mediaite.com
Jordan Peterson abruptly broke down into tears this week after Piers Morgan suggested that Peterson had become “a surrogate dad” to millions of fans.
“Jordan, I’m always struck by how emotional you get when you talk specifically, and this has happened a few times when I’ve talked to you, I think when your mind takes you specifically to young men who’ve come and told you what they’ve been going through,” said Morgan during the show on Tuesday. “And it’s almost like you’ve become a surrogate dad to just, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of young men who for whatever reason have been lost and feel lost and feel abandoned.”
Peterson became emotional and stated:
"I was in contact with thousands of people and they talked to me, and I could see this demoralization, you know? And it’s part of fatherlessness, broadly speaking, and sometimes specifically, and I could see the pathway to rectifying that. The pathway to rectifying that, as far as I’ve been able to understand, and I’ve understood this more deeply as the years have gone by, is that we’re built for adventure, Piers."
"And you take on adventure by taking on maximal responsibility, and that’s the symbol of hoisting your cross voluntarily and trudging up the hill, right? And that’s the symbol upon which our society is founded, and the adventure of life justifies its suffering and it’s maximized with maximal responsibility, and it’s maximized with truth."
Tears then began to roll down Peterson’s face as he continued, “And that's why Israel is just so important, man. I was ill for quite a long time and I think that that was part of the reason, just seeing this malaise so deep, and it’s also so easily addressed in a sense. You know, it’s that paradoxical combination of depth of suffering and ease of rectification. These young men into antisemitic propaganda are just lost.”