In Maps of Meaning, Peterson proposed that the great myths and religious stories of the past, particularly those derived from an earlier, oral tradition, were moral in their intent, rather than descriptive.
Shared belief systems are about more than just belief - people who live by the same code are rendered mutually predictable to one another. Furthermore, a shared cultural system is a system of value - a hierarchy of value, where some things are given priority and importance and others are not. In the absence of such a system, people simply cannot act. This is partly why people were willing to risk the destruction of the world during the Cold War to protect their belief systems.
Because we are vulnerable and mortal, pain and anxiety are an integral part of human existence. We must have something to set against the suffering that is intrinsic to Being. In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion-, and even nation-centered cultures, partly to decrease the danger of group conflict. But we are increasingly falling prey to the desperation of meaninglessness, and that is no improvement at all.
“I hope that these rules and their accompanying essays will help people understand what they already know: that the soul of the individual eternally hungers for the heroism of genuine Being, and that the willingness to take on that responsibility is identical to the decision to live a meaningful life. If we each live properly, we will collectively flourish.”