WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 What connects a modern human rights activist 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:07.080 fighting for refugees in Denmark with, well, 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:09.400 with the forgotten stories of men who deserted 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:12.039 Hitler's army during World War II? It is quite 00:00:12.039 --> 00:00:14.900 the jump, isn't it? It really is. Welcome back 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.539 to the Deep Dive. Today we are pointing our magnifying 00:00:17.539 --> 00:00:22.059 glass at the life, the activism, and the rather 00:00:22.059 --> 00:00:24.940 intense literary works of Lars G. Peterson. A 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:27.469 truly remarkable trajectory to map out. Yeah, 00:00:27.469 --> 00:00:30.510 we are unpacking the timeline of a Swedish -British 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:33.549 human rights activist, blogger, and author to 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:36.490 trace this really fascinating thread of defiance 00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:39.049 that runs through his entire career. So if you 00:00:39.049 --> 00:00:40.890 are passionate about human rights, or even if 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:43.729 you are just a history buff, this deep dive is 00:00:43.729 --> 00:00:47.090 for you. We are looking at a man born in 1951 00:00:47.090 --> 00:00:49.689 whose work spans multiple decades and countries, 00:00:49.909 --> 00:00:52.490 and he has dedicated a significant portion of 00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:54.509 his life to examining what it actually means 00:00:54.509 --> 00:00:56.670 to stand up against systemic abuse. Absolutely. 00:00:56.909 --> 00:00:59.530 But before we get into the mechanics of his advocacy, 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:01.729 I want to establish a very clear ground rule 00:01:01.729 --> 00:01:03.670 for you, our listener. Right, the impartiality 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.730 rule. Exactly. The historical and biographical 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:09.909 material we are examining today touches on highly 00:01:09.909 --> 00:01:13.170 sensitive, politically charged issues. We will 00:01:13.170 --> 00:01:15.469 be talking about... modern refugee policies the 00:01:15.469 --> 00:01:18.629 death penalty military conscription and the actions 00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:21.349 of soldiers during global conflicts heavy stuff 00:01:21.709 --> 00:01:25.109 Very heavy. So our goal here today is absolutely 00:01:25.109 --> 00:01:28.250 not to endorse any specific political viewpoint 00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:31.790 or take sides on these global debates. Our mission 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:35.129 is purely analytical. We are impartially reporting 00:01:35.129 --> 00:01:38.049 on Peterson's areas of focus to understand how 00:01:38.049 --> 00:01:40.230 he connects these disparate issues through the 00:01:40.230 --> 00:01:42.989 lens of individual human rights. OK, let's untack 00:01:42.989 --> 00:01:44.790 this because we are going to be traveling across 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:48.150 Sweden, Denmark and London today. A very broad 00:01:48.150 --> 00:01:50.049 geographic footprint. Right. So let's start with 00:01:50.049 --> 00:01:51.750 the geographical. and professional foundation 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:54.709 of his life. Lars G. Pedersen is Swedish by birth, 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:56.950 but he spent a significant amount of his early 00:01:56.950 --> 00:01:59.129 career working on the ground in Denmark. And 00:01:59.129 --> 00:02:01.890 he currently resides in London, England. Yes, 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:04.109 exactly. And it was during his time in Denmark 00:02:04.109 --> 00:02:06.090 that he was really on the front lines of advocacy 00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:08.810 working for Amnesty International. What's fascinating 00:02:08.810 --> 00:02:11.699 here is that international mobility. It is a 00:02:11.699 --> 00:02:14.159 crucial piece of the puzzle. He is not confined 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:17.099 by the borders of his birthplace and, well, neither 00:02:17.099 --> 00:02:20.219 is his advocacy. When you look at his early work 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:23.159 with Amnesty International, he zeroed in on two 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:25.560 of the most conceptually massive issues in the 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:28.120 human rights sphere. The campaign against the 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:30.039 death penalty and the treatment of refugees. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.319 Those are, I mean, those are heavy, heavy topics. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:34.939 Yeah. And if you think about it, working for 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:37.699 Amnesty on those two specific issues. is like 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:40.419 building the ultimate foundational muscle for 00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:42.580 advocacy. It is. You are essentially learning 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:45.080 how to fight for people who have absolutely zero 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.400 systemic power. That is the defining characteristic 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.080 of both groups. Consider the death penalty from 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:53.520 a purely human rights framework. It fundamentally 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.080 addresses the right to life. Right. It forces 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.360 the ultimate question of whether a state apparatus 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:01.060 possesses the moral and legal authority to end 00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:03.939 a human life. completely severing the individual 00:03:03.939 --> 00:03:06.800 from society. It is the absolute peak of state 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.520 power exerted over an individual body. The peak 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:11.979 of state power. Right, and then you pivot to 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:14.900 his work with refugees, which deals with the 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.659 right to safety in asylum. A different kind of 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.120 systemic power, but equally overwhelming. Exactly. 