Open Our Eyes

J. Budziszewski on a Vaccine for the Pandemic of Lunacy

The craziness of the culture has become so obvious that, finally, everyone gets it. We don’t need to go into the details of tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms.

And yet I don’t think most of us realize just how far the lunacy has gone. Consider the social media remark, “Math is actually not universal. Treating it as such upholds white supremacy.” It’s easy to laugh, but the author of the tweet is a math teacher, and this sort of thing is actually taught in some public schools. Or consider the tweet: “2+2 in #Theology can make 5. Because it has to do with #God and real #life of #people.” This was posted by theologian and Pope Francis confidant Antonio Spadaro, who was defending certain statements against critics who had pointed out that they contradicted the moral doctrine of the Catholic Church.

We are told that basic right and wrong are vague, equivocal, and different for everyone. That sometimes we just have to do the wrong thing. That good character is unnecessary for well-being—or even that there is no such thing as good character, that everyone merely responds to the incentives presented to him.

And on and on and on.

The difficulty of doing something about such exotic ideas is that they aren’t just the fancies of our managerial and opinion-forming classes. Ordinary people who decry the lunacy of our times often accept humdrum versions of the same delusions, even while denying their implications. We want lunatic premises without lunatic conclusions. We want the poison apple without the worm. I notice, for example, that moderates and conservatives who protest lunatic versions of “marriage” such as polyamory quite often believe that cohabitation without vows and with freedom to change partners is equivalent to marriage. Again, moderates and conservatives who would consider it totalitarian to forbid women to stay at home to raise their children commonly view women who do choose that way of life as dim bulbs.

In a word, the reason insanity makes way so rapidly is that the knife of the premises has already been slipped quietly between our ribs—and we have slipped it there ourselves. And this is why, even though many of the outré symptoms that ordinary people find so ridiculous, offensive, or baffling will eventually fade, the underlying fallacies are likely to outlive them and produce new symptoms, perhaps equally outré. All too often what we mean in calling ourselves “conservative” is that although we complain about new craziness, we want to conserve the craziness we have swallowed already.

Defensive Postures

Like most of us, I would prefer to see our culture not destroyed, but renewed and revitalized. If we are serious about this hope, we must be brutally honest, because rejuvenation requires so much intellectual revision, so many changes in our lives, and so much contrition, that, over time, our resistance to doing what has to be done becomes greater and greater.

To justify doing nothing, we adopt various defensive postures. Postures like what? One is simple incredulity: This can’t be happening. Things look okay in my little niche. Another is shooting the messenger: If you think things are as crazy as all that, you must be very disturbed. Perhaps we are amused: All this is just a silly season.

Aversion is one: All the stuff going on is too creepy to pay attention to. Boredom is another: Who cares—it’s not a real issue like war or the economy. There is also obliviousness: Whatever is happening, it couldn’t affect me or my kids.

Then comes cynicism, the view that it’s only politics as usual, followed by mockery: That’s just a conspiracy theory;bylegalism: All we need to do is pass a few more laws;by fear: I can’t speak up because I don’t want to lose my friends or my job;and by conformity: I can’t bear to think differently from the people in my milieu. These postures are followed by complacency: After all, people always say the old days were better;and distraction: I have plenty of other more important things to worry about.

Some people, stupefied, say, I can’t take in the enormity of what is happening. Others, despairing, mourn that everything is inevitable, and I’m on the wrong side of history. Still others, perhaps ashamed of themselves, ask, Who am I to judge anyone or anything? Hypocrites reassure themselves: The crazy people are bad, I’m good, and nothing else matters. People who just want to be left alone dismissively say, I don’t care what happens as long as it isn’t shoved in my face.

J. Budziszewski is Professor of Government, Philosophy, and Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of several books, including Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy (Creed & Culture, 2026).

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