More Futile Lecturing

Is there anything else Latin intellectuals and bishops can do?

R. R. Reno recommends “Can We Measure the Value of Saving Human Lives in Dollars? Somber Calculations in a Time of Plague” by Rob Koons:

Koons goes on to explain why we are not just morally permitted, but in truth required to return to normal life well before the probability of deaths caused by the disease goes to zero. He notes the common good is not “the aggregate of the individual welfare of a society’s members, but rather the flourishing of the whole community as such.”

That may be the definition of the common good as received in scholastic theology and in some interpretations of current Roman Catholic social teaching (but not as stated by the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching, which nonetheless appends the scholastic understanding of the common good without trying to harmonize the two). But does the state care? The novel definition of the common good is more in line with liberalism and what is suitable for the purposes of the state. Are two intellectuals writing essays to Catholics really going to persuade anyone in government to reconsider, or affect the shutdown? Most probably not. What is their defense? "We got to make a living." "It's part of my vocation to write." Maybe they should be writing on more practical things, or limit themselves to explaining theology. Or maybe they should be doing something to become anti-fragile and to restore community. Now that would be real work.