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:23.300 I want you, listening right now, to imagine what 00:03:23.300 --> 00:03:26.599 that actually looks like on the ground. Imagine 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:29.139 trying to prove that your life is in imminent 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:31.740 danger to a bureaucratic official who doesn't 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:33.659 even speak your native language. A terrifying 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:35.699 position to be in. Completely. You are trying 00:03:35.699 --> 00:03:38.919 to navigate a complex legal system that you do 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:42.139 not understand. In a country where you have no 00:03:42.139 --> 00:03:45.259 citizenship, no safety net, and no inherent leverage. 00:03:45.699 --> 00:03:47.560 You have lost the protection of your home state. 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:50.000 And you are entirely at the mercy of a foreign 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.479 government's paperwork. Peterson was the person 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:54.919 standing in that gap. Navigating that gap requires 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:58.219 a profound resilience. An activist in that position 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.819 is constantly confronting unfeeling systems of 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:02.939 authority. You are not just dealing with the 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.539 tragic stories of individuals. You are dealing 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:09.379 with the bureaucracy of apathy. You have to understand 00:04:09.379 --> 00:04:13.020 legal frameworks, international asylum law, and 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:15.539 most importantly, how to amplify the voice of 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:18.600 a displaced person when the system is inherently 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:21.279 designed to process them as a mere statistic. 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:24.220 The bureaucracy of apathy, that phrase is perfect. 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:27.560 And that experience of fighting that exact bureaucracy 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.699 seems to completely inform what happens next. 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:33.240 It marks a major shift. Because moving into the 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:35.660 mid -2000s, Peterson takes all that foundational 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:39.189 advocacy muscle and he changes his medium. He 00:04:39.189 --> 00:04:41.629 doesn't stop advocating, but he transitions into 00:04:41.629 --> 00:04:44.589 writing detailed historical books. And his focus 00:04:44.589 --> 00:04:47.050 becomes hyper -fixated on World War II deserters. 00:04:47.209 --> 00:04:49.189 It seems like a massive leap, doesn't it? To 00:04:49.189 --> 00:04:51.430 go from modern day -to -day amnesty campaigns 00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:54.230 in Denmark to historical deep dives into the 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:56.769 1940s. It totally does. At first glance, you 00:04:56.769 --> 00:04:58.370 might think he just decided to become a military 00:04:58.370 --> 00:05:00.490 historian. But he didn't. No, let's look at the 00:05:00.490 --> 00:05:03.329 bibliography. In 2004, he publishes a book in 00:05:03.329 --> 00:05:06.480 Danish called Feinflut. The very next year, in 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.579 2005, he publishes Deserters. And then later, 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:13.040 in 2012, he releases a book in German. titled 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.500 Hitler's Fahnenflüchtige. Which translates to 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:19.379 Hitler's deserters. He is relentlessly focused 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:22.040 on this specific group of men who abandoned the 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:24.540 military. But he is not writing about them as 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:26.920 a traditional military historian might. This 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:28.819 is where his background as a human rights activist 00:05:28.819 --> 00:05:32.079 completely reframes the narrative. To understand 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:34.420 the synthesis of his life's work, we have to 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:36.759 look closely at how he positions these soldiers. 00:05:37.019 --> 00:05:39.180 Here's where it gets really interesting. The 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:42.540 clearest window into his philosophy is the subtitle 00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:45.579 of that 2004 book, Feinflift. The one that was 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:47.959 later published in English as Broken Oath. Yes. 