Pragmatism’s influences on American lifestyle

 causes and great influences can be found from the 
positive effects of American pragmatic philosophy to the formation and development of their 
own social, cultural and lifestyle. 
As a philosophical movement, pragmatism was born out of American socio-economic 
conditions, however, being a form of social consciousness, pragmatism, in turn, has an impact 
on American social life. American pragmatism exists as not only a theoretical system but also 
comes into life, forming the so-called “American pragmatic lifestyle”. That lifestyle is defined 
by material conditions, production methods, social existence and is manifested in personal life. 
American lifestyle is a reflection of the material living conditions in American capitalist 
society. Although born later, but in the nineteenth century, the US possessed a mechanized, 
modernized industry which is highly developed far beyond many countries, including those 
which developed earlier than the US. That physical strength located America in general and the 
American bourgeoisie in particular an important position, leading the system of capitalist 
countries. This achievement greatly influenced the mindset of the American bourgeoisie and 
thinkers. It is their optimistic thinking that science and technology have brought them the most 
powerful development in the world. That thought also has a profound impact on the American 
lifestyle. According to them, nothing else but science and technical factors are the only means to 
achieve the goal of efficiency, success and wealth. This technical element is the basis for them 
to build trust in life. At that time, technical worshipping was even becoming a tendency in 
American society. It had a new name, “technocratic society”; in other words, technology plays a 
huge role, dominating the entire social life. Pursuing efficiency and interests, pragmatism stated 
that technology has an absolute power, as a means for people to achieve their effectivity goals. 
Thought of technology as dominance does not only apply in economic life but also 
thoroughly controls all aspects of social life such as politics, ideological culture... It has come to 
life and become the lifestyle of the whole society. 
With a pragmatic spirit, American society is open in political institution that values and 
receives all the ideas and doctrines making American society develop and prosper. With such an 
open political position, the United States encourages a spirit of democracy and freedom. In 
particular, the American bourgeoisie highly praised democracy and considered it a condition for 
human beings to attain true freedom. They themselves also identify as “a world of freedom”. 
Yet, freedom in American society is merely freedom for the minority, for the rich or the 
bourgeoisie. 
Responding to democracy and freedom, pragmatists also strongly encouraged and 
explained democracy in a pragmatic spirit. Democracy must be attached with the cult of 
material power. J.Dewey once stated that democracy was a belief in the capacity of human 
experience to set goals and methods, so that the experience develops and becomes nurtured. 
Being pragmatic, considering effectiveness and benefits for people is what needs to be 
concerned; therefore, when the bourgeoisie applies technocracy in social life, they think that 
changes in society today are controlled by technology and not by humans. Therefore, the 
existence of the bourgeoisie and capitalism would also be indispensable and that dominant 
social role, of course does not belong to anyone else but technicians. 
Promoting the role of technocracy, effectiveness means right, good and truthful. This 
caused a certain cult in American social life. Due to the cult of technology and the physical 
conditions it brings, a common lifestyle in the US and many capitalist countries is now existent, 
named “consumer lifestyle”. 
Consumer lifestyle is not only a trend, a lifestyle but it actually is a consequence of the 
capitalist economy. To gain economic profits, the bourgeoisie strives to promote the application 
Pragmatism’s influences on American lifestyle 
59 
of science and technology in their production in order to bring about high labor productivity. 
However, due to workers’ low income, they can not afford to consume goods made by 
themselves. Capitalist production brings about a massive volume of products, fulfilling the 
consumers’ needs. But its consequence is the surplus of goods, leading to crisis, recession, 
production stagnation for the economy. To address this situation, the bourgeoisie has created a 
new lifestyle to satisfy the increasing demand in society to use up surplus goods created by 
manufacturing. By advertising, they stimulate consumption and treat it as an indispensable need 
in human activities. They state that consumption is as indispensable as production, a task of 
every citizen so that the society can maintain its pace of development. To achieve the purpose of 
stimulating demand for consumers, the bourgeoisie has set many sale methods such as selling 
on credit, installment payment on wages, etc. making workers accidentally dependent on the 
capitalist. From a psychological perspective, this is the capitalist's mission to reduce their 
distance from the worker, to make them believe that in terms of consumption there is no 
difference between the employer and the worker; so, workers may be assured of that condition 
and enjoy a “full of comfort” life. The main purpose of the bourgeoisie must still be the 
consumption of goods in society: “The consumer society can only develop thanks to more and 
more excessive consumption, meaning waste” [2, p.422]. 
In short, with the purpose of promoting practical efficiency, pragmatism has jointly 
adjusted the concept and lifestyle in American society. Since the twentieth century, pragmatism 
has become popular in the US, to the point that all society is mostly about efficiency. For 
Americans, what is the most important is the actual performance standards and action results. 
For them, what really matters is not the “right” or “what we should believe” but “what we 
believe that works best for us”. Pragmatic belief is highly appreciated, because when there is 
faith, people have goals, methods of action in order to achieve efficiency and success. 
According to Americans, it is not necessarily proved that “God is existent or not” but the issue 
must be the effectiveness of that belief, i.e., answering the question of what meaning and role it 
plays in people’s life. Therefore, people’s goals should be towards the future perspective, which 
means they aim for efficiency and success. What they are interested in is not the objective 
ethical standards but the problem is to seek the benefits and success. 
