The Rising Pragmatism

"North America in the 21st Century will be an increasingly diverse place.  Long-established principles of equality and national unity will be disrupted by the demands of difference. "

-- Scott Pratt, Native Pragmatism, intro,  xvii


I do believe ol' Scott nailed it on the head there.  That does seem to be where we are at, right now, with the headlines all full of racial tension and violent reactions...  even if it is 'only' a media thing, it is also and totally a "media thing" and an object of thought to be fought.  We must deal with this perception of America in crisis, that comes through the airwaves and out to the world which watches.
 And our leadership is defunct.
Can we all just admit that?
Right up front?

The kind of skillsets and character that make for success in politics, do not constitute the characteristics of true leadership.

capisce?   

Of course you do.  You understand exactly how it works.  There's a sort of folk-saying for it - the only person adequate for public office is the person who doesn't want public office.  Ronald Reagen portrayed that character on the big stage, and it definitely wins voters.. But in real life, it's impossible.  A self-defeating conundrum.   But let's hear what else Scott has to say on our current crisis...

" Any adequate response to this pluralist environment will require changes in established ways of thinking. "


Wow!  That seems pretty obvious, but at the same time, pretty radical.  How do we change established ways of thinking?  Especially in a world where the establishment owns the propogations of digitalized cultural inputs?  That seems highly problematic, to me.

imho.


" It will call up, in fact, a philosophical crisis,"

yup.  agree completely.  I think I'm not alone in my agreement, 'neither.

 "Whether or not it is so named, in which options will be narrow.  People can ignore difference, suppress it with escalating violence, or they can search for other principles. alternative ways of understanding and acting in the world, that will promote coexistence."

I vote for the latter.  I vote for the pragmatic solution, which increases the quality of my social experience.  That's my vote.   I'm with Scott.

 What about you?

I recently started a mailing list with no subscribers.  Which is not surprising considering, the subject of the mailing list discussion is Josiah Royce, the most simultaneously obscure and yet significant philosopher in the world.  Nobody's heard of the guy.  Not even in his home town, Grass Valley, where the library is named after him, but the librarians are without a clue as to what he thought, spoke and wrote.

In academic circles, he's been mostly abandoned and in non-academic circles, there's not much philosophy or metaphysics.  In fact over all,  we've witnessed a kind of "californication" of our entire culture, in the past 150 years, Since Royce published his great opus, The Problem of Christianity, and at the beginning of his career, Royce described the california phenom.  He wrote in a letter to William James, that it was a wasteland of metaphysics, among other significant attributes.  A place where the concern was of the mining share-holder and the farmer, for prices and commerce and gain.  The entire goal of our world as we find it today.  

California as  a prophetic statement of the American Way.  A place-holder for the Eureka feeling that America as a whole, brought to the world scene it it's day, and carries through the promulgation of value in Hollywood and the Silicon Valley, to the world as a whole, and the rest of the country especially.  This Royce describes in detail, in his work, in his words and in his life.   And what he meant by "metaphysical wasteland" and what I mean by the indictment of the social sphere at large is, nobody really takes the time to dig into the roots of things, much.

This is a bad tendency.  Society recognizes this and understands that a sort of silt, builds up over the years.  A silt that can only be dredged by the deep thinkers.  The ones willing to dive into the murky depths, and unscrew the inscrutable.  To analyze and interpret the meaning of our mutual experience of the times we live in.  These brave souls are called "metaphysicians" and I intend to use this blog, this means of communication, to explain and declaim and hold up the ideas of Josiah Royce.  To pursue and expand upon and to elucidate to all, the great vision and totality of Royce's life and cause - The Great Community.

I also intend to explain Grass Valley.  And California.  To all.  I appreciate your attention.