Three Soda Cans -- Or: Pragmatism, not idealism

     I frequently get really upset over what appear to be small issues. I felt like writing about this one for some reason. The other day on board the ship, we did a ceremony to commemorate "crossing the line" -- when a ship crosses the equator. It is a tradition steeped in maritime history. For our ship, it involved a lot of water and no small amount of dirt... and also some tuna. In any case, it was pretty messy. I lucked out and got to the showers before a long line formed. A couple guys waiting in the berthing area asked if I would get sodas for them. I agreed. Then I did my laundry. Later, I got back to the berthing and the three empty soda cans were just left out... on my locker no less. There were three because one of the guys asked me to get him two sodas. Some different guys were talking about this. It was not the only example of littering that day; they recounted an exchange with another guy in berthing who left his soda cans out, too, in which he gave the excuse that the berthing was going to get cleaned up later, anyway. It didn't seem important to him that he might not be the one to clean it. I told one of the guys I bought a soda for that I didn't appreciate him leaving his can out. He gave me the same retort. There wasn't even a hint of apology, even though he must have been able to tell I was upset about it. When I was venting about this to a friend, I said something to the effect of, "I'll think really hard before I do something nice for someone again." I was upset because I hate the pathologically pragmatic attitude I encounter so frequently on board this ship which excuses indecency and makes work for others. I pick up a lot of soda cans and other trash because people leave it laying around in the classroom, head, berthing, pretty much everywhere.
     It is not hard for me to understand that people often don't clean up after themselves because there is a compulsory period of cleaning every day during which this trash gets picked up. Knowing that one's soda can will be cleaned up by someone else because it is part of the routine, one would be hard-pressed to make a convincing argument why one SHOULD throw away one's own soda can. Now, I estimate the percentage of people that behaves this way is small. Most soda cans and other trash get thrown away with no problem. And I think that is because common decency is still pretty common. But today it occurred to me that such motivation is idealistic rather than pragmatic.
     I hate the frustration I feel when I am challenged to convince someone of something with pragmatic logic when I myself believe it because of my personal ideology. I was also upset because I don't like feeling like being idealistic is a bad thing (and by the way, I really don't think I was being that idealistic!). But lately I have been reading a book which suggests that buddhism is not an idealistic religion but a pragmatic one. The happiness that is said to come from buddhism is a result of living according to the dharma. So we live buddha's teaching and naturally are free from suffering. Bam! That's pragmatic. Interesting. But I was still upset -- maybe most of all -- because if buddhist practice is supposed to yield happiness, then why wasn't my good deed from an hour ago making me happy in the face of this wretched selfishness? Well, I thought it over and here's what I came up with: The spontaneous generosity was buddhist practice. When I projected retroactive expectations onto those guys, however, that was not buddhist practice. They played Pirates of the Caribbean on the ship's TVs that day, and a quote from Jack Sparrow sums it up best: "They done what's right by them. Can't expect any more than that." Even when evaluating the past, to attach to a certain outcome will create suffering, e.g. anger. And yes there ARE some things worth getting angry about in order to change... Maybe littering is one of them. But I have to be willing to experience the anger that arises and channel it. If I am not willing, I fall victim to the ravages of my own mind's karma.
     I sometimes doubt the purported pragmatism of buddhism. Maybe that is because I am mistaking an idealistic notion of buddhism for actual buddhism, and I am mistaking a rough, common idea of pragmatism for the way buddhism actually works. It's not magic, it's just the cause and effect of the mind and body. And though buddhist pragmatism may be too subtle to explain in a convincing, materialistic way, that is not the same as being idealistic. But then what's with all that flowery, universal compassion stuff? And IS "common decency" an ideal?

By the way, there were nine uses of "pragmatic" or forms of that word, including the title, in this entry.