12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

This long chapter opens with the following statement: “Life is suffering. That’s clear. There is no more basic, irrefutable truth” (161). This is a point that Peterson has raised before, and one that frames many of his arguments about how to properly understand life and strategize getting through it productively and meaningfully. He says that the most obvious course to take in the face of such a burden is to “pursue pleasure. Follow your impulses. Live for the moment. Do what’s expedient” (162), but that approach is self-fulfilling in the short-term and invites lying and manipulation where other people are involved. Peterson posits, “Is there an alternative, more powerful and more compelling” way to approach life (163)?

The notion of sacrifice runs counter to this expedient way of life. Sacrifice insinuates delayed gratification. We can subscribe to the idea that “sacrifice will improve the future” (166). Peterson again discusses Biblical stories—Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel—to illustrate the development of human thinking and behavior. He also discusses sacrifice in terms of Christ and his mother Mary. Again, the imagery is mostly Christian throughout the chapter’s examples, though he also mentions Socrates’s rejection of the expedient in favor of the “pursuit of the meaningful and true” (173).