Dear Friends,
It seems to me… what used to be pragmatism has become idealism, and what was rationalism has become emotionalism. William James’ philosophy of pragmatism, often called the quintessential American philosophy, used to be strongly associated with progressivism, but if we accept the tenets of pragmatism, we can no longer associate it with progressivism. The same is true of what used to be called idealism, conservatism, is now more properly associated with pragmatism. Rationalism, which the progressives grabbed as their banner at the outset of that philosophy, has been done in by their embracing of post modernism, which doesn’t accept that there is any objective reality, and thus… rejects objective rationalism for subjective emotionalism.
Pragmatism is a normative philosophy that measures the value of an idea. Based on reason, applying a cold cost benefit equation to everything… being pragmatic. People had to structure their thinking along logical rational lines in accordance with reality’s feed backs. That is why they stopped bleeding people to make them better. It didn’t work. What’s worse, it could be demonstrated to make them sicker! Pragmatism is normative because it proposes a standard, a norm, a fixed measure, upon which to compare ideas and weigh their worth. Bleeding people, by pragmatic standards, is bad, because it yields bad fruit. Quintessentially American, in that the American ethos most of our history, has been in favor of the market system, a system that enforces a measuring mind.
Progressivism at it’s founding claimed rationalism as their core philosophy. They embraced all things cold… but not necessarily rational. From the planned economy to eugenics, they thought themselves gods, and mankind their guinea pigs. Progressives and indeed national socialists, Marxists and democratic socialists all thought science and reason had progressed so that they were now able to quantify, qualify and rationalize existence into a simulation. Then control as you would Sim City… or God. Despite their willingness to do what it takes, to make the lot of man better by propaganda and manipulation, when their actions became public… the public revolted. The American people rejected forced sterilizations, but the idea became virulent and crossed the Atlantic, metastasizing in Germany.
Pragmatism, being a normative measurement system by cost benefit analysis, doesn’t lend itself to bending to fit another philosophy. That would be like changing the length of a foot depending on the day of the week. It renders the measure worthless. Such a measure would no longer be normative but arbitrary. If we apply pragmatism’s cold calculation to progressivism, and all it’s brother and sister philosophies, National Socialism, Marxism, Democratic Socialism, etc… we find that the fruit they have always yielded has been bitter and poison. From the horrors of the French Revolution, famine as a political tool and gulags, to the generational punishment of North Korea, the results of socialism cannot be denied. By the standard of pragmatism then, socialism in all it’s incarnations, are bad.
Applying pragmatism to the market system however shows the market system to be good. The more places around the globe the market is allowed to flourish, the more places liberty, prosperity, health and wellness do too. Which means, libertarianism, constitutionalism and conservatism are pragmatic and progressivism, socialism and Marxism have become idealistic… the “new idealism.” Moreover, the new idealists now embrace their idealism along with post modernism. Post modernism is the philosophy that everything we do, say or even think, is utterly based on subjectivity, and there is no objectivity to be found in the world.. even in mathematics. So it is clear that the new idealists shun reason for subjective emotionalism. The philosophy world is turning upside down.
Sincerely
John Pepin
