I like a nice riddle.  And I appreciate the ambiguity.  And I am even able to conceive of atheism as a religion and pragmatism as an ideology.  Everything is matter of degrees; absolutes on paper rarely are in practice.  But when I think of ideology and pragmatism, it seems, to me, in practice, the former gives more weight to the nobility of an idea, and the latter, to the measurable effects of an idea.  Ideologies contain an implicit assumption that they are valid, whereas pragmatism has to prove itself valid.  As I've seen illustrated in this thread, ideologies resent event being questioned.  Forget that unions all over America are epic failures - unions are good, and how dare we question that?  Ideologies are like religions - they tend  to resist changing to incorporate new realities.  And if you suggest they do, someone is going to call you a heathen.  Look at Milton Friedman.  The idea was beautiful in its perfection.  Almost destroyed the whole world.  Must have been something else - such a beautiful idea could not have cause such suffering.  Unless suffering was part of the plan.  Yeah - that's it.   People must sacrifice themselves for the vitality of a beautiful idea.  All of the isms and religions may find their way to this inevitable point.  I, myself, think that if we are entering an age where a beautiful idea can be sacrificed for the vitality of the people, that's probably a good thing.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.