Clinical psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson says “we’re in a strange time right now” because there is more opportunity in front of us and “more potential for catastrophe” than there’s been at any point in the past.
“And the reason for that is that we’re much more technologically powerful,” Dr Peterson said.
“And that things are transforming at a much more rapid rate than they ever have.
“That means that we could all go to hell in a handbasket in a particularly spectacular way and we could create a deeper hell than any we’ve managed to produce in the past – which is really saying something.”
Dr Peterson, a world-famous public intellectual, spoke with Sky News Australia host Andrew Bolt as part of a wide-ranging exclusive interview on Sky News Australia.
“But I would say, by the same token, we could produce a world that’s much better than anything we could have ever dreamed of and that that’s an equally likely outcome assuming that that’s what we decided to aim for,” Dr Peterson said.
He discussed which of those two options is likely to make itself manifest.
“I would say that depends … on the decision of every single person who’s currently alive,” Dr Peterson said.
“If we all aim up and we do what’s necessary to make aiming up a reality then we have an unlimited horizon in front of us.”
“But, if we are foolish and frightened and tyrannical and narcissistic and ungrateful and sinful, for that matter, then we could make things pretty damn miserable, and we could do it fast.”
