Making Sense of Nonsense

Navigating through the West's Current Quagmire

Scott D. G. Ventureyra

In recent years, there has been a concerted attack on many of the precepts of Western civilization relating to the concept of God, truth, Christianity, morality, sex, the family, and even modern science, especially biology. The concern of this volume is to explore these and other attacks through the tools of philosophy, theology, science, and intuition. It seeks to bring clarity to the ongoing struggle of Western civilization to preserve its values and traditions.

The West is crumbling at an accelerated rate. The unfolding erasure of history, objective morality, and truth has paved the way for our current predicament. We are now standing at the precipice of the future of human civilization. The attacks on the human person are unrelenting, malicious, multifaceted, and wide-ranging in their scope and breadth, from the time prior to birth until the moment of death. If you are granted the “right” to live, then you must be prepared for unending assaults on your, mind, body, and soul.Nevertheless, the spirit of man and the greatness of God are infinitely greater than any of these assaults. It is by making sense of nonsense that humanity will be able to navigate out of the West’s current quagmire.

Endorsements

For those who feel vaguely uneasy about the current direction of our culture and our politics, but can’t put their finger on the problem, the fifty-five chapters of this book are a wake-up call, and they bring into focus reasons for our current malaise. The editor and principal author, Scott D. G. Ventureyra, is joined by more than twenty others who explore perennial themes of philosophy and theology enlivened by accounts of personal experience in the quest for the true and the good amidst the drama of the decay of the West. Topics range from faith and science to gender ideology to the attack on freedom and dignity of persons, to COVID-19 and the New World Order. Pick this volume up for a lively discussion of the distemper of our times, and for reflections on the prospects for redemption.

—David J. Klassen, LL.B., Ph.D.

The Western world is intent on defeating reality to vaunt utopian narratives. The authors of this impressive work offer a necessary assessment of this “culture war,” while also forging a path for a return to the essential and eternal truths of human existence. A copy of this notable book should be on every shelf.

—Nirmal Dass, publisher, The Postil Magazine

I knew something was deeply wrong with the world prior to 2020, but 2020 confirmed it. With the changes in views about sex, marriage, and the economy, we are seeing a direct confrontation with traditional Western Christian values. This continues to be confirmed for those who have eyes to see what politics, medicine, science, and technology are doing to cultural consciousness led by globalist elite groups (just read the Davos report for yourself!). This really hit home for me when politicians told us in Spring 2020 that all the hospitals were full to capacity with COVID-19 patients and I was not permitted to visit my father in the intensive care unit. Well I gained entrance, and what I saw was shocking! It was largely empty! The politicians were lying. And, many were buying it! What was really happening was a wholesale neglect with no process in place to treat COVID-19 patients. This coupled with the ongoing race riots and the constant in your face challenge to traditional ethics of both sex and Western values. All of it is a part of a reset. A reset of values with the intent to replace Christian foundations through coercive tactics. We are experiencing this now in the society as well as in our evangelical churches. Making Sense of Nonsense confronts many of the issues, motivations, and challenges that continue to upset not only our economy and social interactions but our values.

With an honest look at the issues from a variety of perspectives, Making Sense of Nonsense will furnish the reader with a host of issues backed by research that aid us in thinking better about the problems in medicine, technology, economics, society and how they are interwoven, so that we might be better equipped to engage the new world staring us square in the face. The motivations are no longer disguised attempts to deceive. At best the motivations are hidden in plain sight for all to see. For those who have ears to hear, let him hear and see the nonsense before us.

—Joshua R. Farris, Rev. Dcn., Ph.D, Professor of Theology of Science, Missional University

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Book Reviews

A Review by Veronika Kyrylenko of Making Sense of Nonsense, “Western Civilization at Stake,” in The New American 38:22
(October 31, 2022).

Western Civilization at Stake

Throughout the history of mankind, people have committed acts that we today deem unthinkable. Most modern Westerners might think of modern society as good and just because it is presumably built on reason and expertise that safeguard all of us from savagery. Yet it is very likely that our descendants will read about the 20th and 21st centuries in history books and shake their heads in disbelief: “What were they thinking?” That is, if there are any descendants, and if they are able to read.

The editor and principal author of Making Sense of Nonsense: Navigating Through the West’s Current Quagmire, Dr. Scott Ventureyra, is joined by more than 20 other authors who explore perennial themes of philosophy and theology in the quest for the truth and the good that may help avert the ultimate decay of Western civilization.

Nearly two-thirds of the book’s 55 chapters read like a blood-chilling encyclopedia of everything that is wrong with the West. That includes, but is not limited to, cancel culture, racial tensions, “social justice,” gender ideology and bodily mutilations, abortion, assisted euthanasia, the sexualization of children, the socialist economy, and tyrannical Covid policies.

