Driving Out Love: The Modern Bureaucratic Lifestyle, by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Dec 15, 2020

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

It is difficult to offer a comprehensive critique of our Godless modern culture simply because it is so difficult to know where to begin. In this instance, I will start at the top, so to speak, with a consideration of the absurdity of our captivity to the modern bureaucratic State. I grant that it is not always easy to say exactly which modern bureaucratic solutions we would be better off without, but there is a peculiar feature of our intensely bureaucratic way of life today which merits serious reflection. By creating and funding comprehensive “programs” to “ensure” the well-being of entire populations, the modern State consistently creates fresh burdens which limit both human freedom and the pursuit of more authentically human solutions. This may sound a bit abstract, so let me offer some big-picture examples, in which the bureaucratic tail so very obviously wags the personal dog:

• Immigration: One of the chief objections to immigration in many Western nations seems to be that new immigrants place too great a load on modern social services—that is, on all the services to which people are entitled by virtue of living under particularly bureaucratic governments.  ….

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