WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Christine Menedis: Why the World Doesn't Make Sense

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Christine Menedis is the author of the book Why the World Doesn’t Make Sense: Reclaiming the Liberty You Didn’t Know You Lost, which directly addresses what millions feel but can't articulate: we're not just divided—we're disoriented. Her work connects culture, finance, and technology back to first principles and the deeper structures beneath surface-level debate. You can find Christine on YouTube (@ChristineMenedisYT) and on Substack (menedis.substack.com). She joins Emma Wiermann on WRFH to for a conversation.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Emma Wehrman. With me today is Christine Menidis, author of Why the World Doesn't Make Sense, Reclaiming the Liberty You Didn't Know You Lost. Thanks so much for being with us today, Christine. Hey, it's great to be with you. So, I did a brief overview. I looked at this book, and it seems the topics of this book are actually very wide-ranging, from money to censorship to war. So to kick us off, if you were to tell someone, what is it about overall or what is the goal it is trying to evoke in the reader? What would you say?

I think the book seems like it's about a lot of wide-ranging issues, but at the heart of it all is this fundamental story of freedom versus control of the individual versus collective. Okay. And I think it's also about really getting back to a place that does make sense, right? Today, if we're talking about politics, culture, daily life, it doesn't really matter. things often don't make sense because the world today is no longer built on truth in all those areas. And so the book is really about getting back there.

Okay. So I want to start out with one of these ideas I saw that you had in your book, which is that we've sacrificed our rights because we don't understand some fundamental truths. Could you talk about what are the rights we've sacrificed and what are these truths that we don't understand? I think it really goes back to this issue of personal sovereignty, and even behind that, the very definition of the individual. So if you look around today, we've somehow replaced natural law with legal fiction, virtues become identity, reason, control. And we've stopped acknowledging that liberty comes from personal sovereignty. And that is about more than just rights. So often, it's just freedom to do what we should. And if you think back, America was instituted on

on this really simple but incredibly powerful idea that the individual is the one who gets to make the ultimate decisions surrounding their own life, not the collective. So we implement this government of men, but it's just supposed to be to protect our inherent unalienable rights. Because we're busy, we've got lives, we've got work, we've got families, you've got a radio show to run. And the moment that government is no longer serving us by protecting these God-given rights, it's not just our right, it's our duty to overthrow that government. And I recognize that this simple eternal truth sounds heretical in this day and age. But that is really why we're rapidly surrendering our personal impropriety rights, money, land, food, shelter. So I think my book, you know, to kind of tie this back to your first question, too, is really about pulling back the curtain, showing not just how we got here, but why. And as we sit on the precipice of the collapse of the post-World War II global order, how we can reclaim liberty by returning to truth and virtue, starting with ourselves as sovereign individuals. And I think this is the other part that really matters. So today, the entire definition, the meaning of the individual has somehow become averted and inverted, really. How many times have you heard people talk about individual extremism? The word malice,

seems to stand for this height of personal indulgence in a way that none there speak against while simultaneously reclassifying the individual into collective groups based on traits. We've got trans, black, female, so forth. But of course, the individual is something very different. It's something so much more. And when we understand this paradoxical beauty of the individual as, on the one hand, the smallest minority on the planet made in the image of its creator and end with unalienable rights, responsibilities, opportunities, you come with this stuff. But then the beauty

of it is, on the other hand, how do we find fulfillment of as an individual? It's in communion with others, in sacrificial service, both to humanity and to that which transcends it, right? Ultimately, to God. So if we can get comfortable with this paradoxical nature of the individual, well, then we don't need to fall prey to the current lives and inversion of its nature. Instead, we can reflect on the wisdom that's come before us and we can embrace a path to authentic freedom, liberty, through personal sovereignty. And throughout the book, you know, I talk often about sovereignty as opposed to freedom because freedom, you know, typically refers to the absence of external constraints, but personal sovereignty goes further. It emphasizes this additional importance

of self-mastery and responsibility. It's the conscious exercise, right, of our power to make values-aligned choices rather than just being swayed by societal expectations or external pressures. And this personal sovereignty, of course, is only experienced that which is good through doing that, which is good. Another theme that kind of runs throughout is this understanding that, you know, acquiescing to our own desires, that's the very definition of slavery. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. And I'm Emma Wehrman talking with Christine Minidis, author of Why the World Doesn't Make Sense, Reclaming the Liberty, You Didn't Know You Lost. So, yeah, I really find it interesting what you said about the individual.