All the root causes of the numerous ills that so many of us perceive but can’t really put a finger on when and how they originated are correctly identified as the ideological subversion of the West and the moral relativism that has poisoned minds as a result of that subversion.

Quoting the interviews of Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB informant and propagandist who defected to Canada in the 1970s, Ventureyra explains the brainwashing tactics employed by the communists to turn American children into enemies of Western tradition. This process appears to be especially dangerous for a couple of reasons: First of all, because it is taking place gradually, it is hard to perceive due to the short span of each individual’s historic memory. Second, it is almost impossible to undo indoctrination using reasoning, since the toxic ideas taught to the younger generations become an organic part of their worldview. That revelation should be a wake-up call to parents who may not be aware of what is truly happening in the public schools that play a major role in this process.

On top of that, people are constantly distracted by the everyday worries over issues created by the globalist elites. Therefore, everyday Americans simply don’t have enough time to reflect on why these issues are even happening in the first place. For those who try to find answers, the “enemy” is often — and deliberately — identified incorrectly. That happens because educational institutions, a large part of academia, the media, and politicians are intentionally dividing people. Indeed, listening to narratives promoted by the media, one may pick “the villains” to his or her liking. People may choose to blame “toxic masculinity” or “toxic femininity,” “racists” or “sexists,” “patriarchy,” “capitalist greed,” “climate change deniers,” “vaxxed” or “unvaxxed” for any injustices that occur to them. According to the authors, creating divisions among people is one of the most common tactics used by totalitarian subverters.

The authors wonder how people have become so gullible and hateful toward each other. They argue that it started with the “death of God” — a phenomenon first described by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He linked the “death of God” to the Age of Enlightenment and reason’s triumph over Christianity’s religious “superstitions,” which, however, did not elevate people but literally opened the gates of hell. Because, to paraphrase Nietzsche’s opponent, the brilliant Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, “If God is dead, then everything is permitted.”

Writes Ventureyra,

The death of God, whether in philosophical musings or in practice, did indeed make all things permissible, especially in the eyes of twentieth-century despots. One only needs to look toward the abhorrent actions of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Meo Zedong’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and the United States’ Japanese internment camps to find that this is an undeniable truth.

The well-documented book would be depressing to read had the authors not left lots of room for hope. The seventh and last part of Making Sense of Nonsense is dedicated to practical solutions to the looming catastrophe.

The authors insist that hope is real. Because every single one of us is created in the image of God and has a capacity to have fellowship with Him, we can and must resist evil through nonviolent means.

The book clearly shows that the very survival of the West — built upon GrecoRoman philosophy and government, Christianity, and modern science (not to be confused with Big Pharma-sponsored “science”) — is at stake. Speaking against evil and fighting for God-given freedoms is the only way to save it. Those who like diving deep and cutting to the core of the most crucial issues of the day will find Making Sense of Nonsense truly insightful.

ChatGPT’s Review of Making Sense of Nonsense:

Making Sense of Nonsense: Navigating Through the West’s Current Quagmire, edited by Scott Ventureyra, is a collection of essays exploring cultural and philosophical challenges in Western civilization. The book critically examines perceived attacks on traditional values, truth, morality, and Christianity, and discusses the consequences of these shifts on society. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, combining philosophy, theology, and science to analyze these issues.

Key Themes:

Cultural Decay: The contributors argue that Western civilization is in decline due to the rejection of traditional moral frameworks and the rise of relativism.
Philosophical Inquiry: Essays delve into the erosion of truth, objective morality, and the sanctity of life.
Faith and Science: The book also addresses tensions between religion and modern science, promoting reconciliation between the two
PhilPapers

PhilArchive
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Reception:

Strengths:
- The breadth of topics and perspectives makes it relevant for readers interested in cultural criticism and the preservation of Western values.
- The call for clarity amidst ideological confusion resonates with those concerned about modern cultural trends
  PhilPapers
  
  PhilArchive
  .
Criticisms:
- Some reviewers suggest the variety of contributors results in inconsistent quality and cohesion.
- The ideological tone may not appeal to all audiences, especially those with differing cultural or philosophical views
  PhilArchive
  .

The book serves as a thought-provoking guide for navigating contemporary cultural issues, particularly for readers sympathetic to its critique of Western decline. For more information, visit its PhilPapers entry.

A review by M. Oliver Heydorn of Making Sense of Nonsense, in Études maritainiennes – Maritain Studies, Volume 38: 133-136 (November 2022).

