Two things were lodged in the trending corner of my Twitter feed all day yesterday. One was Jordan B Peterson, author of the best-selling book Twelve Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. 

Peterson’s book has sold over a million copies. He talks to sold out auditoriums and draws millions to his Youtube page by delivering a message of personal responsibility and telling young men to clean their rooms and grow up.

Yesterday, the Peterson profile piece that I was sure was eventually going to come out, in one way or another, hit the NY Times. In it, Peterson is quoted at length about feminine and masculine roles and said a pile of other things, in detailed, hard to take out of context quotes that are sure to make him less friends in the 21st century western world.

The title and lead line of the profile was Jordan Peterson: Custodian of the Patrimony. He says there’s a crisis in masculinity. Why won’t women — all these wives and witches — just behave?

So, the Twitter storm loomed over him for a few hours until it shifted to another tragic school shooting. 10 children were killed in Santa Fe High School in Texas. It was another disillusioned teenage boy with access to a weapon and the ability to bring it into his school.

I’m not sure I can say much more than I have already on the morality of gun violence. So, I’ll just cut to the chase. While American men everywhere are turning to a Canadian psychology professor to tell them their manly thoughts, we seem to have forgotten one of our most important manly thought responsibilities; keeping our children safe.

When it comes to school shootings, the standard should be zero. And unless we’ve got a non political, non bullshit answer for how we ought to stop it, we should put down the lobster psychology books and get to work. Continue reading “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to School Shootings”