How Pragmatists and Purists work together to change the world...

by JONNY THOMPSON

Activism is a spectrum with two extremes. At one end, you have the Purists. These are uncompromising, evangelical idealists who will never meet in the middle and will fight until total victory is won. At the other end, you have the Pragmatists. These are morally flexible bureaucrats who will give a little to get a little, even if it means sacrificing the bigger prize. Most activists will fall somewhere along this spectrum, but with significant clusters at either end.

If you are an outsider looking in, activism can seem a mess. Thousands of environmentalists, each demanding a different thing. Hundreds of anti-war campaigners, all chanting their own slogans. And when it looks like the left hand is trying to cut the right hand off, it’s tempting to assume the entire mission is doomed. But that tension between idealism and compromise isn’t necessarily a sign of failure. The push and pull between Purists and Pragmatists is what makes activism work.

Some people hold signs. Some write policies. Some get arrested. Some get invited to Downing Street. So, what separates the Pragmatists and Purists, and why do we need them both?

The difference between progress and perfection

What is the point of activism?

This isn’t a trolling, faux-ignorant attempt to belittle the efforts of those trying to make the world better. It’s the first question anyone needs to answer if they actually want to make the world better. On the face of it, it’s obvious: an activist is someone who wants to change how things work. They want the government to adopt a new law or to scrap an old one. They want corporations to do more of X and less of Y. They want the public to think about this thing more than that thing.

In one way, Pragmatists and Purists want the same thing. They will meet in the same townhall, are members of the same Facebook group, and might have read the same books. But the key difference between the two groups is measured in how they define success, and under that lies moral philosophy.

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https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/p/how-pragmatists-and-purists-work?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F52578c46-3fbe-4c0b-8560-5706ea49a795_1200x675.webp&open=false