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:51.019 Broken Oath is evocative on its own, but the 00:05:51.019 --> 00:05:53.779 original Daner subtitle is basically a manifesto. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:56.160 I'm going to read the translation in full because 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.819 it tells you exactly who Peterson is as a thinker. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.620 Go ahead. It translates to, this is the story 00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:04.279 of strong -willed men, three in particular, who 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:06.680 deserted because they refused to fight for Hitler's 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:09.430 terror regime. It is also the story of an international 00:06:09.430 --> 00:06:11.930 community that turned its back on them. That 00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:14.750 subtitle is a masterclass in reframing history. 00:06:15.089 --> 00:06:18.009 He is taking the concept of a deserter and turning 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:20.870 it on its head. In traditional military history, 00:06:21.110 --> 00:06:23.689 a deserter is almost universally framed as a 00:06:23.689 --> 00:06:25.870 coward. It is someone who breaks their oath, 00:06:26.050 --> 00:06:28.750 someone who abandons their comrades, someone 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:31.449 who fails in their duty to the state. Hence the 00:06:31.449 --> 00:06:34.089 English title, Broken Oath. He is leaning right 00:06:34.089 --> 00:06:36.620 into that tension. Precisely. If we connect this 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.459 to the bigger picture, Peterson is arguing that 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:42.259 when the state is a terror regime, breaking an 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:44.660 oath to that state is not an act of cowardice. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.540 It's the opposite. It is an act of profound individual 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:50.959 defiance. He is stripping away the military uniform 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:53.180 and looking at the soldier as an individual human 00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:56.180 being with a moral compass. By doing so, he is 00:06:56.180 --> 00:06:57.899 essentially arguing that these deserters were 00:06:57.899 --> 00:07:00.819 actually refugees. Wait, so he is applying the 00:07:00.819 --> 00:07:03.680 lens of modern asylum law to soldiers from the 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:07.480 1940s. That is a massive paradigm shift. It is. 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:11.100 He is looking at men fleeing an oppressive, terrorizing 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:13.980 state apparatus. The only difference between 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:15.860 these men and the refugees he worked with in 00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:18.980 Denmark is that these men happened to be conscripted 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:20.920 into the uniform of the oppressor before they 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:24.060 fled. Wow. They recognized the regime's illegitimacy, 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:27.459 they refused to participate, and they ran. And 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:29.959 the subtitle specifically calls them strong -willed 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:33.199 men. He is actively elevating them. And I find 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.480 it so interesting that he focuses on three in 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.500 particular. It personalizes it. Exactly. When 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:40.959 we usually talk about World War II, the scope 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.519 is so overwhelmingly massive. We talk in terms 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:45.720 of millions of troops, millions of casualties, 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:48.240 entire continents shifting. It becomes entirely 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:50.839 abstract. The statistical blur. Right. But by 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.860 focusing on three specific men, he is doing exactly 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:56.120 what an amnesty international advocate is trained 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:59.160 to do. He is humanizing the statistic. He is 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:01.120 forcing the reader to. say, look at these three 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.480 individuals, look at the moral agonizing they 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:05.360 went through, and look at the terrifying risk 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:07.920 they took to say no. Which brings us to a crucial 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.259 historical concept. Following World War II, during 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:13.480 the Nuremberg trials, the most common defense 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.079 used by figures within the regime was, I was 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.939 just following orders. The classic defense. And 00:08:18.939 --> 00:08:20.720 the international legal community ultimately 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.180 decided that following orders is not a valid 00:08:23.180 --> 00:08:25.759 defense for participating in atrocities. You 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.120 have a moral obligation that supersedes military 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:30.579 obedience. Right, the idea that the individual 00:08:30.579 --> 00:08:34.200 must resist. Exactly. But Peterson's work highlights 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.529 a brutal historical irony. Here