[MD] Babylonian intellectuals

[John Carl]

Yo, D.T.:

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 7:25 AM, David Thomas <combinedefforts at earthlink.net
> wrote:

Some time ago Platt suggest to Krimmel that he read "Liberal Fascism" by
> Jonah Goldberg. I picked it up of the publisher's overstock table some
> years
> ago and recently made my second pass through it. I suggest that everyone,
> but particularly DMB, read it if you haven't. Pay particular attention to
> the relationship of pragmatism, William James, and John Dewey to socialism
> and more importantly fascism. Yes it is a decidedly conservative POV but if
> it's "a real fight and it matters quite a lot who wins" you might like to
> be
> familiar with the past battles and the lives sacrificed in the name of
> social/political bias.
>

This is something I wondered about when I read a commentary on European
criticisms of pragmatism being overly concerned with expediency and cash
value, lacking any assertions of morality or the good.

Pragmatism is a decidedly American Philosophy and expression of our national
character.  This stems from the kind of people who came here, but it also
stems from the kind of people they found here already.  My friend Rudy
should know, and he reassures me that the Indians were very pragmatic.

But this pragmatism is supported by an underlying morality of basically good
people.  It doesn't translate well across the great waters, where
generations of social struggle had evolved competing social groups with
self-interest as their sole value.

I'd considered this before, reading an answer of Royce to James' critics,
but that Goldberg book sounds fascinatingly like a confirmation of this
idea.

Thanks for putting up with 15 years, DaveT, just so you could prompt me on
this.

Progress is being made!  At least in here.

(but admittedly, when you're in kindergarden, progress is a relatively easy
object to attain - it just grows naturally)

Progressive John