Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the world needs idealists, but it can’t be run by them… for that it needs pragmatists. Moreover, idealism is best when the idealists idealize human goods, not the means to them. Because an idealist thinks in terms of ideals not reality. So, when reality diverges from their theory, its reality that’s the problem to be solved… not their theories. They’re ideal. That’s why we have so many people committed to the administrative state. They idealize their imagined outcome… and ignore the reality it delivers. So an idealist will claim regulations make capitalism “fair.” By fair, they mean a politically favored person or group will get an advantage, in an otherwise free and fair exchange. Because idealists focus on goals and ignore outcomes. So they make the same mistakes over and over.
Idealism isn’t bad or good, it simply is. When idealists focus on human hearted goods they serve their purpose exquisitely. When they focus on the means to those goals, however, they become single minded despots. Why wouldn’t they? To an idealist their ideal is the wharp and whoof of their life. Climate change zealots honestly believe the world will burn up any second and we’ll all die. If you believed that, wouldn’t you destroy a painting, if you thought that would save us? If you honestly believed communism is the ideal system… it just hasn’t been tried yet, wouldn’t you be a communist? A true sycophant of the administrative state, only sees their ideas of what it could do… not what it has, does or will do. Because they’re not pragmatists, they’re idealists.
Pragmatists don’t focus on goals they focus on results. If an action results in a bad outcome, a pragmatist will eschew it in the future, for a different strategy. An idealist will try again and again, because they could care less about results, they’re goal oriented. That’s why we need pragmatists having a say. To control the headlong rush of idealists. Protecting us all. Since pragmatists judge by outcome, when given a goal by an idealist, the pragmatist is in the only position to make the idealist’s dreams come true. Because pragmatism allows us to understand what works and what doesn’t. If a plan doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, no matter how many times it’s tried, or zealously applied. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results… is the bailiwick of idealists.
Pragmatists/realists and idealists are on opposite sides of the philosophical spectrum. To the unwise pragmatist, idealists are insane, and to the unwise idealist, pragmatists are killjoys. Because the unwise don’t see the world as it is, therefore they don’t understand it. A wise idealist will recognize the value a pragmatist brings to the table as a wise pragmatist understands the value of idealism. Both are required for mankind to advance. Idealists set the goals and pragmatists achieve them. When pragmatists are shut out of the process though the process fails. Because, idealists can’t be bothered with results, the world is at stake! A functional society and culture then, needs both idealists and pragmatists… with no one having unlimited power.
The end of slavery, civil rights and indeed all the advances of the Enlightenment were born of idealist minds. It was pragmatists that realized those dreams though. Idealists however don’t see the value in pragmatism. The pragmatist is a wet blanket. “Socialism doesn’t work…” a pragmatist tells an idealist, who thinks, “What an idiot, how can we help the poor without socialism, he must hate the poor!” So an unwise idealist will censor, beat down and even jail a pragmatist who gets in their way. The world is at stake! Never understanding, being idealists, that both are needed. An unwise pragmatist on the other hand will try to hold the world in stasis. Which is another fools errand. A healthy civilization needs both idealists and pragmatists, staying in their lanes, and recognizing the value of the other.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
