In this video, Dr. Oz presents the question, “ A lot of leaders are struggling… what is your best advice to them?” Jordan Peterson believes it comes down to how they can help their “enemies”. The ability to extend some sympathy to them and to think about the people they’re not reaching because they’re your citizens too. Also, a leader identifies the problems. They go out and survey, listen, and then rank orders for the problems. Then, they start talking about solutions to the problems. Jordan Peterson feels that politicians should also tell the truth and just talk to people without a script.
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00:00 A lot of leaders are struggling. They're not sure what to tell their flock.
00:06 They're uncertain of their own words. It doesn't feel stable to them.
00:11 What's your best advice to them? They're vital.
00:15 How can you help your enemies?
00:17 Contemplate that. You have political enemies. How could you speak to them?
00:21 How could you extend some sympathy out to them?
00:24 Figure out how you can talk to them because they're half your country in particular,
00:29 but increasingly every Western country.
00:30 The Democrats, you need to think about that disaffected Republican.
00:35 What can you say to invite him along? You've already got the people you've got.
00:39 And I know you have to pander to them in some sense.
00:42 That's the wrong word. And you should never pander, and certainly not to extremists.
00:46 But you should be thinking about the people you're not reaching.
00:50 They're your citizens, too.
00:52 You know, I was on Bill Maher's show at one point,
00:55 and he had a bunch of liberal people there.
00:59 You know, and I think of myself politically essentially as a classical liberal,
01:03 but in any case,
01:05 it was after the show. I want you to say that again because I think most
01:08 viewers think that you're
01:10 a conservative.
01:11 Well, conservatives tend to be more concerned about the preservation of tradition,
01:16 and liberals, classic liberals, tend to be more concerned with the,
01:20 what would you say, the sovereignty of the individual.
01:22 And they both have their point, believe me, they have their point.
01:25 But I tend more towards the sovereignty of the individual, so I'm more of a classical liberal.
01:30 So you're on the show, but you're not the most leftist person on the show.
01:33 No, no, and I'm certainly not the most political person on the show,
01:36 and Maher has me there, despite the fact that he thinks I'm a conservative,
01:40 and in some ways I am.
01:42 You know, and after the show,
01:44 the liberal types were all sort of
01:46 self-congratulatory, patting themselves on the back for being liberal types,
01:49 making cracks about Trump and about the stupidity of the people who voted for Trump.
01:55 And I was listening to that, and I thought,
01:57 I'm going to throw a little bomb in here just out of curiosity.
02:01 These people you're talking about,
02:04 they're half your country.
02:05 Pretty much, you guys are split exactly down the middle. It's half and half, right?
02:09 It's been like that for like 30 years?
02:11 That's right.
02:12 Right, right. So it's half your country.
02:15 They're your neighbors, they're the people down the street, they're in your family.
02:18 What exactly do you propose to do with these miscreants?
02:23 You have to live with them.
02:27 Silence.
02:29 Because I got under the conversation.
02:33 It's like, they're all bad, are they, those people?
02:37 You know, I am more liberal in my temperament.
02:39 I actually like conservatives better generally.
02:43 They're less arrogant in their intellectual pretensions.
02:47 You know, and so like a good, solid, hardworking, conservative, truck driving type,
02:54 fisherman, someone like that.
02:57 I like those people.
02:58 They're not deplorables.
03:00 So that's, I really do think there's a meditative exercise.
03:02 It's like, you think those are your enemies and that they're wrong.
03:05 It's like, but they're your people.
03:07 It's up to you to talk to them.
03:09 Are we not, are political leaders not expecting enough from the citizens voting for them?
03:14 Definitely not.
03:15 They, you know, and that's because they turn themselves over to handlers all the time and
03:19 craft their image.
03:20 What should they be saying?
03:21 What's the message that you think would work?
03:23 They should just tell the truth and they should use YouTube.
03:28 They should just talk to people.
03:30 No script.
03:31 They should just talk or maybe have someone that they trust ask them questions and they
03:35 should just tell them what they think.
03:37 Unvarnished.
03:38 Assume your audience is intelligent.
03:39 They're way more intelligent than you think.
