DailyWire+ host Jordan Peterson and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) are emphasizing the importance young men have on our society, and how what they might view as “small actions” can literally change the world — for good or for evil.
During the pair’s lengthy sit-down released Thursday, Peterson noted that the current message young men are sent from society is largely one of demonization, specifically their ambitions. “Enough of that, man,” Peterson asserted. “Enough of that.”
“I think we need to send a fundamentally different message, which is that their lives, the world, will not be what it could be without them,” Hawley said.
“I think that’s the right message,” he continued. “I think that’s the message of the Bible. I think that’s the message of American history. It’s that the world — there are things that can be done in the world, things that should be done in the world, that only you can do. And that if you don’t do them, they won’t happen. And the world and the people around it, your family, your spouse, your children, they will be impoverished if you don’t shoulder the responsibility that you can shoulder.”
“That’s a high vision. That’s a high calling,” Hawley said. “By the way, that’s true of our country. Our country will be less if you don’t take on the obligations of citizenship. This country can be greater, it can be more, with you.”
“It turns out that it isn’t true that nothing you do matters,” Peterson noted. “What’s true is that everything you do matters … And when people abdicate their responsibility en masse, which is what you saw in Nazi Germany, what you saw in totalitarian Soviet Union, and in Maoist China, that things turned into hell very, very rapidly.”
“I think, is exactly right,” Hawley responded. “And I think it is just deeply true. We can either be moving the world to be more like what it should be — we can make it a little bit more like heaven, or we can make it more like hell. And we’re going to do one or the other.”
“If men abdicate their responsibilities, if they create a vacuum, then you’ve got to expect the malign forces will come into that vacuum and will do terrible things, which is what we saw in the 20th century,” the senator warned. “On the other hand, if men will shoulder their responsibility and be faithful fathers, faithful husbands, strong workers — even small things, even small acts of faithfulness, small acts of sacrifice, small acts of constructive work, have huge effects over time in our own lives and the lives of people around. You don’t have to go cure cancer in order to make a difference.”
“They’re only small if you’re blind,” Peterson said. “Nothing that’s done right is small. And I really believe that’s the case.”
“That small transformation often means a reversal of direction, and a reversal of direction isn’t small,” he continued. “It couldn’t be more different to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction, that’s a big change.”
“I think this smallness of right action is only a consequence of a kind of inappropriate perspective that assumes that the local and daily is minimally important, when there’s no evidence for that at all,” Peterson added. “I mean, you can think about this this way to some degree, the most intense relationships that you’re going to have in your life are local — the relationship you have with your wife and with your child … Your family matters more than anything else.”
When Peterson asked Hawley how legislative steps could be taken to help young men achieve full, meaningful lives for themselves and their families, the senator emphasized a rejection of globalism and multinational corporations that he said have a monopoly. Instead, Hawley argued, the Right needs to focus on bringing back manufacturing jobs for men to earn a living and support a family, noting that manufacturing jobs on average earn more than retail jobs and can sustain a family.
“Conservatives, if they’re going to call men to responsibility and we should, if they’re going to say, we need you, we’ve also at the same time got to say we need to have a society and an economy that provides you with productive work on which you can sustain a family, that there is a legitimate shot for you to go out there, get a job, get married, have a family, and sustain them,” Hawley said, adding, “What I think conservatives in America need to do is we need to say, listen, we’re going to be for an agenda that is unapologetically pro-American worker, unapologetically pro-work, and unapologetically toward for the kind of work that you can support a family on.”
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