Review of “A Symphony of Logic from the Basket of Deplorables” by Cornelius Van Blyderveen

Score: 93/100 (9.3 out of 10)

A Symphony of Logic from the Basket of Deplorables is a passionate philosophical book by Cornelius Van Blyderveen, a Jewish Canadian immigrant who is greatly troubled by trends in the Americas and the west today.

In a sense, this book is the exact equal and opposite of Wisdom by Jason Merchey as it takes a similar impassioned approach to socio-cultural and socio-political issues, however from a more right-leaning, conservative perspective (where as Merchey's work was from a left-leaning, liberal perspective). It's almost incredible how similar yet diametrically opposed these two books are. While both books are preachy and didactic, you could make the argument that Blyderveen is more restrained and a lot less shouty about his point of view. You don't get nearly as many exclamation marks, CAPITALIZED LETTERS, or name-calling here. It also doesn't contradict the thesis in practice (to think less emotionally and more rationally) like Wisdom arguably did. However, because of their similarities, we are giving them identical scores of 9.3/10. 

We have to preface this by saying that, despite what the author may claim, this book does have a degree of bias toward a political (conservative) and religious (Judeo-Christian) point of view. That doesn't make it “wrong” necessarily, but we're just preparing and warning you. If these are views that boil your blood and make you want to throw things and/or set your local Wendy's on fire, then avoid this book like the plague. If you are open to different points of views, even those you might not necessarily like or agree with, then you might be able to bear with this book.

Look, we don't agree with a lot of books we read. There were a lot of things about Wisdom we didn't like or agree with. There are some things in this book we might not like or agree with. That doesn't mean we're going to rage and set it on fire or something. America is the land that prioritizes one thing above all things: freedom of expression. This is the ability to share beliefs, values, and ideas without fear of the government or public “cracking down” on you and killing you. We aren't supposed to live in fear of what we think and believe, yet look at where we are as a society.

People are SCARED. They're scared of each other. They're scared of being “turned in” or marked as racist or intolerant by their friends, coworkers, and loved ones. People are being canceled—their livelihoods destroyed. It's pretty mad. What's worse is that the people the media tells us are the “good guys” sure are hypocritical and tend to hold double standards. They have a kind of sick selective demonization of people and groups of people, as long as they're not minorities. And they're quick to turn a blind eye to the racism and discrimination that they are promoting and perpetuating. 

Another very relevant fear is the indoctrination of our kids. Do you want to send your kids to schools where they are regularly told how bad and wrong their parents and grandparents were? Where they're taught that they live in a systemically unethical or even “evil” society? Where they're taught to blame people and feel like victims instead of accepting personal responsibility for their future and the future of society? That's realistically what we're looking at.

And what's really scary about that is how this all starts so subtly and slowly. When we start losing one right, we should expect to start losing all our rights. Slowly but surely. We're taught that it's “good” or for the “greater good.” We're taught to accept it. And if we push back, we're labeled as wicked or corrupt somehow. And when one side riots, it's justified. When another side riots, it's evil. When one side wants to overturn an election, it's justified. When another side wants to overturn an election, it's evil. When one side talks about how bad white people can be, they're justified and almost never reprimanded. But when a person brings up higher crime rates among a minority group—something that indicates a cultural and NOT a racial problem, to be clear—they're evil and immediately face repercussion. Many of the people protesting their loss of what they perceive as a human right right now were probably protesting for more restrictions and in favor of willingly LOSING their rights to assembly and to make private medical decisions a year or two ago. Think about how backwards and hypocritical that is. And it really isn't right either way. But no one wants to talk about it. Why? Because it's scary and it's dangerous to speak the truth. It's scary and dangerous to say that 2+2 doesn't equal 5 (figuratively speaking).

And that's why we can appreciate this book even if we don't 100% agree with it. It highlights these fears—these very real fears.

Here's one of our favorite quotes from it:

“The alternate reality of Chinese communism as any alternate reality always need(s) to construct an ideologically correct response to everything.” In other words, like in 1984, a government or society can agree on things that are completely untrue and objectively false like 2+2=5. They can convince you that it's correct by shear force, manipulation, and indoctrination. Is that what we're seeing in society today? The day when blatant lies becomes accepted as truth.

Check out this book on Amazon!