Luther and Peterson should not be compared
Re: Lessons we can learn from Luther — Oct. 30
This opinion piece by David Millar Haskell compared University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson’s refusal to accept gender-neutral pronouns to Martin Luther’s 95 theses. The author compares the two based exclusively on the fact that both men’s opinions are unpopular among the general public, and as such, we as a society must view Peterson’s boldness with the same reverence we hold for Luther’s. What the comparison fails to note is that while Luther looked to dispel myths that allowed the church to charge its followers ransom for their loved ones trapped in purgatory, Peterson’s mission is to shut down the self-identities and world views of minorities. The only way in which the two characters are comparable is that they have ideas that run contrary to those of the majority.
A substantial portion of Peterson’s argument is that there is no evidence to vouch for the validity of a spectrum of identities. This is irrelevant. The major religions of the world remain generally unproven by science, but even most on the right of this country’s political spectrum have learned that it’s unacceptable to discriminate based on religion. Eventually, the same will be true of gender identity, as our country continues its trend of becoming more inclusive.
The author further discredits his argument by attempting to associate Peterson’s opponents with Marxism. The irony of this is, of course, that Marx himself was a man with a radically unpopular opinion, a concept that the author seems to think is a great asset in the cases of Peterson and Luther. In fact, Marx’s story draws a closer parallel with Luther’s than Peterson’s does. Marx and Luther were both great thinkers who rebelled against the exploitation of the many by the few, regardless of the persecution they faced for their ideas.
If having a radical idea is the only prerequisite for earning the author of the article’s reverence, perhaps he should give Marx a Google.
Isaac Winters Kitchener