jordan's books were available. They are – and Jordan's two books, Maps of Meaning and 12 Rules for Life, include audios of the Blinkist summaries, which meant I was able to listen to the Maps of Meaning summary while on my daily three-mile walk along the Upper West Side section of Riverside Park.

What that summary evoked from me was memories of what I learned a few decades ago from the two-month Ecumenical Institute Academy on the west side of Chicago – a ghetto, in the language of the seventies. During that time I learned how twentieth century theologians like Bultmann, Tillich and Bonhoeffer made it possible to understand the narratives of Christian gospels without rejecting the modern secular/scientific understanding of the world we live in.

What Jordan's Maps of Meaning apparently does is offer an even more general understanding of religious and social mythologies – how they function and why we should not reject 'mythology' as equivalent to 'unreality' – that the 'reality' that mythologies deal with has to do with social cohesion and, ideally, individual fulfillment.

After reading the Blinkist summary, I checked Wikipedia which summarizes the key reviews of books. Peterson's Maps of Meaning got several very positive initial reviews but more recently several rather negative reviews. The latter seemed to be to be from those who adhere to the current extreme leftist ideology. That was confirmed by seeing that Peterson is now considered to be one of the key figures in the so-called “intellectual dark web”, which includes others analysts I value so much, like John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, Bret Weinstein and Steven Pinker, among many others.

Interestingly, one reviewer said Maps of Meaning could not be summarized, which suggests that I should probably add it to the overly long list of books that I need to read before I die. In the interim, I will follow up by reading and listening to the Blinkist summary of Peterson's second book, 12 Rules for Life. I will also watch at least some of the 380 YouTube videos currently included in the Jordan B Peterson YouTube channel.

#100daystooffload Day 19.