How Cambridge flunked the Peterson test
by Douglas Murray, UnHerd:
There is an oddity about almost every ‘scandal’ involving Jordan Peterson. Each time a person or institution tries to diminish him, they end up revealing far more about themselves than their target. When Cathy Newman tried to assail him for Channel 4 News, it wasn’t just her interviewing skill that was shown up, but a rottenness in the media industry as a whole.
Perhaps it will be the same with the latest scandal surrounding him and – this time – Cambridge University. Late last year, some people associated with the university raised the possibility that Peterson (who is currently on leave from his teaching position at the University of Toronto) might like to take up a temporary post as a visiting fellow in the Faculty of Divinity. Peterson had planned to use the position to prepare for a series of lectures on the book of Exodus (following on from his hugely successful lectures on the book of Genesis).
The arrangement could have benefited both parties. Peterson would have been able to enjoy the contributions of other fellows at Cambridge, while the university could have shown itself to be at the absolute forefront of the great discussions and the big issues of our time.
Aside from his body of academic work, one of Peterson’s achievements as an intellectual has been one that very few academics in our age has managed – he has taken academic discussions out into the widest possible public realm. Is there any other public figure who can fill auditoriums around the world night after night with people willing listen to serious and deep lectures on everything from the Bible and Dostoyevsky to neurology and metaphysics? Cambridge would be hard pressed to find another such person. Or anyone who could even come close.
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