{"id":134564,"date":"2011-12-26T17:29:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T23:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/?p=134564"},"modified":"2013-09-07T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T16:59:38","slug":"no-presumption-pragmatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/?p=134564","title":{"rendered":"No Presumption Pragmatism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the right wing blogosphere, everyone that isn’t a radical libertarian, evangelical, nationalistic, jingoistic yahoo\u00a0is a “Socialist” or “Communist”\u00a0or “godless baby killer” or “anti-American traitor of all that is good and holy.” There is, on the one hand, the One Truth, and there is the Error that is all else.<\/p>\n

The One Truth, blindly adhered to and ultimately\u00a0irrational,\u00a0is defined by a particular interpretation of the Bible; a particular interpretation of the Constitution; a particular blend of historical, economic, legal, and cultural illiteracies; and particular “worst of both worlds” inconsistencies conveniently combining individualism (“we can’t\u00a0use government to take care of one another”) and collectivism (“but we can use it to impose the religious dogma of the majority, to discriminate against various minorities, to deny those we disapprove of basic civil rights protections, and to take a belligerent stance toward the rest of the world”), moral absolutism (“our moral certainties are unassailable absolute truths”) and intellectual relativism (“since all opinions, regardless of how well or poorly informed and reasoned, are equal, no one can criticize any opinion we express, which is, when we are not insulating it from criticism through this claim of relativism, the absolute truth by virtue of our rejection of relativism”); all amalgamated into a polymorphous idolatry (see, e.g.,\u00a0<\/a>\u201cSharianity\u201d<\/a> for a discussion of some of these hypocrisies). If you don’t belong to the extreme engaged in that particular Bacchanalia of ignorance and belligerence, you belong to any and all opposite extremes, by whatever labels exist to rhetorically\u00a0relegate you to\u00a0their confines.<\/p>\n

Of course, between the right-wing extremes of\u00a0Small Government Idolatry<\/a> (or what is in reality\u00a0government mandated only to\u00a0oppose by all means necessary all those who belong to\u00a0any out-groups\u00a0in relation to\u00a0these paragons of bigotry), religious fanaticism, and jingoistic belligerence, and the left-wing extremes (that barely exist in the United States) of\u00a0absolute reliance\u00a0on centralized political power and\u00a0anti-market economic illiteracy,\u00a0lies the sanity of recognizing the value of markets and the necessity of regulating them, the value of personal liberty but the inescapable fact of\u00a0interdependence, and the subtlety and complexity of the world we live in and the challenges it poses.<\/p>\n

In other words, in the United States,\u00a0Small Government Idolatry<\/a> isn’t predominantly opposed by “Socialism,” but rather by “No Presumption Pragmatism” (NPP), a term I coined in The Great American Debate<\/a> to\u00a0represent the belief that\u00a0we must\u00a0face a complex and subtle world with as much reason, as much humility, as much discipline, as much realism, and as much goodwill and compassion as possible.<\/p>\n

Of course, one could as easily use the\u00a0phrase “no presumption pragmatism” to justify a more insular and belligerent stance,\u00a0claiming that “pragmatism” requires a “Fortress America” ideology vis-a-vis the rest of the world, and disregard for the plight of the less fortunate in our own country. Laced throughout my writings are arguments about why this is the opposite of the truth, a small-minded tribalistic and classist reflex\u00a0that does not really capture the realities of the challenges and opportunities that face us.<\/p>\n

It is not pragmatic to lock ourselves into a web of perpetual lose-lose scenarios, nor is it pragmatic to engage in a short-sighted denial of the long-term consequences of present actions. Therefore, “No Presumption Pragmatism” refers to the realistic, vigilant, disciplined, and balanced commitment to forging as much cooperation as possible, and exercising as much compassion as possible, within the constraints imposed by some others’ unwillingness to do the same.<\/p>\n