I think it is very true. And a good point that it seems there's been a loss of a desire for even having an individuality or having an individual identity with the need for people to be a part of certain groups that seems to be where they find their identity. Like we were talking about, you know, oh, I'm this race or I'm, I'm this race or I'm, I'm this sexual orientation. And I think it's a really good point that no longer do people find identity or a sense of purpose in being their individual, unique self.

Instead, it has to be found within this collective. And I believe that means that there's something wrong because does that fundamentally go against our nature? I don't know how I would put it. What do you think is going on in there? Well, I think it's a couple things. First of all, it's yet another word that we've misdefined, right? This idea of community. It used to be this voluntary coming together of strong individuals for shared purpose or out of, you know, this beautiful self-sacrifice for others. And today it's become exactly what you just said, right? It's this being lumped into these, these collectivist groups by trait. And I think part of it goes to this, you know, kind of loss of, education that we have. Education.

When we really, right, when we really think about the idea of personal sovereignty and that we as individuals have this right to full self-ownership and self-determination, it goes to the very core of everything. So it has a spiritual component. And there's a big part of the book that I talk about where I think there's a dimension of this that's the spiritual war. But there's also a part of it that's just really basic civics that we've forgotten in this country. And I think it's why we're in the mess that we're in. Right. So this,

this fundamental understanding is how we once took the idea that governments sit over their people and instead created one that was under us. And the reason I wanted to bring it out in the book is I think it's how we're likely going to need to do it again, right? So if you take it back to really basic civics that we don't even teach our young people anymore. Things like natural law, right? It's this really, again, simple, beautiful idea, but this time it's a moral code that's woven into the very fabric of our universe, but it's knowable, discernible, accessible to all of us through things we've all got, like reason and common sense. It's where we derive our innate rights that go to everything that we've just been talking about and, of course, the accompanying duties and

opportunities. But then this goes hand in hand with this idea of public virtue, right? So if you think about, you're likely familiar with the famous John Adams quote, right? Our constitution's made for a moral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate for the government of any other. It's often misunderstood. What did he mean? He wasn't being pious. He was being practical, right? He was talking about what is so absent in today's society, which is virtue. He's explaining the obvious that, look, if you're going to enjoy freedom, it's on us. We've got to be able to maintain that ability ourselves because the thing about virtue is it can't be mandated or forced. It's got to come from inside of us. This is the beauty and the danger of America. And when we lose it, you look around and you get where we are today, right?

Yeah. Because think about it. You can't pass laws that require good behavior or punish bad because it just invites more laws and regs followed by bureaucrats necessary to enforce them. Fast forward a few generations and what you're left with isn't freedom at all. It's this really tangled web of protections that we find ourselves with today. Protecting us most of the time from each other instead of, you know, the government just protecting our rights because we're capable of the rest ourselves. Yeah. I think if you look around today, we have failed to govern ourselves. Yeah.

And I agree that like you said earlier, a lot of this probably just go. back to our education. For example, you're talking about, you know, do we even teach the principle of natural law anymore? And I was public schooled. Obviously, here at Hillsdale, we learn all about these truths and things like natural law and virtue. But in public school, we didn't learn anything about that. We didn't learn about, forget about virtue. It doesn't even seem like we were taught that there's such a thing as an absolute truth or an absolute morality anymore. And these are just not the pieces of thread that are being woven into the fabric that makes up our mind as the next generation of Americans. So it's only, it seems like to me only natural that this is the result

that we are not able to be a virtuous people for whom our constitution was designed, as you were saying. So yeah, that's definitely an issue. So. And if you think about that, it's got profound implications, right? Yeah. This is Radio Freehillsdale 101.7 FM, and I'm Emma Weirman talking with Christine Minidus, author of Why the World Doesn't Make Sense, Reclaiming the Liberty, You Didn't Know You Lost. We were talking about different things that are manipulated and turned against us. In your book, I saw that you talk about how government is a source, money, and the bureaucratic state. These are all things that can be manipulated and turned against us. I don't know if you want to talk about all of those or just focus on one of them, but how is that happening? I think it's absolutely