03:41 I never simplify anything I'm saying.
03:43 I try to say it as clearly as possible.
03:46 You know, I try to make it detailed and practical, but I assume the audience is along for the
03:51 ride and they are.
03:52 And it's so fun in a strange way.
03:57 The YouTube comments, you know, apart from the odd person who really hates me, and it
04:01 doesn't happen very often, all the YouTube comments are positive.
04:05 YouTube comments, they're positive.
04:08 It's like, hmm, what the hell?
04:10 Rex Murphy, one of Canada's great journalists, a profound man, poetic, unbelievably literate,
04:16 deep, humble, no pretension in Rex Murphy, which is quite something because he's quite
04:21 something.
04:23 He came on, we did this talk, discussion.
04:26 He talked about the influence of poetry on his education.
04:29 It's, you know, an abstract conversation about an abstruse topic that hypothetically
04:35 is all that intellectual artsy-fartsy, claptrap poetry, who the hell needs that?
04:41 The audience response was overwhelmingly positive because he opened it up.
04:46 He said, "I love this," and he meant it.
04:48 "Look, this is what it's done.
04:49 It taught me to speak."
04:51 And everyone knows Rex Murphy can speak.
04:53 His commentaries on our national broadcaster's news kept that news service alive in the ratings
05:00 for years after it had invalidated itself on ideological grounds, and they hated him.
05:06 And he was the greatest thing they ever produced.
05:10 So don't underestimate.
05:12 Why would you lead people you despise?
05:16 And what exactly is it that you're leading?
05:18 And you better listen to them, too, because they know what the problems are.
05:21 One of the best politicians I ever talked with was this man named Preston Manning, who
05:26 started a political party in Canada.
05:27 He was a pretty conservative character in the truest sense and came from a very long
05:31 political lineage.
05:33 His father had been premier of Alberta.
05:36 When he started his political party, he'd go out and make a speech, but he really liked
05:39 the Q&As, and that's where he derived all his platforms, from listening to people.
05:43 And he could listen, and he did.
05:45 So he was a leader.
05:46 He went and listened to everyone.
05:48 What's your problem exactly?
05:50 Because that's the issue.
05:52 A leader identifies the problems.
05:56 Not the solutions, necessarily.
05:58 But he goes out and surveys.
06:00 What's your problem?
06:01 What's your problem?
06:02 What's your problem?
06:03 What's your problem?
06:04 And listens.
06:05 What's your problem?
06:06 Okay, now let's rank order these problems.
06:09 That's hard, because we've got to make priorities.
06:12 So and then, okay, let's start talking about solutions.
06:15 Well who should we have to discuss that?
06:17 Well, liberals and conservatives, because the liberals will be visionary and the conservatives
06:21 will say, "How do you know your stupid visions are accurate?"
06:24 Do you find, because I do, I'll admit this, that oftentimes as we identify the problems,
06:30 we believe that there is a government solution that's out there somewhere?
06:35 Yeah, wouldn't that be nice?
06:37 And I've wondered if political leaders should be saying once in a while, "That's an issue
06:42 that you're going to be able to deal with better than we can deal with."
06:44 Yeah.
06:45 You know, maybe there's one or two things we can do to sort of grease the wheels, but
06:48 don't think it's coming from us, because if you can't--
06:51 Or even don't think you want it coming from us, because look at all the power we would
06:54 have to cede to ourselves if we decided to solve that problem.
06:57 Yes, and conservatives are good at that too, saying, "No, no, there's limits here.
07:01 The government shouldn't overreach its purview, because then it doesn't serve you, it, you
07:05 know, tyrannizes you instead."
07:08 Where that line is, we don't know, and a shift, so that's why we have to talk, because the
07:13 line keeps moving.
07:14 We're on the back of a snake, and it keeps twisting around.
07:16 Where's the snake?
07:17 Well, it was over here yesterday, but now it's over there.
07:20 And so that's why we have to talk, and talk truthfully.
07:23 But the new-- I'm hoping the new politician, just jump over the old media and use this
07:29 new technology.
07:30 It's like, just talk to the people that you're serving.
07:33 I love talking to you, Gordon Peterson.
07:35 Thank you.