[May 28, 2026] In a society that devalues the father’s role and elevates the single mother, we have sown the seeds of failure in all our children. The world is a tough, dismal place. Without the encouragement of the real father, it is difficult to be courageous. This is a difficult but needed message from Dr. Jordan Peterson.
Unless you have your father behind you in body and spirit, it is very demoralizing. It destroys people not to have their mother; they just don’t recover from that. But the next worst thing is to have no father present to have your back.
“If your father rejects you, or doesn’t form a relationship with you, it’s as if the spirit of civilization has left you outside the walls as of little worth.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson
Dr. Peterson goes on to note that it’s very difficult to recover from that. The father should be an encouraging force, but can also be a tyrannical and crushing force. This is difficult to get right, partly because “If you’re my son, then I should impose the highest standards of behavior on you, and I should always be judging what you’re doing.”
This judgment should be to make the best in you come forward. The balance here to get it correct is very difficult. It is simply too easy for a father to swing too much into judgment. The father’s own pathologies mean he’s going to do that imperfectly. Some fathers are jealous as the child “competes” with the love and affection of the mother and other siblings. Many things can go terribly wrong.
The father as wise king is something that is lost in the West, particularly at the universities. All students are taught is to tear that down. Universities have destroyed that element of the family and continue to pursue this ideology that ultimately undermines the family element, but also the community.
The good father is like, “Get your act together, but I’m on your side.” The good father pushes his children out into the world to experience the danger that might very well destroy them. He wants the best in you to emerge. To do so, we need standards. “Stop wasting your life.” That’s a message people want to hear, especially if they have any sense.
Ultimately, the father is the one who discusses responsibility with his children. Everyone else only talks to young people about rights. And, yes, we need our rights, but we are already more privileged than any person on earth, anywhere, who has ever existed. The question Dr. Peterson rhetorically asks about this constant, ongoing discussion of rights is “so demeaning that you have to be protected and have your rights.”
There’s a huge marketplace for responsibility. That’s what you should be discussing with young people. Do something worthwhile with your life. Fathers should convince their children of the importance of responsibility because that is where life has meaning. The more responsibility you take on, the more meaning your life has, and the higher degree of responsibility that you voluntarily agree to try to bear, the richer your life will be. It’s going to be rough with all these responsibilities, and it’s not easy; it’s complicated. There’s deep meaning in it, and young people are starving for that message.
The kids who lack fathers can find that to some degree in their friends. Boys do this in particular by going into gangs, and they generate the missing masculinity in the gang. That’s not so good because they don’t know what a man does, what a man does in accepting responsibility.
The message from the good father is “stand up and do something difficult and heroic.” That is a necessary message because we have to be more than we are, because if we aren’t, we aren’t going to survive.
NOTE: Many of these ideas today are from Dr. Jordan Peterson.
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Dr. Jordan Peterson powerfully underscores the critical role of the good father in fostering courage and responsibility. In a culture that diminishes fathers, children face greater challenges navigating a harsh world. The father provides essential backing, judgment, and high standards to draw out the best in his children. Balancing encouragement with discipline is difficult yet vital. He pushes kids toward heroism and meaningful action. Responsibility, not just rights, builds true life meaning. Without strong fathers, society risks gangs and lost masculinity. Restoring the wise king archetype in families is urgent. Essential wisdom for rebuilding strong Western foundations.
Thoughtful piece by Gen. Satterfield on the vital role of fathers in building responsibility and courage in children. Peterson’s insights highlight the balance of judgment and support that’s often missing today. Essential reading for restoring strong family foundations. Well done!
Another classic, thanks Gen. Satterfield. 😁
Indeed. ❤️ This is the kind of article that a person can actually learn something on how things can easily go haywire in your life when you’re not looking. And in this case we can easily ‘see’ that there are certain subcultures in America where the absence of a father can lead to violence, incarceration, and destruction of the family and community. The most obvious are blacks in America who are going full ghetto. The fatigue is there for everyone to see.