Why reluctant pragmatism? Let’s start with the question: What’s true?

What’s true? What’s right?

What’s true? My guess is that God knows. Or more accurately: Only God knows. Some people think God tells us. If that’s true, we, as error-prone humans, can’t reliably listen. Evidence: lots of people try very hard to find the truth and end up with very different ideas.

What’s taxation? Some Libertarians strongly feel that taxation is theft. Some people think that taxation is simply the price you pay to be able to safely mine the economic system. And the more you extract from the mine, the more you’re leveraging the system- so a higher-percentage of that extra wealth should go toward maintaining the system as taxes. Who’s right? They both feel they’re right.

What’s freedom? Some people want the freedom to raise the minimum wage in their cities. They think and feel that raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do. But the Alabama legislature wants employers to have the freedom to offer whatever wage they want, so they passed a law denying this freedom to their cities. They felt strongly about it, too, and they had more power. Do people (like cities), have the right to structure their community and society?

What works?

To me, a better question is: What works?

To discover what works, I’m a realist and a reluctant pragmatist. Like most people, my first impulse is to go with what I see and think and feel are right. And when I’m challenged, I feel affronted!

But I’m a realist. Judging the reality of things out in the world is actually quite difficult. So I have a discipline of looking at my own systems of thought and seeing how they arise out of my own views. I make sure I see that my filters are coloring my view. I’m bright and decently educated so my views are pretty wise, but they’re still my own human, fallible views, tainted by my views. “Realism” tells me: the imagine I see through my view are inventions. They’re my own creations. They are not reliable for judging what’s real.

Emotions, anger, defensiveness, ego, then reluctant pragmatism

Lots of people seem to like expressing “what’s right”. They like the feeling of having their emotions validated. The first validation comes from the satisfaction of expressing. Then from hearing their own words and tone. Mostly, we then look harder through our own narrow views and express whatever’s consistent. And we love when audiences with similar views respond in agreement.

What’s real? It’s real that my self-righteous anger belongs to a human. I, too, have narrow views, defensiveness and ego. I practice seeing my brain’s self-consistent truths as invented. What’s real is that my own views initially feel better. But with ever-dwindling reluctance, I turn to pragmatism.

A wise, well considered, well thought out solution feels better.

After I recognize the drama, I listen for what works. Knowing I’m seeing the world through my own limited view, I listen to others. I consider a variety of views and look for what works in each.

Maybe my high-IQ is a hindrance. When my words articulate a truth, I usually hear the lies in it, the limited view, the insufficiency. Other views arise. And soon after, if I let my brain wrestle with it, I begin to see the faults, some truths from other views, some hidden deeper. Long term, a wise, well-considered and well-thought-out view feels better to me.

To move forward, we need more pragmatism from both the people and our politicians. We need positions that acknowledge and deal with prevailing truths. We should pragmatically create a desirable future.