Pragmatism often spoken as though virtue, yet if to ponder further the context, then the ism nothing more than BAMN lite or disguised. BAMN, of course, the popular yet unfortunate acronym for By All Means Necessary. Clearly, the means matter not, rather the ends the sole qualifier. For the ends if accomplished then the means qualified as good, if not accomplished then the means qualified as bad.
Sustainability sometimes conflated as pragmatism in the positive, when the two words conflict. If to praxeologically (economically too as subset) consider then apply, necessary would be analyzing the means over the ends per primary contributors towards increasing overhead thus unsustainability versus primary facilitators towards decreasing overhead thus sustainability. To exemplify, the governmental else socio-political uses of force regularly justified as pragmatic, however unavoidably, significantly even exponentially compounds overhead ergo more cost, expenditure, resource, labor, effort, and so on.
This popular acronym turns on head the historical, logical, ethical understanding per the consistent emphasis on the means over the ends, than the covetous emphasis on the ends over the means. So much so the popularity for it, I am unaware of public speakers (beyond few exceptions; Massie, Paul, McAdams, Austrian/Misesean economists, etc) who like King would emphasize contrary to prevailing emotions...
So, if you're seeking to develop a just society, they say, the important thing is to get there, and the means are really unimportant; any means will do so long as they get you there? they may be violent, they may be untruthful means; they may even be unjust means to a just end. There have been those who have argued this throughout history. But we will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Sermon, Christmas Eve 1967
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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.
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