But even aside from the fact that what I am calling “No Presumption Pragmatism” is recommended by enlightened self-interest, it is also an inevitable expression of our core values as a people and a nation.\u00a0We are not a people who define ourselves as oppressors, who believe that it is right and good to prosper with indifference toward those\u00a0who are not so fortunate, who are willing to explicitly\u00a0say that the plight of the poor and unfortunate is no concern of anyone other than those few who care to make it their concern.\u00a0I believe that few in America today are willing to explicitly advocate for social injustice for the sake of social injustice, that the vast majority of Americans today believe that indifference to the welfare of others is bad. That means that one of the things we need to be pragmatic about is how to most effectively and efficiently implement our commitment to human decency.<\/p>\n

One need not be a Socialist, or a Tea Party Libertarian, or a Godless Atheist, or a Bible-Thumping Inquisitor, or a Traitor to One’s Country, or a Militant Nationalist; one can be a pragmatist, without presumption, in service to the welfare of oneself, one’s family, and one’s other in-groups, which, in the long run,\u00a0coincides completely and inextricably with\u00a0the welfare of humanity (and of the living planet itself).<\/p>\n

Such pragmatism isn’t merely a matter of eschewing the mindless extremes, but rather of embracing the mindfulness that they\u00a0do not. It is not a default position, the mere absence of manias, but rather an affirmative position, the presence of disciplines of the mind and heart and body and soul. It favors methodology over ideology, commitment to procedure (e.g., the rule of law) over such zeal of\u00a0false certainty carried by such hubris that no deference to procedures such as scientific methodology or rule of law is necessary\u00a0(see, e.g.,\u00a0The Elusive Truth<\/a>, The Hydra\u2019s Heads<\/a>, The Signal-To-Noise Ratio<\/a>, Ideology v. Methodology<\/a>, The Voice Beyond Extremes<\/a>, Discourse, Diderot & Deity<\/a>, The Real Political & Cultural Dichotomy<\/a>, Sacred Truths<\/a>, The \u201cNew\u201d Reductionism<\/a>, Irrational (but rationalized) Belligerence<\/a>, The Tyranny of Blind Ideology<\/a>, An Argument for Reason and Humility<\/a>).<\/p>\n

NPP is\u00a0the ideology of reason applied to evidence, leavened with imagination, in service to humanity. It is something we can and should develop, elaborate, explore, define, refine, and implement. This blog, in many ways, is committed to just that purpose. (See, for instance,\u00a0my essays that explore the descriptive paradigm on which we should rely, hyperlinked in the first box at Catalogue of Selected Posts<\/a>; my essays that explore the normative and strategic paradigm on which we should rely, hyperlinked in the second box at Catalogue of Selected Posts<\/a>; and the remainder of my essays, exploring the bridges between the two, the specific issue details,\u00a0and the complexities and nuances surrounding both.)<\/p>\n

So, here’s to No Presumption Pragmatism! May ever more of my neighbors and fellow countrymen (and countrywomen) flock to its banner, and sing its hymns! It may be the case that we can never really be anything more than elaborately grunting apes, but we can and do grunt in ever-more elaborate ways, with a consciousness that continuously blossoms as a result. Let’s, therefore,\u00a0be conscious human beings striving to do good in the world, and leave all of the absurd and self-destructive noise on the dust-heap of history, where it belongs.<\/p>\n

Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy my e-book A Conspiracy of Wizards In the right wing blogosphere, everyone that isn’t a radical libertarian, evangelical, nationalistic, jingoistic yahoo\u00a0is a “Socialist” or “Communist”\u00a0or “godless baby killer” or “anti-American traitor of all that is good and holy.” There is, on the one hand, the One Truth, and there is the Error that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[33,4,36],"tags":[382,11540,123,11538,934,11542,149,1490,11539,502,11537,11536,750,1051,1052,11535,503,110,11543,522,11541,718,254],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134564"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404222,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134564\/revisions\/404222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradoconfluence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}