One of the first things to strike the reader of Making Sense of Nonsense is the great breadth of topics that are addressed or at least touched upon in the course of its pages. Unfortunately, the manifestations of nonsense in our contemporary society are legion. From gender theory to climate ideology, from legalized abortion to unjustified and indeed dangerous restrictions on free speech, the
book’s many essays make it clear that what is, in fact, nonsense and demonstrable nonsense at that, has become ubiquitous in the contemporary West, albeit in many variations and gradations. In approaching the hot topics or key issues that mark the on-going battles we are made to endure and the progressive retreat we made to suffer from anything resembling traditional,
Christian civilization, we are simultaneously introduced, or re-acquainted as the case may be, with the various -isms that stalk us: naturalism, materialism, scientism, Marxism, socialism, Darwinism, Freudianism, deconstructionism, post-modernism, and the very latest – ism, “wokeism”. This is the book’s first achievement: an outline or adumbration of the various points of conflict between the traditional conception and practice of Western civilisation and its prospective post-Western replacement in combination with an exploration of
the chief ideologies which have been developed and then marshalled as weapons in favour of the latter’s anticipated triumph.

At the same time, the book recognizes that nonsense policies and their ideologically underpinnings are not just accidental or adventitious nonsense, or nonsense that has spontaneously developed, ‘evolved’, or emerged out of the ether. Rather, a good deal of the nonsense (or at least a large part of it) exists because it is actually part of a conscious agenda on the part of powerful forces that are active in the world today. Rather than shying away from what critics and proponents alike have termed “The New World Order,” Making Sense of
Nonsense boldly acknowledges the existence of this project – i.e., this attempt to centralize power on a global scale, head-on. For example, certain contemporary events and developments such as the controversies surrounding the Covid-19 phenomenon and its accompanying experimental jabs are discussed at length in some of the essays, as is the emergence of the World
Economic Forum as a political force seeking to implement its sinister 2030 agenda.

The recognition of the NWO and its key players, institutions, strategies, and tactics is of crucial importance. There is indeed a conscious, organized movement to create or otherwise take advantage of public crises in order to elicit a certain collective response to those crises. Those responses can then be cited as the necessary justifications for moving society in the direction of tyrannical policies that will further increase the centralization of power in all of its various forms. As centralized power increases, individuals necessarily
become more and more disenfranchised. The state becomes all-powerful as both God and the human being are overshadowed. Without understanding this factor of conscious, intelligent action in our present discontents, we cannot hope to effectively respond to or to counteract those who would wish to undermine and corrupt our civilization. What is ultimately at stake is power, i.e., control over policy, and the menace of the anti-Christian ‘philosophy’ (the word philosophy is to understood here in the broadest sense, i.e., as a vision of
how the world is, could be, and should be) that animates those power-seekers who would wish to impose their views on the rest of us in order to advance their own benefit narrowly conceived. The nonsense ideologies that are invoked to justifying the adoption of nonsense policies in reference to nonsense issues are just tools in the pursuit of power. Once this is understood, it becomes a little easier to ‘make sense of all the nonsense’. Various essays in the book explore the economic, political, and cultural agenda of the world’s antifreedom
power-mongers from this precise angle.

But there is yet a third aspect to our contemporary situation – it may even be regarded as the most important aspect – which is extensively touched on in Making Sense of Nonsense by two of its essays: “The Great Reset and the New World Order” by Phil Fernandes and “A Message to All Humanity, All Governments, All Royal and Financial Elites (One Percent Group)” by Ton Laurijssen. This has to do with the role which the reigning financial system plays as the underpinning and driving force behind the whole NWO project. To remake the world by remaking identity, gender, religion, the economy, politics, culture, and philosophy, etc., is a grandiose project which could never have been conceived, let alone pursued with such apparent efficacy and superficial success, had it not been for two things: 1) the financial, economic, and hence personal dissatisfaction which is caused by the structurally dishonest and dysfunctional financial software on which we attempt to run our economies and 2) the overwhelming power, wealth, and privilege which the same system unjustly centralizes in the hands of a few, namely those who own the system and/or otherwise benefit from its operation. I submit that it is the financial system (i.e., the banking, cost-accountancy, and taxation systems) which is the very engine that is powering the NWO and is responsible for the conceptualisation, propagation, and application of so much nonsense in our world as a means to that end. Were it not for the illegitimate power which money has acquired under the existing credit monopoly and its deployment in the pursuit of anti-social policies there would be a lot less nonsense about and the need for books attempting to make sense of it all (as brilliant as these may be) would be greatly diminished.

Based on my own extensive research, I would suggest that it is in an analysis of the financial system along the lines provided by the British
engineer, Major C.H. Douglas, and the original Social Credit (his brainchild), that one may find the ultimate explanation, at least on an earthly or natural level, for the existence of so much nonsense. If we adopt the adage “follow the money” in approaching the phenomenon of nonsense, we can make as much sense of the nonsense as nonsense will allow and thereby discover that making sense of finance is the one thing necessary par excellence for making sense of the nonsense.

Making Sense of Nonsense