Editor’s note: We are delighted to welcome Terrell Clemmons as a new contributor.
When J. Budziszewski talks to groups about social topics, people often ask him, “What’s wrong with us?” or “Why are we going crazy?” It’s not an unreasonable question. We might laugh off tampons in boys’ bathrooms, but surgically disfiguring children and endorsing after-birth abortion in a medical-ethics journal — these indicate something has gone seriously wrong in our thinking. “Unfortunately,” Budziszewski writes in the Introduction to his most recent book, Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, “derangement has real-word consequences.” We are not “lazily drifting into chaos … we are propelling ourselves into it.”
Budziszewski is a professor of government, philosophy, and civic leadership at the University of Texas, Austin. He’s written more than 20 books for scholarly and lay readers. Pandemic of Lunacy is for the lay reader hungering and thirsting for sanity in just such a sea of chaos. It’s not about the virus of 2020, but rather about the plethora of ever-metastasizing crazy ideas gaining acceptance as conventional knowledge.
Clear Thinking 101
Pandemic of Lunacy dismantles 30 delusional ideas that hold mind-boggling sway — and exact real-world harm — in our culture. The terms “delusion” and “lunacy,” according to Merriam-Webster, apply to any idea about reality that is demonstrably false, contrary to sound evidence, or irrational. “Delusional” can also mean “psychotic” or even “insane.” In 30 succinct chapters, Budziszewski addresses 30 delusions related to virtue and happiness, politics and government, family and sexuality, God and religion, even human nature and reality itself. He doesn’t polemicize for “sides” on the controversial subjects nearly so much as help us think through falsehoods clouding our current milieu.
For example, chapter 9, which takes up the notion that “Scientists, Scholars, and Experts Are Neutral Authorities,” hashes out the difference between neutrality and objectivity. It is impossible, he points out, for anyone to be “neutral,” for the simple reason that everyone has a bias, a point of view:
The concept of making judgments without any biases or assumptions makes no more sense than the concept of a tightly packed vacuum. Even to side with objectivity against blind partisanship is already to take a side — and that is only the beginning. …
Objectivity is having a bias for truth over “being right,” having a willingness to be proven wrong, and adhering to a set of norms for discussion that maximize the chances of reaching a true consensus while minimizing the risks of reaching a false one.
This is the kind of explanatory distinction that seems obvious, once you think about it for a few minutes, and it’s a crucially important to make. Conferring neutral-expert status on people in positions of authority is not a reliable way to discover the truth of a matter, and it increases risks of abuse. “So-called neutrality is really bad-faith authoritarianism,” he explains. “Whatever view succeeds in passing itself off as neutral wins without having to make a case for itself.” This dynamic played out a few years ago in a pandemic of another kind, and shrewd observers of the debate over intelligent design have seen it in spades.
Restoring Sanity, One Mind at a Time
Pandemic of Lunacy does address theism and belief in a good God, but it is not a book of Christian apologetics. Budziszewski characterizes it as “pre-Christian apologetics” or even “sanity apologetics.” He dismantles all 30 lunacies using only straight logic and reason.
Most of all, it will help you think more clearly about important issues of our day — which can help you help others do so as well. Only by thinking clearly can we keep our own heads about us amid mass confusion. And beyond that, by keeping sane ourselves, we will be better equipped to beam a fresh light of clarity into whatever ideological murk we find ourselves having to navigate. “Lunacy has its own gravitational pull,” he writes, “but never underestimate the attraction of a sane mind.”
This book would be an excellent selection for a study group. You can read the Table of Contents and Introduction to Pandemic of Lunacy here. Creed & Culture is offering a 15 percent discount through the end of April. Use discount code PANDEMIC15.