Lessons from Jordan Peterson
1. PURPOSE: If you are looking for purpose in life, start with the reduction of suffering - suffering speaks out to everyone as an irreducible truth. No one can deny that suffering is bad, so start with that.
2. AIM: We need to have an aim - it's psychologically necessary. You don't need to listen to any dogmatic person for what your aim should be. Look within yourself - find what you truly value deep within and aim for that.
3. BEAUTY: Beauty is an aspect of what we value. Try to surround yourself with beauty to inspire you in your pursuit of your values.
4. CLEAN YOUR ROOM: Don't try to change the world until you have fixed up yourself. Related to epistemic humility - resist the Dunning-Kruger effect. Use your desire to make the world a better place as motivation to improve yourself first so that you can actually be effective in your goals. Be cautious about the negative impacts of your arrogant ignorance.
5. POLITICAL DIVERSITY: The political left have a legitimate role to play in speaking on behalf of the people at the bottom of hierarchies. The political right have a legitimate role to play in speaking on behalf of making sure the hierarchies are working efficiently. The left have a legitimate role in promoting openness to new things, progressing to new ideas when old ideas aren't working. The political right have a legitimate role to play in promoting borders and rules for protection, conserving old ideas when new ideas are not properly vetted.
6. POLITICAL PERSONALITY: A lot of political tendencies are personality based, so we should try to hate each other less and be more empathetic to others, remembering how different perspectives are valuable.
7. BOTH SIDES CAN GO TOO FAR: It is possible for both the political right and the political left to become pathologized. It is possible for both extremes to go too far. Nazi Germany is a good example of the right going too far. Stalin's Russia was an example of the left going too far. The solution to extremism is to tell the truth as you see it. When people collectively lie and self-censor, it leads to cultural pathologies.
8. INVESTIGATE EXAMPLES OF EVIL: If we want to define evil, an exploration of Nazi Germany and the holocaust seem like a good place to start. Including the atrocities committed by Communist regimes could help too. The desire to cause unnecessary suffering seems to be the core of that evil. We need to learn of it so we can be wary of its sources within ourselves.
9. RELIGION IS VALID: Religion has a psychologically valuable role to play - it inspires us with modes of being, inspiring us how to act in the best way. Because of the is/ought fact/values dichotomy, science is like an exploration of what "is", and religion is like an exploration of what "ought" to be. We should be open to learning the best modes of being - how to act in the world - from the best sources available. Hierarchies of supply and demand help us navigate what has the highest value within our psyches. Harry Potter, for example, was hugely successful. Many people invested much time and effort into that mythology, so there must be something of psychological value to be extracted from it. Similarly, the Bible is a hugely popular book with many people investing their lives into it, therefore we should be open to the idea that there are valuable psychological treasures to be discovered within.
10. RESENTMENT VS TRANSCENDENCE: Suffering without meaning breeds resentment. Resentment is a poison that will make you want to cause suffering in revenge. You will become the evil that you hate when you desire to cause unnecessary suffering to spite existence for allowing you to suffer. The cure is the path that Jesus followed - to accept your suffering, to pick up your cross, and to choose to make the world a better place despite that suffering. By voluntarily confronting that which you fear and accepting your suffering, you simultaneously transcend it.
11. HONESTY: If you want to construct your own moral code, you should strongly consider starting with a principle of honesty. By committing to honesty you force yourself to act in accordance with your own moral intuitions. Because the fact that you don't want to talk about your behavior honestly is evidence that you are ashamed of your behavior. The fact that you are ashamed of it might be evidence that it is violating your internal moral code and that there must be something wrong with that pattern of behavior. Honesty helps keep you psychologically healthy by staying internally consistent with your own morals.