Jordan B. Peterson

So it's that they're recreating an idol out of the stuff that was taken from Egypt.

So is the golden calf, is it literally a worship of something like material wealth?

It's also a fertility garden.

Yeah, that's right.

It's a Canaanite fertility.

Is it reasonable to consider him a careless populist?

Well, we spent a lot of time before you arrived on the scene talking about the structure of Mount Sinai with the vertical axis, which was the extension of an ethos that unites people collectively with the vertical axis.

Sorry, I think I said horizontal axis properly.

With the vertical axis, which unites individuals and the people with God, and that the proper form of moral endeavor is unity.

the union of those two things.

It's the union with God that simultaneously provides unity to the people.

And the problem with the leader that you described would be that only one of those axes of moral necessity would be being attended to at one time.

And maybe that's better than being a pure psychopath.

At least you're in dialogue with other people.

But all the people could wander off a cliff together.

So, and this pertains to what you just brought up, Ben.

Moses is talking to God, and he says, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven.

And all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit forever.

And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

So thank God for Moses if you're an Israelite.