were men who 00:08:37.529 --> 00:08:39.769 did exactly what the Nuremberg Principles later 00:08:39.769 --> 00:08:42.809 demanded. They refused to follow the orders of 00:08:42.809 --> 00:08:45.990 a terror regime. And how are they treated? Which 00:08:45.990 --> 00:08:47.850 leads us right to the second half of that translated 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:50.330 subtitle, is also the story of an international 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:52.389 community that turned its back on them. It is 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:55.090 such a blistering critique. He is not just condemning 00:08:55.090 --> 00:08:57.230 the terror regime. He is turning his sights on 00:08:57.230 --> 00:08:59.230 the bystanders. This is where the frustration 00:08:59.230 --> 00:09:02.070 of the frontline activist really bleeds into 00:09:02.070 --> 00:09:05.350 the work of the historian. He is heavily critiquing 00:09:05.350 --> 00:09:07.450 the other nations, the neutral countries, and 00:09:07.450 --> 00:09:09.409 the allied bureaucracies that failed to offer 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:11.649 these men asylum. They just didn't want to deal 00:09:11.649 --> 00:09:13.389 with them. The international community largely 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:15.320 views... them through the traditional military 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:18.779 lens as criminals who broke their military oath 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:21.799 rather than as political refugees fleeing persecution. 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:25.039 He is holding the international community retroactively 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:28.029 accountable. It makes you realize how his years 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:30.649 dealing with the Danish refugee system completely 00:09:30.649 --> 00:09:33.029 shaped his view of history. It's all connected. 00:09:33.269 --> 00:09:36.149 When you spend your days fighting to get a modern 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:38.370 bureaucracy to care about a displaced person, 00:09:38.590 --> 00:09:41.309 you start to look back at the 1940s and see the 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:45.009 exact same bureaucratic apathy at play. He is 00:09:45.009 --> 00:09:47.730 showing us that the failure to protect the vulnerable 00:09:47.730 --> 00:09:51.289 isn't some modern feeling. It's a deeply ingrained 00:09:51.289 --> 00:09:53.919 historical pattern. And that pattern of institutional 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:56.659 apathy becomes the direct target of his work 00:09:56.659 --> 00:09:58.720 as we move into the next phase of his career. 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:01.419 Which brings us to the year 2010. And listener, 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:04.139 2010 was an incredibly prolific, very intense 00:10:04.139 --> 00:10:07.220 year for Lars G. Peterson. A defining year, really. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:09.740 If his earlier work was about state power over 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:12.220 life and death and state power during global 00:10:12.220 --> 00:10:15.940 war, his work in 2010 becomes shockingly intimate. 00:10:16.330 --> 00:10:19.250 It represents a distinct and fascinating evolution 00:10:19.250 --> 00:10:22.570 in his focus. He moves from the macro level of 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:24.730 international conflicts to the micro level of 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:27.830 the human body. In that single year, he publishes 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:31.049 three books with deeply provocative titles. We 00:10:31.049 --> 00:10:33.590 have a book called Abuse UK, we have a German 00:10:33.590 --> 00:10:36.110 publication titled Musterung, and we have a book 00:10:36.110 --> 00:10:38.519 titled... medical rape. And around this exact 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:41.379 same time, he is also noted as the co -founder 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:44.340 of something called the Basta campaign. The jump 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:47.879 from World War Two deserters to titles like medical 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:51.320 rape might seem jarring, but there is a very 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:53.659 clear philosophical through line here. There 00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:55.799 really is. To understand it, we need to look 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.480 at what that German book Musterung is actually 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:00.980 about. This raises an important question about 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:04.059 how institutions treat the individual body. When 00:11:04.059 --> 00:11:06.240 you dig into the historical archives and references 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:09.100 surrounding his work from 2010, you find an article 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:11.200 from a German newspaper discussing his focus. 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:14.179 I have it here. The article is titled Die Musterung 00:11:14.179 --> 00:11:16.460 kann Schamwellezen sein. Let's break that down 00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:19.990 because the terminology is key. In Germany, Musterung 00:11:19.990 --> 00:11:23.029 refers specifically to the mandatory medical 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:25.830 examination that young citizens undergo for military 00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:28.669 conscription. Okay. It is the state assessing 00:11:28.669 --> 00:11:31.409 the physical fitness of a body for potential 00:11:31.409 --> 00:11:35.000 military use. And that second word. Schemverletzend. 