How Pragmatism Transformed American Culture and Politics

Watching the folks who stormed the capitol stand before the Senate floor and denounce communists and globalists in early January I thought, "Those poor guys. They can't even eat spaghetti or ramen. Rejecting products and culture that isn't 'American' must make it so tough on them. So many globalist temptations to avoid, from Korean-made TVs and Chinese computers to Jewish delis and Mexican taco trucks. Imagine having to construct your own smart phone out of American pine."

Pragmatism became the worldview of the many knowledge workers who define the new information economy in the 20th century. (And most Americans will tell you that they're pragmatic without even realizing that they are describing a philosophy. You know it is a dominant philosophy when folks cite it in the same way that they'd say, I'm just being realistic.) Less obviously, pragmatism became a challenge to the universal culture assumed by Enlightenment thinkers. The shift from Enlightenment thinking to Pragmatism did not just change how people worked; it changed the notion of realities more broadly, from culture to community and nation. Some people still haven't gotten over that.

The culture inherited from the founding fathers was thought of as White, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, or WASP. That simple vision was partly broken down by mass immigration and partly by the widespread adoption of pragmatism.

The pragmatist William James wrote of a universe of eaches. Clark Kerr, who helped to define and lead the University of California system, argued that it was better to think of California’s college and university system as a multiversity rather than a university. Embedded in each was this notion of specificity that defied generalities.

Pragmatism did not just create a world full of knowledge workers, a wide variety of specialists. It created - or probably more accurately - gave license to - multicultural America. (One of the more curious measures by which our culture has changed is simply this: the Supreme Court of this country founded by WASPs now does not have a single Protestant on it; the court has 7 Catholics and 2 Jews.)

Little Italy and Chinatown are areas in a number of cities around the country. Spaghetti became popular around 1900 as more Italian immigrants came to the US. Sushi began to be served about the same time (but didn't become really popular until the 1970s). 185 different languages are spoken at home in Los Angeles.

The US still has no official language. The question of what language ends up on billboards is - of course - a pragmatic one. In sections of San Diego with more Hispanics, some of the billboards are in Spanish. If you want to sell to a group, you want to make it easy for them to hear about your product.

It's funny how nothing is ever completely settled. You might think it obvious that this country of immigrants is clearly multicultural but there are still people who debate this, who think that there is something called American culture. The universal truths that Enlightenment thinkers conceived of as ideal have broken down into more pragmatic solutions of local cultures, some of which spread and some of which die out.

Pragmatism was handmaiden to specialization and multiculturalism. The first transformed the American economy. The second transformed its politics. What we have seen in the last four years in the Trump presidency is a reaction to that, and attempt to reject what is already deeply embedded.