Clean Your Room, Change the World

From FEE.org:

In a now-famous appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, psychologist Jordan B. Peterson pointed out how strange it is that many politically-engaged young people are preoccupied with reorganizing society and the economic system when they can’t even organize their own bedrooms. He said:

…don’t be fixing up the economy, 18-year-olds. You don’t know anything about the economy. It’s a massive complex machine beyond anyone’s understanding and you mess with at your peril. So can you even clean up your own room? No. Well you think about that. You should think about that, because if you can’t even clean up your own room, who the hell are you to give advice to the world

Indeed, as economic philosophers Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Leonard Read demonstrated, a market economy is so bafflingly complex that even an omniscient and perfectly virtuous central planner (presumably with an immaculate office) couldn’t hope to centrally plan it. So what kind of guidance can be expected from someone who can’t even centrally plan their own closet?

And yet, so many are ardent about “changing the world” while being profoundly neglectful of their own little corner of the world. This approach to life is a recipe for angst and depression. Dwelling on things you cannot change leads to feelings of frustration and impotence. And neglecting the things you can change leads to stagnation and crisis.

Dr. Peterson’s prescription for this life disorder is as follows:

My sense is that if you want to change the world, you start from yourself and work outward, because you build your competence that way.”  [read more]

The millennials think their parents should clean their rooms. And when they become Leftists they think the gov’t should clean up their messes. No personal responsibility.