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:38.759 It is a very powerful compound word. Schem translates 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:43.080 to shame or modesty and verletzend means violating 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:46.340 or injuring. So a direct translation of the article's 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:49.500 premise is the conscription examination can be 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:52.799 shame violating or injuring to one's modesty. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:54.940 I want you to really visualize this for a second. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.740 Think about any time you have been in a clinical 00:11:57.740 --> 00:11:59.700 medical setting. It's never entirely comfortable. 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:02.240 No. You were sitting on a crinkly paper table 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.860 wearing a flimsy. gown waiting for the doctor. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:07.340 Even in the best circumstances, with a doctor 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:09.960 you trust, you feel inherently vulnerable. You 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.399 are completely exposed physically and emotionally. 00:12:12.460 --> 00:12:15.279 Now, take that baseline vulnerability and multiply 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:19.220 it. Imagine the exam is state mandated. You don't 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:21.480 get to choose your doctor. The person in the 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:23.580 white coat represents a military bureaucracy. 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:26.220 They aren't there to heal you. They are there 00:12:26.220 --> 00:12:29.509 to assess you as state property. That specific 00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:33.230 power dynamic is exactly what Peterson is targeting. 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:36.450 He is arguing that systemic abuse doesn't always 00:12:36.450 --> 00:12:38.769 look like a dramatic human rights violation in 00:12:38.769 --> 00:12:41.870 a war zone. Sometimes systemic abuse happens 00:12:41.870 --> 00:12:44.570 in completely sterile, brightly lit official 00:12:44.570 --> 00:12:47.190 settings. And because it happens in an official 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:49.750 setting, society just accepts it as normal. That 00:12:49.750 --> 00:12:52.639 is the danger of standard procedure. When a deeply 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.379 uncomfortable, unnecessary, or violating physical 00:12:55.379 --> 00:12:57.600 examination occurs within the framework of a 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.340 military or state institution, it is shielded 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:03.000 from criticism. If a stranger on the street demanded 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.039 you strip down so they could inspect your body, 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.539 you would call the police. But when the state 00:13:07.539 --> 00:13:09.700 sends you a letter demanding the exact same thing 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:12.259 under the heading of musterung, it is viewed 00:13:12.259 --> 00:13:14.879 as a civic duty. It's wild when you frame it 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:17.679 like that. Peterson's use of terms like injuring 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:20.580 to one's modesty and his book title Medical Rape 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:23.480 are deliberate jarring attempts to tear down 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:26.580 that shield of standard procedure. He is using 00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:29.539 extreme language to wake the reader up to normalize 00:13:29.539 --> 00:13:33.139 abuse. He is basically saying stop letting the 00:13:33.139 --> 00:13:35.580 white coat and the clipboard blind you to the 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:38.620 fact that an individual's bodily autonomy is 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:41.919 being violated. It is all about bodily autonomy. 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:44.299 And this gives us crucial context for his co 00:13:44.299 --> 00:13:46.799 -founding of the Basta campaign. Right. Basta 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.740 translates in many languages to enough or stop. 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:53.360 Based on the timeline and his concurrent publications, 00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:57.100 the Basta campaign represents the organized activist 00:13:57.100 --> 00:13:59.559 wing of his literary argument. Taking it from 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:01.220 the page to the streets, essentially. Exactly. 00:14:01.299 --> 00:14:03.740 If his books were the diagnosis of systemic medical 00:14:03.740 --> 00:14:06.360 and bureaucratic abuse, the Basta campaign was 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:08.399 the pushback. It represents a collective effort 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:11.500 to draw a hard, undeniable line around the individual's 00:14:11.500 --> 00:14:13.740 right to bodily integrity, even and especially 00:14:13.740 --> 00:14:16.120 when confronted by the authority of the state. 00:14:16.460 --> 00:14:20.000 It is so fascinating to see how a single activist's 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:23.179 mind works over the course of decades. He goes 00:14:23.179 --> 00:14:25.460 from fighting against the death penalty, the 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:28.679 state's ultimate power to extinguish life, to 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:30.600 fighting for refugees, which is the individual 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.059 struggle against the apathy of borders. A progression 00:14:33.059 --> 00:14:35.419 of scale. Then he looks backward in history, 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:39.210 celebrating the soldiers who said, enough. to 00:14:39.210 --> 00:14:41.309 a terror regime's demand for their obedience. 