The Temptations of Pinocchio, Maps of Meaning, and Zen

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** July 27, 2020 | DR. JORDAN B. PETERSON
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** The Four Temptations of Pinocchio
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The following is from a previous draft of Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.

Geppetto sends Pinocchio out into the world to be schooled, with his peers, with his best wishes, which is the best that a good father can do for his child. Armed with his conscience, with whom he must establish a true dialogue, the now-freed puppet is thus exposed to the temptations of the world. At one level of analysis, of course, Pinocchio is a straightforward and sometimes even clichéd story of naïve goodness triumphing in the world of evil. The Blue Fairy says as much. Lurking behind this façade, however, is a much deeper and truly brutal story.

Pinocchio is presented with four classic worldly temptations. He is first offered the opportunity to live as an actor. What this means is that he could seek success through pretense, and decide to be the one who is seen to do things rather than the one who does them. Carl Jung regarded a person who has made such a choice as nothing but persona, nothing but a crowd-pleaser and a conformist. The film makes it immediately clear that this is a direct pathway to perdition. Pinocchio’s promoter, Stromboli (one of the analogs of the Coachman), turns out also to be a tyrant, greedy and violent to the point of deadliness. After he abandons his conscience, Pinocchio discovers that he has been imprisoned, not only by Stromboli, who is a master manipulator, but by his own shallow ambition, which made him susceptible to Stromboli’s temptations.

Fortunately, the puppet has enough natural resilience to spring back from his mistake. The Blue Fairy comes to rescue him, whereupon Pinocchio immediately falls prey to the second temptation, deceit. He lies so brazenly trying to mask his responsibility for his enslavement and downfall that he almost fatally compromises his future. This is the first time in the film where a lapse in individual responsibility, particularly in relationship to speech and truth, is tied to existence under tyranny. Pinocchio’s lies seriously tempt the Blue Fairy to leave him to suffer the consequences of his immature and narcissistic ambition and his naïve but arrogant attempts to deceive.

She frees him, however—offering him her final gift of grace, prior to the very end of the movie. Pinocchio escapes, rejoins his somewhat exasperated and also now somewhat wiser conscience, and decides to return to the strait and narrow path leading to genuine education.

However, he is waylaid once again by a third existential temptation: Honest John and Gideon, now acting as direct agents of the Coachman, tempt him to capitalize on his essential mortal fragility, and to shirk responsibility through neurotic sickness. This is an Oedipal temptation: essentially, Pinocchio is encouraged to remain infantile, reject all development and responsibility, with his pretense of illness, which transforms him into someone who is justified in such rejection. It is very difficult not to read into this a severe warning at the present time against what has become standard practice in the broader social community, with its emphasis on the protection of the feelings of students and workers alike in all conceivable situations, regardless of the import and demand of the true tasks at hand.

This leads to the fourth temptation. Pinocchio now finds himself transported to Pleasure Island by the Coachman, accompanied by the cocksure, false and arrogant Lampwick, whose name is reminiscent of Lucifer (the light-bringer, and certainly the demolisher of naivete)...

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Recent Media Releases
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Maps of Meaning ([link removed]) is now airing on the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.
* This new series is taken from Dr. Peterson's 2017 lectures at the University of Toronto. The first episode explains the motivation for Maps of Meaning. Against the background of the Cold War, how is one to understand the fundamental belief differences encoded in Western democratic values versus Eastern totalitarianism? Listen to Maps of Meaning 1: Context and Background ([link removed]) .

The final episode of the Biblical podcast ([link removed]) was released last week. Join the discussion on Joseph and the Coat of Many Colours ([link removed]) .


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Recommended Reading
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Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ([link removed])

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Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better.

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