I've got time for Peterson, even though I strongly disagree with him about feminism and other matters. He's one of the only public figures telling young men to take responsibility for themselves.
But reading his article, I'm struck again by a particular absence that I see whenever issues of identity politics are discussed, even when the connection to narcissism is mentioned, and that is that this modern presentation of identity politics, this rabbit hole of internalisation we are seeing, will categorically fail to prepare young people to navigate the real world outside of institutional walls.
More precisely, that nowhere in this debate is there any recognition that considered actions that lead to tangible, material, positive results is one of the key pathways to self-contentment, self-esteem and self-actualisation.
In short, it is what you do, rather than what you are, that delivers a secure identity within the self. Not only that, but it is what you do that creates markers for greater personal meaning.
I read an article years ago that forecast the impact of this lack of understanding of the importance of tangible endeavour. If you were a navvie 150 years ago, you could point to a piece of track and say "I made that", "I achieved that". You had left something on the earth; you had done something you could see and touch. The writer made the point that young people are not being taught how important the pursuit of this type of tangible endeavour is, and that in their view, it was going to lead to a mass crisis of the self.
Which, you could argue, has kinda happened.
Now I would have expected Peterson to discuss these sorts of issues because we are now in the midst of a cultural obsession with who we are, rather than what we do. But he doesn't, and I find that quite perplexing.