12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Chaos is an extremely important concept in the rules outlined in the book. Peterson describes chaos in several ways, often invoking it figuratively rather than scientifically. Early in the book, he calls it “the domain of ignorance itself” (35). He contrasts it with its opposite, order, which is the realm of what is known and comfortable. Chaos therefore is a state of being or immersion in circumstances that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Peterson likens it to “the foreigner, the stranger […] the monster under the bed” (35). He stresses at many points that chaos emerges regularly in life and presents humans with enormous challenges—challenges they are more likely to overcome by following the rules he presents, called in the subtitle of the book the “antidote to chaos.”

While people tend to experience chaos negatively, Peterson also explains that it is full of possibilities. People who can cope with chaos directly and creatively can shape it into a new order than improves the old. Chaos holds potential precisely because it is not perfectly ordered. Therefore, Peterson directs people to have “one foot in what [they] have mastered and understood and the other in what [they] are currently exploring and mastering” (44).