00:14:41.629 --> 00:14:44.549 And finally, he zeroes right in on the physical 00:14:44.549 --> 00:14:47.169 space around a single human being fighting the 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.809 violating exams of military bureaucracies. It 00:14:49.809 --> 00:14:52.429 is a continuous, rigorous practice of questioning 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:55.190 authority. Whether the authority is a judge handing 00:14:55.190 --> 00:14:58.070 down a death sentence, a 1940s military tribunal, 00:14:58.169 --> 00:15:00.950 or a modern medical examiner working for the 00:15:00.950 --> 00:15:03.929 state, Peterson applies the exact same scrutiny. 00:15:04.169 --> 00:15:06.350 He never lets up. He doesn't. He is constantly 00:15:06.350 --> 00:15:08.929 asking, does this institution respect the fundamental 00:15:08.929 --> 00:15:10.769 dignity of the human being standing in front 00:15:10.769 --> 00:15:13.090 of it? And if the answer is no, he is going to 00:15:13.090 --> 00:15:14.929 write a book about it, launch a campaign like 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:17.190 Basta, and make sure the bureaucracy can't hide 00:15:17.190 --> 00:15:19.399 in the dark. Which is perhaps the most vital 00:15:19.399 --> 00:15:21.820 function of a human rights advocate. They do 00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.360 not allow society the comfort of looking away. 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:27.179 So what does this all mean for you listening 00:15:27.179 --> 00:15:30.379 right now? If we synthesize everything we've 00:15:30.379 --> 00:15:32.259 unpacked today, from the frontline campaigns 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:34.960 in Denmark to the deep historical dives into 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.460 World War II, all the way to the provocative 00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:41.409 campaigns for medical autonomy. The big takeaway 00:15:41.409 --> 00:15:43.929 is that human rights isn't just a static list 00:15:43.929 --> 00:15:46.649 of rules. No, it's not. It isn't just a buzzword 00:15:46.649 --> 00:15:49.289 used in United Nations speeches. It is a lens. 00:15:49.610 --> 00:15:52.210 And it is a lens that requires constant calibration. 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.809 Exactly. Peterson forces us to recognize that 00:15:55.809 --> 00:15:58.289 systemic abuse thrives on our willingness to 00:15:58.289 --> 00:16:00.990 accept the status quo. It thrives when we assume 00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:03.309 the bureaucracy knows best. It thrives in the 00:16:03.309 --> 00:16:06.049 fog of a historical war just as easily as it 00:16:06.049 --> 00:16:08.549 thrives behind the closed door of a medical examination 00:16:08.549 --> 00:16:11.389 room. His life's work is a reminder that standing 00:16:11.389 --> 00:16:13.750 against systemic abuse often starts with a single 00:16:13.750 --> 00:16:16.529 person saying, this is violating, this is wrong, 00:16:16.669 --> 00:16:19.070 and I'm not going to participate. He demands 00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:21.830 that we do not turn our backs on those who have 00:16:21.830 --> 00:16:24.409 the courage to say no. Which brings me back to 00:16:24.409 --> 00:16:27.769 that powerful subtitle of his 2004 book about 00:16:27.769 --> 00:16:30.970 the WWII deserters. The Broken Oath subtitle. 00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:34.029 Yes. He indicted the international community 00:16:34.029 --> 00:16:36.789 of the 1940s for turning its back on the strong 00:16:36.789 --> 00:16:40.740 -willed men who defied a terror regime. He immortalized 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:43.460 their defiance precisely because the world at 00:16:43.460 --> 00:16:46.500 the time chose to ignore it. They were inconvenient 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:48.399 to the narrative, so they were left out in the 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:51.340 cold. It is a heavy thought, and it really makes 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:53.720 you evaluate the present moment. We always like 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:55.419 to think that if we lived in the past, we would 00:16:55.419 --> 00:16:57.879 have been the ones to recognize the heroes. But 00:16:57.879 --> 00:16:59.960 Peterson's work suggests that the heroes are 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:02.139 often the people the institutions are actively 00:17:02.139 --> 00:17:05.190 calling criminals or cowards. It forces a necessary 00:17:05.190 --> 00:17:07.609 and uncomfortable reflection on our own era. 00:17:07.930 --> 00:17:10.210 We can look back at history with clarity, but 00:17:10.210 --> 00:17:12.720 the present is always muddy. If history books 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:14.539 are written about the greatest individuals that 00:17:14.539 --> 00:17:16.339 the international community ignored in the past, 00:17:16.500 --> 00:17:18.579 we have to ask ourselves a difficult question. 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:21.740 Who are the people taking a stand against oppressive 00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:24.380 regimes or violating institutions today that 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:26.599 the world is currently turning its back on? Who 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:28.740 are the modern deserters of today's oppressive 00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:31.039 systems? And when the history of our current 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.859 decade is finally written, how will future historians 00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:35.880 judge our willingness to either stand with them 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:37.039 or turn our backs?