Dear Friends,
It seems to me, pragmatically, while the atheist progressive must work tirelessly to force his or her version of unreality on the world, those of us who serve Christ, can work hard all day yet sleep at night, in the sure knowledge that God is working behind the scenes. This is because the atheist has no prayer to quiet their mind in the evening, and they cannot be comforted by the certitude that God will eventually put the world right, they must do it themselves. The other option is to become nihilistic and topple what others have managed to pile up. Now, this is not all my argument, it is mostly that of William James, the American philosopher of pragmatism. Back then, it was the progressives that were considered to be pragmatists and constitutionalists who were the idealists.
Today, the reality of the twentieth century upends that notion. The lesson of the twentieth century is that collectivism is a total utter and complete failure of epic proportions, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of millions in the name of politics. Each death one step closer to utopia. The carnage that reaped the human race, when it fell under the siren’s call of socialism, has almost led to our annihilation on more than one occasion, so far. Imagine, we have almost destroyed ourselves… over the question of whether or not the rationally ordered society, economy and culture is better than freedom, laissez faire and complexity. Hundreds of millions died in famines, gulags and classicide, to “prove” socialism is better. Ponder the absurdity of that… if you want to understand the Twentieth Century.
Pragmatism is a utilitarian measure of an idea, philosophy or practice. It postulates that the measure of anything is the outcome. If it results in an improvement in the human condition it is good. If it results in the opposite, pragmatically, it is bad. Pragmatism judges by the fruits not the intentions. In the early Twentieth Century, before the fruits of the rationally ordered economy, society and culture became undeniable… it could be argued that a rationally ordered economy is “going” to be better than one run on chaos! It seemed self evident to egoistic self serving intellectuals at the time. The problem is, human nature does not lend itself to rational order, or to rationally ordering. The result of socialism has been catastrophe, and as such, socialism can no longer be called pragmatic, but idealistic.
The idealistic atheist progressive has it tough. They really do. Promoting socialism as if it hasn’t been utterly discredited, teaching children that fire doesn’t burn, water no longer wets, that there are no boys or girls but a whole plethora of gender to pick from, that dismembering a baby is not killing, etc… They have to embrace the lies and hypocrisy in all matters, as they have become sacraments to progressives… really, the atheist progressive has it tough! Trying to push such nihilistic, cold hearted and absurd notions on humanity, to be enforced by an unanswerable autocratic administrative government, staffed by unaccountable professional administrators, is a very hard sell. And to do it without the backup of God… well, that does make it hard to be a progressive. No wonder they are mad all the time.
While the progressive atheist idealist must push absurdity without the backup of God, although they do have the total support of Lucifer, those of us who understand there is more to the universe than what we can see, are ready to bend our will to what pragmatically, is the correct course of action. We also have the added benefit of being able to sleep at night, in the full knowledge that eventually, God will make it right. We can, and indeed must work as the hands of God, but if we falter occasionally, we can rest assured that we serve a greater purpose, as long as we thoughtfully and wisely follow God. There is pragmatism in giving up one’s will to that of the divine as well, it allows us to sleep at night and openly look at the world as it is, and do what is known to help, rather than what we hope will help… this time.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
