Jordan Peterson, Utilita Arena Birmingham, 14 September 2022

Driving past Birmingham is something I do a fair bit. Driving into Birmingham is something I do far less often, but when your favourite public intellectual – like, ever – Jordan Peterson is speaking, it has to be done. Even when you are charged £17.50 for parking by paying in advance (only on arriving do you realise you could have paid half that amount on the day) and you spend £13.79 for a modest Mac and Cheese and a lemonade at a nearby pub, the latter which you knock over the moment you sit down, leaving yourself with one tiny mouthful.

Anyway, on with the show, which was scheduled to start at 7.30 but actually started at 7.45 presumably because of the snaking queues to get in. I looked around at my fellow Jordanites. They looked at me back. We were all wondering what kind of crowd goes to see Professor Peterson. The answer was: completely normal, perfectly fine people, some dressed to the nines, some in shorts. (Sigh, if I must go down this route: yes, they were mostly white – but not exclusively – and maybe the male/female balance was 60/40. Like a nude beach.) Protestors I saw none.

I didn't know who'd be compering the evening. Turned out it was Jordan’s wife Tammy, who seemed very sweet. She wandered onto the stage, chatted for a minute or so (“This is our first time in Birmingham… we hope to have a look round tomorrow”) and then introduced the man, her husband, who has taken her life to places she could never have imagined a few years back. He then strode out in another excellent suit, immaculately fitted to his lean frame.

There was only room for five questions all evening, because Jordan will never not go into great detail and he will never not go off on tangents (but what glorious tangents). The questions were, if I remember rightly: 1) Are there any intellectuals around today who you feel are equal to the likes of Jung and Nietzsche? 2) Something about the development of children between the ages of two and four (sorry, can’t recall exactly). 3) Why has there been a rise in the number of children diagnosed with ADHD? 4) What do we do about gender politics in schools? 5) How was your meeting with [Portuguese and Man Utd footballer] Ronaldo?

For 1) Jordan only cited two men, scientists who had written great books on the brain and human development (I remember neither name, unfortunately). In the fields of philosophy and literature he could think of no one worth mentioning. For 2) he discussed how if a child’s behaviour hasn’t been regulated by the age of four, they will be in trouble for the rest of their lives. If you are a parent your prime role, he advised, is to make sure that by four your child is well-socialised. For 3) he questioned whether there actually has been a rise in the number of children diagnosed with ADHD, and he also questioned whether ADHD even exists, which he qualified with a lengthy discourse on child development which in part harked back to what he’d been saying previously. Question 4) about gender politics was greeted with applause and even a few whoops: the audience was gleeful with anticipation, this was the sort of thing a lot of us had come for – it was like when The Rolling Stones launch into the first chords of ‘Satisfaction’. Jordan didn’t disappoint. He first sadly stated that in the US many parents are withdrawing their children from public school, and then he went to talk about trust – which included stories about the success of eBay, and buying a vehicle component from someone thousands of miles from his home – and how it’s a terrible thing when the people have lost trust in the state. For 5) he said he’d had a very enjoyable two and a half hours chatting with Ronaldo, an athlete who he believes looks ten years younger than he is, and he reminded us how remarkable it was that the footballer had been at the pinnacle of his profession for over 20 years. My opinion of Ronaldo has sky-rocketed thanks to his association with Dr Peterson; ignore the tiny amount of noisy know-nothings saying their meeting was ‘controversial’.

Tammy and Jordan were on stage for an hour and three quarters, which didn’t seem long enough. Not necessarily because I’d spent £70.48 on my ticket but because the time flew and we wanted Jordan to go on talking and cover more subjects. Perhaps a ‘rapid-fire’ round at the end might have been fun, with Jordan only allowed to answer questions with a single sentence.

There’s been much talk of how society has been ‘dumbed down’ in recent years, and there’s some validity in that claim, but here was a near-capacity audience of several thousand people in modern-day Birmingham held rapt for nearly two hours by a clinical psychologist who does not in any way dumb things down for his listeners. And what an orator he is, speaking precisely and articulately, not a word wasted or mis-used, drawing on his vast reservoir of multi-faceted knowledge to inform and guide us. He uses frequent hand gestures to make his points – intelligent people use their hands a lot, it is said (note to self: use your hands more when talking). The evening is notable for a lack of pretension, showiness and affectation. It feels organic, and honest; Jordan doesn’t set himself up as a leader, but more an advisor, one who is in the position to be so because of his extensive learning, which he has skilfully assembled and crafted to form a world view and a basis on how to navigate that world. His answer to the question of what we do about gender politics is ultimately: get more involved in civic society, join school boards, join business clubs, join political parties. He’s a teacher, not a preacher. He doesn’t just carp, he offers help.

His paragraphs (and it does feel like he talks in paragraphs) are punctuated with data-driven factoids. One thing I learnt tonight was that 75% of divorces are initiated by the female. This is because, at the root of it, women are more prone to negative emotion. And Jordan has the data at his fingertips for this sort of claim, so it feels in no way rude or prejudicial. Sitting near me were three young women (by themselves), did they feel offended by such talk? No. How could they? I mean, why would you, if you are sensible? These words aren’t just conjured up out of thin air, they derive from proper, untainted evidence. How could a man as brilliant as Jordan ever be wrong about anything? you nearly ask yourself. To hear Jordan Peterson speak on stage is far removed from listening to a politician’s platitudinous cant, where they get an orchestrated clap every two lines for whatever they ejaculate.

Perhaps the close of the show could have been more carefully constructed. Tammy and Jordan basically said ‘that’s all, folks’ and people started clapping, many got to their feet, and Jordan got to his and thanked us while the applause rang out, but we never got a final oration from him. The claps started and went on, so there wasn’t a chance for a pause where he could impart a final, proper sermon or salutation. And there was to be no encore of course, no Jordan nipping out again from behind the curtain to, for example, roast world leaders for turning 2020’s public health crisis into an existential tragedy, a final shot of intellectual adrenalin to send us into the night with fire in our hearts and minds. Ooh, it would have been good, though.

And so, as we filed out, passing the merchandise stand charging extortionate prices – £30 for a small poster of JP! – we, the great British public were, I’d say, pretty happy to have been in the same room as the great Canadian. If there had been anyone who’d gone in there looking for ammunition to fire back later at him on social media, they would likely have been disappointed. Wisdom is hardy, and careful articulation makes it near impregnable. What a fascinating evening it was, for a number of reasons.

PS I told a few friends and colleagues – those I could trust with the incendiary information! – that I was going to see Jordan Peterson; most of them said 'Who?' This is a sad indictment of our time. If we lived in a West that was conservative this would not be the case – Jordan would be a household name. But we don't – the Left have taken over all the institutions and by and large control the channels of communication. It's for this same dismal reason that vastly more people have heard of Greta Thunberg than Michael Shellenberger.