From Dr. Thurow:
It was truly educational to go to the capitol this week and see how part of the process of lawmaking actually works, not just the procedure–a book can explain that–but what the actual conversations look like between lobbyists and legislators. The atmosphere of the place, the expressions of the busy clerks, lobbyists, legislators, reporters, security personnel, recorders, and staff as they hurried by. How very human the whole thing is!
I’ve been thinking about Monsignor Shea recently. I was fortunate enough to get to converse with him several times when I taught for the University of Mary, and he has some real insights to share. In relation to our capitol visit, I thought I might share a bit of his understanding of what really went wrong in the eighteenth century Enlightenment, when Christendom began to fade as the Church weakened and shrank, and secular society began to turn away from her principles. He believes that the real problem was not hostility towards the faith, as such; most of the great thinkers of that age remained Christians and even articulated their innovations as being better ways to realize Christian principles. The great error of that age, Monsignor Shea argues, is that they rejected the Fall of Man.
If we are not fallen, then we are not in need. We do not need repentance, we do not need correction, we do not need a Savior. Christ ceases to be our salvation and becomes the divine articulator of the principles of a utopian society we think we can realize on Earth. It is the most natural thing that, ever since the Enlightenment thinkers first produced the myth of human progress that makes so many now reject the wisdom of the past (including the great books), we have been faced with movement after movement that articulated a seemingly perfect way of fixing all the world’s problems only to cause more and worse problems for us all. From the guillotine of the French Revolution to the Nazi extermination camps, to the gulags of the Soviet empire, to the killing fields of Cambodia, to the mutilation of minds and now also bodies promoted by so many of our supposed institutions of learning in the United States today, idealistic theories that abandon truth have become monstrosities in practice.
It is not pointless, all that business at the capitol, but as I always remind my students when I teach about politics: everything a government does will always do some harm to someone; it is our task to act in accordance with the truth, doing as little harm as possible, doing as much good as possible, and above all never cooperating with evil, even tacitly, no matter what the cost or apparent benefit. We are fallen creatures; our hope must lie above. Sprawled in the mud, we are poor judges of the geography of the world, but our Maker has given us the inestimable gift of reason with which to seek truth. We are made for the Truth and our hearts yearn for Him, drawn by His love for us.
We have a great responsibility of stewardship here on Earth, and a great calling to love one another as Christ loves us, but we cannot win. Only our Lord can win. After taking all prudent measures to defend the good and defeat the evil, we must trust in Him, cleave to Him, and never be surprised or dismayed when our own plans tumble down in ruin once again. Just keep doing what He has told us to do. We already know who wins this battle and how.
January 16, 2026