Column: CEO Learnings
Book Review of: Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy , by: J. Budziszewski
As business leaders, we deal in reality. A balance sheet either balances, or it doesn’t. A product works, or it fails. We are accustomed to a world where actions have consequences and facts matter.
But recently, the cultural waters outside our offices have begun to flood the boardroom. We are increasingly confronted with a world that treats biological facts as “opinions,” logic as “hate,” and the most basic moral truths as oppressive constructs. For the Catholic professional, the challenge is no longer just how to be ethical in a secular world; it is how to remain sane in a delusional one.
In his essential new book, Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy (Ignatius Press, Feb 3), philosopher J. Budziszewski offers a lifeline.
A Professor of Government and Philosophy at UT Austin and a celebrated convert to Catholicism, Budziszewski is one of the premier Thomistic thinkers of our time. In this volume, he does not merely catalogue the madness of the modern West; he diagnoses the spiritual pathology behind it.
The Revenge of Conscience
Why do otherwise intelligent people —colleagues, educators, even family members — embrace ideas that defy common sense? Budziszewski argues that the “Pandemic of Lunacy” is not a failure of IQ; it is a failure of the will.
Drawing on the Natural Law tradition, he argues that the basics of right and wrong are “what we can’t not know.” Moral law is written on the human heart. When we violate that law, we trigger the “Revenge of Conscience”.
We then have two choices: Repent or Rationalize.
Because our culture has rejected the sacrament of repentance, it has chosen to rationalize. To silence the “furies” of guilt, we must invent increasingly wild delusions and demand that society applaud them.
For the Catholic leader, this is a profound insight. It explains the irrational anger and intolerance we often see in the public square. It is not strength; it is the frantic defense mechanism of a guilty conscience.
The Grain of Truth
Budziszewski acts as a guide for the perplexed, walking us through 30 distinct “Lunacies” regarding virtue, family, politics,and God. He shows us how each delusion hooks us by offering a twisted “grain of truth”.
For example, we embrace the lie that “morality is vague” because it mimics the truth that some moral decisions are difficult. We accept the lunacy that “reality doesn’t have to be logical” because it resembles the Christian truth of mystery and paradox. By identifying these grains of truth, Budziszewski equips us to dismantle the lie without losing our compassion for the person trapped in it.
The Crisis of Fatherhood
Perhaps the most moving aspect of the book – and a theme Budziszewski elaborated on in my recent interview with him on The Mentors Radio – is the connection between the breakdown of the family and the crisis of faith. 
He suggests that modern atheism is often less an intellectual conclusion than a “Father Wound”. If the family is the “domestic church,” the father is the first icon of authority. When earthly fathers are absent or untrustworthy, the path to the Heavenly Father is obscured. This insight is particularly convicted for Catholic men and business leaders. It reminds us that our primary vocation is not just economic success, but the modeling of a faithful, rational, and loving authority that makes belief in God plausible for the next generation.
A Return to Reality
Ultimately, Pandemic of Lunacy is a defense of the Imago Dei. Budziszewski reminds us that we are “rational animals” – creatures designed to know the truth and follow an idea of how to live. We cannot transcend our nature through technology or ideology; we can only flourish by accepting the gift of who God created us to be. 
Budziszewski warns that we cannot break the order of the cosmos; we can only break ourselves against it.
For the Catholic business leader standing in the gap, this book is more than a cultural critique; it is a survival guide. It validates our sanity, sharpens our arguments, and points us back to the only source of true clarity: the integration of Faith and Reason.
If you want to lead with clarity when everyone around you seems confused, buy this book. It is the reality check our culture desperately needs.
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Want to dive deeper? Listen to my full interview with Professor Budziszewski on how to keep your sanity in a crazy world: The Mentors Radio Episode 457
RELATED RESOURCES:
- Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, by J. Budziszewski
View Articles Thomas M. Loarie is a popular host of The Mentors Radio Show, the founder and CEO of BryoLogyx Inc. (BryoLogyx.com), and a seasoned corporate... MORE »
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