Progressivism Is Pragmatism: Steven Chu at Department of Energy

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I've been reading the discussion sparked by Chris Hayes' latest piece in The Nation -- "The Pragmatist," about Obama's much-discussed pragmatism -- with great interest. Pragmatism is a subject dear to my heart and something I studied in grad school, though the kind you study there and what goes by the name in political discussion bear little resemblance. On that note, Hayes is absolutely on point:

... pragmatism requires an openness to the possibility of radical solutions. It demands a skepticism not just toward the certainties of ideologues and dogmatism but also of elite consensus and the status quo. This is a definition of pragmatism that is in almost every way the opposite of its invocation among those in the establishment. For them, pragmatism means accepting the institutional forces that severely limit innovation and boldness; it means listening to the counsel of the Wise Men; it means not rocking the boat.

I won't rehash the whole discussion, but something relevant to my own bailiwick popped up the other day. Andrew Sullivan draws attention to what he calls a "great comment" over at The American Conservative, under a post by Daniel Larison. The commenter says this:

One of the best examples of Obama's pragmatism is his appointment of Chu as energy secretary. Imagine that, and actual expert scientist in charge of energy research and development! Rather than a politician or military official or a "green" progressive environmentalist, Obama picked a guy who actually knows science. Is this being "centrist", or is it being pragmatic in the real sense of the word.

This misses something crucial: Chu is a "green" progressive environmentalist. Read this or this and tell me he's not. He's a progressive environmentalist because he "actually knows science." In other words, given the state of the world today a scientific temperament leads inexorably to progressive environmentalism. Chu says we must act boldly because circumstances, if seen clearly, demand boldness.

Obama himself put it with crystal clarity:

[Chu's] appointment should send a signal to all that my Administration will value science, we will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that the facts demand bold action.

This is what I've been trying to get at as long as I've been writing about Obama: he understands, in a way many of his contemporaries still do not, that we're witnessing "a convergence between circumstances and agenda," as he put it on Meet the Press last week. When it comes to the climate crisis, the financial crisis, or the healthcare crisis, the facts demand bold action, and that means a bias toward "variability, initiative, innovation, departure from routine, experimentation," in pragmatist John Dewey's words. It means activist government. Today, progressivism is pragmatism.

In this sense, Chu really does represent the essence of Obama's approach. He's someone with the intelligence and empiricism to see that the status quo is unacceptable and that radical change is the only sensible -- pragmatic -- response.

Comments

[agrandma]

In case you want to see Chu in action talking about biofuels here is a link from a PBS series about ethanol. He appears towards the end of the youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V448U2SYU7U

[OliverTwist]

Good point.

Somebody who understands thermodynamics and light scattering and absorption and the mechanisms of energy generation will have a different view of energy policy than an accountant or sales person.

We have been working ourselves into a corner where the actions which balance the equations governing our existence would be truly repulsive - maybe even profoundly evil.

[pam125]

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you universe! Thank you USA.
The world has been crying out for this kind of leadership from the USA - constructive, informed and responsive. Instead, over the last 8 years we've had ideological, uninformed, arrogant, short-sighted, and tunnel-visioned thuggery ' that has left us all 'in it' in terms of wars, global warming, and financial and humanitarian crises.
Thank you America for electing Obama.
We couldn't be more delighted at this clever and thoughtful good man. And what a team he's putting together! It gives you hope things might turn out all right. Chu is exactly the right man, he will make smart choices that the rest of the world will follow.

[kalidescopemind]

Your welcome, your welcome! It was a hard long 20 mo. road, it took a lot of cash from a lot of people who cared, and the man himself, Barack Obama, is simply amazing. Please, everyone, lets help him all we can. We have lost the time for petty squabling. Lets work together as Americans, for America, and the world!

[artsandminds]

Slow down with the Obama fan fair, what does Ken Salazar represent?

[MomfromTexas]

"Rather than a politician or military official or a 'green' progressive environmentalist, Obama picked a guy who actually knows science. " WHAT? HUH? EXCUSE ME! Man, my head is beginning to hurt. One more time...Progressives like science. We depend on it for progress, thus the word "progressive," and innovative solutions to old or long-standing problems, which is what we are all about.

Oh, and I love the appointment of Chu, but you probably guessed that :).

[BabsfromKansas]

Excellent post. Thank you.

