September 11

Whatever Works for What?

Pragmatism in practice leads to broken lives ,destroyed economies and disruption of establishments regardless of whether those institutions were founded on solidly universal principles or not.


Proverbs 18
1 An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;
he defies all sound judgment.

At the turn of the 20th century John Dewey[1] popularized the philosophy of pragmatism, another name for moral relativism. . His concepts became the driving engine of modern education and politics. No longer are Western cultures driven by values and principles of godliness but they are driven by expediency or doing whatever gets us the thing we want to achieve. The way to live, we are told, is by the dictum that “the end justifies the means.” This whole philosophy is driven by selfish ends. As such it sets the standard of getting what we want by the stated Utopian ideals established by whoever is in power.
The end result of such thinking is that we make change, perceived as good change, by doing what ever will work. We no longer have any guiding principles with general application: wisdom goes out the door; judgment is reckless abandon to experimentation; and raw power rules to bring about self-perceived visions.

As a philosophy pragmatism fails to be coherent, consistent, sound or grounded. All that it accomplishes is change for change’s sake and great insecurity. This leads to endless crashes and burnings of the prevailing assumptions. The pragmatist believes Truth is relative and God is no longer needed. The wisdom of which the scripture speaks gives way to a continual march of lemmings heading for cliffs unseen and unknown.

Is pragmatism unfriendly? You bet it is. It is a win/lose way of life purporting to be win/win. It is unfriendly because those who tout it do not care how much destruction they create as long as they remain on the top of the heap. Pragmatism in practice leads to broken lives ,destroyed economies and disruption of establishments regardless of whether those institutions were founded on solidly universal principles or not.

The ordinary person knows that we cannot live without measures and that to abandon Biblical measures is to forsake any hope of finding an airy utopia. The ordinary person also understands that there is no reason to trust those who have no history of success in the ventures which they undertake. The ordinary person knows what brings peace, tranquility and prosperity while pragmatists trample those very things to build castles out of air.

Proverbs 18
1 An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;
he defies all sound judgment.
***
3 When wickedness comes, so does contempt,
and with shame comes disgrace.
4 The words of a man's mouth are deep waters,
but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
5 It is not good to be partial to the wicked
or to deprive the innocent of justice.

[1] Jonah Goldberg , Liberal Fascism, The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change,,(Broadway Books, New York 2007), p.88.