One of the reasons his methodology seems to work is that that's the only one that's allowed to work on that scale. Politics is definitely an issue, and politics

One of the reasons his methodology seems to work is that that's the only one that's allowed to work on that scale. Politics is definitely an issue, and politics is driven by how individual people think on average, and if how they think on average just isn't very good, then only the pragmatic approach can "work". That's not a problem with a system-building approach per se, it's a problem with it given the current state of intellectual development in the culture at large. People prefer a smattering of contradictions to a coherent truth.