Pragmatism gets a bad rap. Sometimes deservedly so.
Pragmatists are labeled flip-floppers, scoffed at as non-believers, or painted as having no integrity.
Are those labels earned?
Ideology makes everything monochromatic by assuming objective right and wrong, best and worst, true and false, regardless of the individual.
Ideology can be the comfortable choice because it allows one to outsource truth — to the group or the text. When you outsource truth in this way, you lighten your personal burden.
It’s comfortable, but does it ultimately offer the best solutions for a diverse community of ~7.5 billion people, or even ~335 million?
Ideology requires we pick a direction and never veer, no matter what we learn. Pragmatism allows us to pick a direction and then modify according to what we learn. And as the great experiment moves forward, we are unafraid to modify our guidance as we learn more.
The case for pragmatism comes down to recognizing that most problems we’re trying to solve can’t be ideologically categorized as right or wrong.
Most of the problems are grey, affect some more than others, and follow from perspective informed by opinion and preferences.
Pragmatism recognizes that solutions can be subjective and that a solution may work for you if not for someone else.
Pragmatism may get a bad rap, but it recognizes that most problems are grey, the best solutions take time and experimentation, and personal values and opinions are important.
