The Toxic Evil of Pragmatism

Americans believe we are entitled to get what we want, and politicians are always ready to tell us what we want to hear.

This is the special appeal of Donald Trump. He says he will make America great, and won't let anything stand in the way of getting what we want.

Last week, Trump announced he would bring back waterboarding, and something far worse than that, and many people loved it.

Because they believe, falsely, that torturing prisoners will help defend America, they assume they are thereby entitled to commit torture, without questioning whether it is right or wrong. The fact that it "gets us what we want" is all the reason necessary to justify torture in many Americans' minds.

This is an example of an evil pragmatism, which says that the ends justify the means, that because the result is desirable, we are entitled to use any means necessary to achieve it.

Pragmatism is the only value left in today's politics. Rather than limit our actions to those that are moral and just, we tailor our morality to achieve what we want.

If you object to torture based upon moral considerations, you'll be branded a loser, unpatriotic, and unwilling to defend your family from rape and pillage.

All sorts of examples of this malignant pragmatism in public life are described, with abortion being the most grotesque example of "getting what we want" by immoral means.

Pragmatism coupled with anger is even worse, because anger clouds our moral judgment and strips away whatever moral limits we might have placed on "getting what we want."

The phrase "all is fair in love and war" encapsulates the evil of such pragmatism, because it declares that morality is inapplicable.