[HMDMSR]

Science should be the enemy of ideology. In order to clean up this mess we're in, we'll need to free ourselves from some old baggage. Let's start with getting rid of business-prattle--that pseudo-quantitative terminology we've all been indoctrinated with. With business-prattle you can explain why it's good for everyone to drive a car to work. It's efficient not to plan our cities around mass transit. It's good to replace computers every year. Just throw all that old stuff in the garbage. Invent a system that consumes the maximum amount of energy--especially if it isn't renewable. Maybe a physicist can explain these issues objectively to people. Chu will have to undo the typical market-think most Americans are trapped in. By the way, any meaningful use of the word ideology sees it as meaning the confusion between what is real and what is imagined. Unfortunately much thought is ideological.

[Overd0g]

The government is always trying to seize more power from us to solve crises. That isn't progress, it's tyranny.

[noneIn2008]

He is a political scientist, not a scientist. Too many scientists have abandoned discipline for personal gain. Read Atlas Shrugged with emphasis on Dr. Robert Stadler, also a Physics professor.

[Fez]

What?? He's been awarded the Nobel Proze in Physics. That makes him not only a scientist, but one of the best scientists in the world. I'm sure Dr. Chu has never wasted his time reading Ayn Rand. I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and it would be hard to find a better statement of neo-con principles and crypto-fascist drivel.

[Overd0g]

Is the Nobel Proze given for best writing?

[newpotusplease]

he is also like Obama in that he comes out of a fairly corrupt system that is akin to the Chicago political machine, namely U C and its labs

http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/

[texfly]

I was pleased to see Obama select a technical person for the Energy Secretary and ecstatic that he chose someone of Steve Chu's caliber. I too was at Bell Labs while he was there and can confirm that most scientists are indeed "pretty normal". When it comes to matters of technology meeting the market place we tend to be very pragmatic in finding the best solution for the job that has to be done. However, we also suffer from the biases of our own experiences like anyone else. I suspect Chu will be open minded even though his background tends to favor PV , biofuels and H2 fuel cells. Like any good scientist, I suspect he is level-headed and open to change so long as arguments are supported by "Numbers, Not Adjectives".

Personally I think Obama's $150 billion over 10 years is much too timid. You might try looking at a plan I put together ( http://www.pennies4power.org ) that can raise $1.5 trillion over 20 years to address our energy needs. Drop me a line with your comments.

[Overd0g]

Too bad. We need nuke plants by the dozens. Another wasted 4 years.

[texfly]

If you have numbers I'd like to look them over. A good Fig-of-Merit might be:
[$ / W-electric out ] over [ Capacity Factor x efficiency]
The smaller the better. For Solar Electric Generating Systems (CEGS) it's about 18.8 (1.50/(0.66 x 0.12). What;s nuclear? I know Capcaity Factor = 1, but what about costs: fuel, permits, construction. reprocessing, waste disposal, decommissioning (lots more waste disposal)

[Heartsmart]

We need radical change inside ourselves otherwise we keep the same mess but give it another name and appearance (otherwise known as politics).

The French revolution was radical change that looked like a good thing. It was immediately followed by the worst totalitarian and brutal regime in the name of the people.

I work in business and yet I believe that the earth is sacred (yes that exists). After 20 years of working
in the business trenches and dealing first hand with endless "progressive" regulations of all kinds I have yet to experience that progressivism is pragmatic. I see good intentions that sound really great on Sierra Club newsletters (I still like the Sierra Club) and for politicians from the democratic party to look good for their electorate but that in actuality do very little to heal the earth and move our society toward a place of greater maturity, peace and abundance. Many of these "laws", "regulations" create as much problems as they solve and waste an incredible amount of society's time and energy.

We are in a time of incredible opportunities for positive transformation but without doing our own
inner home work and changing ourselves first we will not achieve this goal.

[Overd0g]

Everyone thinks of changing the world. No one thinks of changing themselves.

[orangepetal]

I think Chu is great. He seems a pretty normal guy for a scientist. I hope he will blast us into the future. How cool would that be.

[Overd0g]

Once the government has sufficient power to blast us into the future, we are doomed.

[pgbaer]

Well put - it's a version of Colbert's "reality's known liberal bias." Chu is a great choice for all the reasons you noted.

[bioluminescence]

Obama's appointment of hands-on professionals also reflects an understanding of the dynamics of civil service bureacracies. Over time, they themselves become politicized and reports become self serving reverse-engineered agendas for entrenched points of view.