Page 54 - How to play life to your advantage -print

look directly at the Shadow, the unconscious mind, to see whether they are moving

towards the fast lane with a trajectory of an epic crash and burn.

From pouring over Peterson’s work I have come to understand that as humans we may

fall prey to a pathology. There is the pathology of the mind, where as individuals we

might build a level of resentment due to repeated experiences of hypocrisy in our daily

lives. Peterson’s favourite reference for this is Panzram, a psychopathic serial killer in

the United States who wrote an autobiography explaining why he had become what

he became.

On a large scale though, we may fall prey to pathological societies. Pathology on a

large scale was evident during the Holocaust. It was evident during Stalin’s tyranny

over Russia.

When we look at a pathology on a large scale it becomes harder for us to separate

ourselves from the truth. Was Germany or Russia made up of millions and millions of

psychopaths? Can we genuinely say to ourselves that if we had been in that situation

ourselves that we would not have also turned a blind eye to the mass execution, the

genocide of a whole ethnicity, merely to save our own skin?

The issue with Germany and Russia was not that all citizens suffered an acute form of

psychopathy, but rather that no one spoke up. No one said no. Well people did say no,

but not enough people. The majority of humans just sat there and they did nothing.

They sat on their hands and they stayed silent. They buried their heads in the sand

while millions and millions of their fellow citizens were massacred.

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