Requiem For Rex Murphy: A Tribute To Newfoundland

The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s conversation with his longtime friend, Rex Murphy in “A Tribute to Newfoundland.” They travelled through Newfoundland for five days as Rex gave a guided tour of the ports and towns of Newfoundland. Jordan describes this experience as having toured “with none other than the man whom anyone with any sense would most devoutly hope for as a guide.” He hopes everyone will enjoy the trip as much as they did. You can watch the documentary on DailyWire+.

Start time 00:00; 16:12

Jordan B. Peterson: The past is still truly alive. The past becomes increasingly valuable. You come somewhere here and see these deep roots in this deep particularity; there is a relief in it. It is akin to the relief of looking at a great landscape vista. It is literally and metaphorically revivifying.

I have the great privilege and honor to be here in Newfoundland with Mr. Rex Murphy. Rex was a hero of mine, I would say, and of many Canadians. He is one of Canada’s great journalists — one of the most recognized and loved figures in all the country. So we are here in Newfoundland in this great old part of Canada with a unique culture borne of isolation in many ways. Rex has kindly agreed to spend a week showing us around and talking to us about the culture.

Rex Murphy: Newfoundlanders think of Newfoundland as a personality. Newfoundland has a distinct personal relationship with Newfoundlanders. It goes deep.

Photo credit: Artem Mykhailetskyi.

Jordan B. Peterson: One of the things that is really striking about meeting people from Newfoundland is they are often extremely tough and extremely funny. When I reflected on that, even prior to knowing you, I thought, “Well, this was a very, very isolated place.” That meant that people made their own music, and they made their own fun. Then we are all the beneficiaries of that. That is part of what we want to shine a light on while being here. We are inviting you along on the trip. 

Rex Murphy: Newfoundland is a persona. It is a presence. There is no place that has so magnetic a hold on the people who have grown up here. The fealty that Newfoundlanders have for their place, it mimics the emotional bond of family. It’s fact.

Screenshot: DailyWire+

Jordan B. Peterson: For me, going to Newfoundland, where there is an overwhelming experience of beauty to see the past alive and preserved and so beautifully done, I have been thinking about that. You know that as there are more and more people on the planet and as the weight of the present and the future grows ever greater, the past becomes increasingly valuable, increasingly invaluable. Then there is a revivification that is associated with it.

Rex Murphy: The sense of memory in Newfoundland is very strong. Newfoundland is more an emotion than it is a place. 

Screenshot: DailyWire+

Jordan B. Peterson: When I look at the past in a place like Newfoundland, and I think, ”This is relevant to the farmers and to the oil and gas industry and all that too,” we need to sift through the past to see what we should be grateful for, which is a tremendous amount. To merely shoulder the sins of the atrocity without conjoining that with a sense of deep appreciation and consideration and an observation of the necessity of all the hard work and struggles of people in the past is — I don’t know what it is — it is ungrateful. It is certainly ungrateful. It is dismissive. It elevates us morally in an extraordinarily shallow way. It presumes that there is something uniquely moral about our time and place, that we have transcended all the ignorance of the past compared to, say, all the people who struggled to live here. And there is something about that. There is an assumption of superiority that is unbelievably dangerous. You know, it is useful to come to terms with the errors of the past and to try to rectify them. But you have to do that with proper appreciation for the moral caliber of the people who came before us.

Rex Murphy: Whatever it is about Newfoundland, whatever charisma this province and feeling has, it gets into the Newfoundlanders and it distinguishes them from any other citizens, I think, on the continent.

Screenshot: DailyWire+

* * *

You can now watch “A Tribute to Newfoundland“ on DailyWire+.