Pragmatism does not only influence consumer lifestyles, the adjustment of American 
conceptions and goals, but it also affects American education. Education is built on the basis of 
the theory of pragmatism, in particular the opinion of J.Dewey. Education should be practically 
oriented, disregarding book theory but focusing on practical improvement. The goal is “the 
responsibility of a citizen” and “social and emotional development of children”. Pragmatism 
builds an applicable educational philosophy, trains a new generation realizing the ambition to 
make America more and more powerful. The progressive education, in their opinion, focuses on 
the issue of beliefs and the need to teach people about beliefs. That method is carried through 
work, labor and also actual activities. In order to educate through work and labor, according to 
them, going to school in a traditional way is not necessary, but life can also be the best school 
without theories or books; or only with books teaching skills of working, living, doing business 
and being housewives, etc. providing practical knowledge directly serving life, teaching people 
how to succeed, without heavily focusing on abstract theories. Its good thing is making realistic 
people, reforming the reality, becoming ambitious in order to succeed. 
However, pragmatism somewhat disregards the reasoning, which will lead to the 
consequence of a superficial education of people, overly materialism, lack of humanity in 
people’s hearts, even negatively affecting the majority of the society. 
Besides education, consumer lifestyle and pragmatism also influence American spiritual 
life, including literary writing. Adapting the consumption lifestyle, market-like social needs and 
Nguyen Van Thoa 
60 
the need for information are main reasons and there existed new kind of novels, namely 
documentary novels, a new category in literary life; detective novel, referring to events that 
meet the information needs of readers. In cinematography, the US quickly became a leading 
country in the world both in number of films and artistic quality. The formation and 
development of Hollywood cinema has become a symbol of the United States and is able to 
conquer and attract the whole world. Even during the US economic downturn, Hollywood still 
retained the leading brand position in the field of entertainment. In the field of artistic 
creation, people are free to show their own creativity in their works of art: “The true attraction 
of the total high quality and pure values, i.e. individualism and humanitarian, freedom of 
movement, upward movement, the pursuit of happiness (mental or physical) and challenging 
acception, the strong will to prove the individual, etc. All of them jointly helped maintaining 
the position” [1, p.81]. 
American spiritual and cultural life may outwardly look so nurtured, however, that actual 
nourishment is reflected in modern techniques creating a “technical culture”, “electronic 
culture”, expressed by a shell that seemed so flashy. 
All different aspects of American life with such consumer lifestyles are just for the purpose 
of giving people a physical consumption mentality and the enjoyment of spiritual life, social 
services. Therefore, culture does not only serve life, but it also becomes a means when one 
wants to achieve a certain purpose. 
Pragmatic spirit is expressed in the way of human life, that is, people only appreciate 
efficiency and practical experience, dislike dogmatic reasoning, prefer practicality. That is how 
the real “Americans” are. Americans set criteria of efficiency, what is beneficial or not. This is 
also the main idea in American pragmatic philosophy. Accordingly, each person has the right to 
pursue their interests in action. Therefore, if necessary, they are willing to leave the inherent 
principles, revise the old ones, remove stereotypes and old ways of thinking to adopt new 
perspectives and customs rather than stick to traditions or unchanging truths. As President Bill 
Clinton stated, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right 
with America” [1, p.8]. In the 30s of the twentieth century, to save the United States from the 
great economic crisis, President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, which 
allowed the state to intervene in economic activities, do social welfare to improve the lives of 
the poor - which is contrary to the tradition of American business freedom, actually to solve the 
crisis, thereby promoting production and consumption. By the 1980s, when the welfare policies 
enabled a lazy, parasitic class, President Ronald Reagan again launched a policy of reducing 
welfare and reducing taxes to promote economic growth, control monetary issues and inflation. 
President Bill Clinton also succeeded in renovating the social welfare system to narrow down 
the beneficiaries, minimize the lazy mindset in the society. President Donal Trump also issued 
policies on immigration, with the two main points being to encourage highly skilled 
immigration and tighten family reintegration, in order to reduce the burden on the United States, 
thereby promoting development. It can be said that policies in the United States are always 
adjusted to achieve efficiency, facilitate conditions and environment for socio-economic 
development. 
3. Conclusions 
In short, pragmatism has encouraged Americans to pursue efficiency and material values. 
Pragmatism has contributed to form the American lifestyle imbued with individualism and 
pragmatism; formed the love for labor, acceptance of challenges, and always going ahead in 
American people. Simultaneously with these values, pragmatism also creates a consumer habit, 
a consumer lifestyle. Those influences are double-sided, reflecting the true nature of pragmatic 
Pragmatism’s influences on American lifestyle 
61 
theory. On the positive side, it is clearly seen that the influence of American lifestyle on the 
development of the US, which explains that the strong development of the US is not granted but 
is an achievement of a whole process and effort to work towards efficiency and success, 
reflected in a very “American” lifestyle. On the other hand, in the very development of the US, 
the American lifestyle also showed some negative aspects such as overly worshipping 
individualism, consumer lifestyle with focus on materialism, inequality, discrimination, as well 
as other consequences created by this lifestyle during their development. Understanding this 
duality helps us better understand the nature of American society and people, which is the basis 
to immerse the values and limit the negative aspects during the process of international 
integration, which is becoming more and more widespread in Vietnam today. 
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