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Ep46 Frontier Pragmatism

Hello and Welcome to the Way of the Emotional Warrior Podcast. My name is Kai Ehnes and today we will be answering the question of: Is it worth being a Frontier Pragmatist?

Pragmatic…Probably a term you have heard of at some point. There is quite a bit of debate over what it ultimately means but I think one way to look at pragmatism is as being practical, in the here and now. One explanation is that words and thoughts are not in themselves an exact version of reality. That means that words and thoughts moreso are a tool to be used to get something done. Let’s try an example. You do something the best that you can. Someone you respect tells you that you did a “good Job.” On one hand this could mean that there is a clear cut definition and standard of what a good job is. Of your performance matched or exceeded that then you actually did a “good job. Pragmatists would use the word for several purposes. Of course it would mean that your performance was acceptable. But it also probably means that the person who is evaluating your performance wants to support you and entice you to improve. So, the idea of “good job” means, you did well, and you can find some places to improve and there fore carries an emotional intention that serves expediency in the moment.

I realize that this is wordy but let me transition to the Way of the Emotional Warrior. A Frontier Pragmatist is someone who sees the world as it is and not how they want it to be. Its about getting something done now. It gets forward moving action and energy flowing. The other side to this idea is living in the world of ideals. Don’t misunderstand this subtle point here. There is great merit to idealism, there is beauty in the pure ideals of something absolute. The difficulty is that it can lead to stuck or stalled out energy. Example: How can you really know that you have found absolute truth? The search may never end. However, it doesn’t help to give up. Idealism is a wonderful part of how you view the world.

The Frontier Pragmatist thinks in the Now. The added term of Frontier to Pragmatist leads to the idea of self-reliance. The great U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes embraced this thinking in his view of Common Law decisions. Holmes meant it as the name for everything that arises out of the interaction of the human organism with the environment: beliefs, sentiments, customs, values, prejudices--what he called "the felt necessities of the time."

If a law is so absolute that it does not serve the decency of the community then what good is it?

Think of common sense. For the best of the community.

One of the Emotional Warrior pillars is neuroscience and this case it not so much about the workings of the brain but moreso the prospects of a neuroscientifically-informed pragmatism and a pragmatically-informed neuroscience on issues ranging from the nature of mental life to the implications of neuroscience for education and ethics.

How does this help us as Emotional Warriors?

As we uplevel our emotional vibration we have to consider that we will need to reevaluate the ethics and education that are necessary for human interaction on those new levels. Think of this way, there is the letter of the law and then there is the spirit of the law. Frontier Pragmatists operate on behalf of the spirit of the community and the environment we all live in. It’s a combination of both sides. Emotional Warriors become Cutting Edge Pragmatists. They use their ideals to set the direction of their life compass and then live their day to day seeing their world the way it actually is in order to get things done in the Now.

To me this means that we have to think and live sustainably. Guiding principles include: balance, perspective and fairness. We work together to exist the best way we can with each other and within the laws of the world we live in.

Are there any tools we can glean from this topic? We can look to those people that