Jeff LeJeune hit on something in a recent essay that’s been on our mind ever since the SpaceX announcement for Vermillion Parish – that the vision of The Good that is being promoted by our political (and other) leaders doesn’t go much beyond acquiring material wealth. This was not a difficult conclusion to draw from Gov Jeff Landry’s own celebratory essay announcing the SpaceX project:

‘Louisiana has secured more than $250 billion in announced private investment. Meta is building one of the largest artificial intelligence data centers in history in North Louisiana. Hyundai Steel is investing billions in advanced manufacturing along our River. And Louisiana continues to solidify its position as America’s energy powerhouse through transformative LNG investments — including Woodside’s $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG project, Venture Global’s $18 billion expansion, and Commonwealth LNG’s $13 billion facility.

‘ . . . I see high-paying jobs for Louisiana workers. I see engineers, welders, electricians, fabricators, software developers, and skilled tradespeople building the future right here. I see students who once believed they had to leave Louisiana to pursue careers in technology and innovation realizing they can build those careers at home. I see communities gaining investment, growth, and optimism. Most importantly, I see Louisiana becoming a state that attracts talent instead of exporting it’ (thehayride.com).

All of this, he says, means ‘Louisiana is winning.’

In some ways, yes, it does. We do agree that having high-paying jobs for Louisianans is a good thing. But is it the highest thing? Can it really bring lasting happiness to people? Can it answer the highest aspirations of men and women? No, it cannot, but that is how economic development is generally portrayed by elected officials – as a panacea for crime, family dysfunction, etc.

Louisiana is in danger of ‘losing’ by virtue of the fact that the State’s leaders are not offering Louisianans a higher moral or spiritual purpose to work toward, nothing beyond: Earn lots of money to satisfy whatever whims and desires we may be fixated on at the moment.

It is for that reason that Dr Zac Porcu, author of Journey to Reality and one of the sane voices left in California, said quite bluntly in one of his podcasts on the modern secular state that ‘Liberal democracy is lame’ (zacharyporcu.substack.com). He points out that prior to the Enlightenment, peoples/nations and their governments, pagan as well as Christian, had ultimate societal goals that transcended the mundane – acquiring virtue, uniting with the Divine, and so on. Not so with our modern political states. Now we are content, as Dr Porcu explains, with earthly possessions and carnal pleasures.

It is difficult to disagree with him. What will our achievements with AI, rocket launching, steel producing, etc., mean in the long run if our people live only to satisfy basic, animal level urges? We will become only a marginal note in history as a people with great resources and opportunities who squandered them on small, insignificant goals.

However, if we are able to link the material wealth that is supposed to arrive through these big economic projects with truly inspirational goals that Christendom once strove for – the building of beautiful cathedrals and monasteries to nurture the souls of Louisianans, fostering other Christian art forms, praising monks, nuns, and clergy as high vocations to aim for, funding seminaries and missionaries, etc. – then there is hope that it will not all be in vain.

Until then, we will offer two cheers for the turnaround in the economic forecast we are seeing, but will withhold the third for the time when something more than material aims is presented to Louisianans as the Greatest Good.