happening, right? And so maybe if you want, I'll pick the last one. I think you said, right, money in the bureaucratic state going into what I would call really a feudalistic society. So it kind of starts and there's money is the one topic in the book. Oddly enough, they get two chapters because I think it's so core, oddly enough, and it's tied to these very things that we're talking about. Money, currency, payment systems, this stuff is the hidden engine behind everything, right? From price of eggs to the rise and fall of empires. And when we're talking about money, what are we really talking about? We're talking about your time, your labor, your future, and who owns it? So when you see the monetary system that we're currently living under

for what it is, to realize it isn't just broken. It's designed this way. And I think that fundamental understanding is really key in a lot of areas. So look back at money, right? Historically, societies have managed mediums of exchange in lots of different ways. Some use commodity money, like gold or silver, that held intrinsic value. We called it market money. Others use paper money that worked just because people believed in them, right? This was money by fiat or by decree, government money, political money. And that shift from tangible to trust base has had massive implications because think about it. Trust once lost, it's really hard to get back. And once money stops being tied to anything real, it becomes a tool of power. Money reflects the values and the structure

of a society. So if you want to know about a society, start asking some questions about its money, who controls the money, who gets access to it, who benefits when it inflates or collapses it, right? Who's closest to it? Then we can, you know, maybe layer on some modern payment systems, digital banking, credit cards, currencies. Does this differ based on nation? Yeah, based on nation? Yeah. No, and I'll tell you why.

So because right now, all of this is how the world has worked since this post-World War II era, right? Which is this era that we've all kind of grown up and operated under. It's really the only world that we've ever known. And the rules got set there, right? So as you're looking at these questions about money, you start to realize this isn't money, this is freedom. And it's on a global level, okay? So think back to where we get a lot of our rights from that you just said, you know, have the benefit there at Hillsdale of studying, right? Yeah. It's natural law. Well, what's another way to think about money, right? Natural law

tells us that we've got the right to property. We've got the right to the fruits of our labor. And what is money? Money everywhere in the world today is a reflection in a store of economic energy. It's a store of our mental and physical labor. And so this is why money is grounded in natural law. And the distortion of money is so awful because it takes us away from truth. Right. So natural law is going to tell us that not only do we have a right to our money as the cruits of our labor as our well-earned private property, but similarly, no man, no government's got a right to steal it from us. Without sound scarce money, we're going to break time and truth, right? Inflation comes in and it quietly steals the past by eroding the value of our saved labor, and it distorts the future.

Think about it at your age. If you can't trust the money you're using to store value or make decisions, what is that? So as I always say, this is more than economic inconvenience. This is civilizational rot, because this society that lies about value is lying about reality itself. And so again, to your point about like where this has come from in recent decades, it's an extension of most recently the postmodernist movement, but it's really been happening for thousands of years in various iterations. It's a lie that places everything downstream of power

rather than truth. And that's a pattern that you start to notice really everywhere. And it's why I always call money a weapon, right? It's kind of interesting because like any weapon, you can be on either side of it. But to your point about it is this global, post-World War II, we had this conference called Bretton Woods,

and it's where we really design the monetary system. And there's two super high-level key takeaways that I think will help answer your question. So one is to understand that Bretton Woods didn't just make the dollar dominant, right? You've heard people talk about the dollar is reserved currency. Yeah. What it did was a different ship. It made trust in America, the new gold standard. So after this conference, other nations didn't hold gold.

They held claims on American promises. And that subtle but massive shift from intrinsic value to geopolitical leverage is something that we're still feeling the effects of today. Wow. The other thing coming out of that conference is that under this post-war order, which today is starting to fall apart around the world, governments have operated under the assumption that they've got both the right and the ability to continually engineer their domestic economies. And it hasn't gone very well, right? Because what is that? It's central planning with the Western space. And in any area, I don't care if it's money or anything else,

anytime the few try to engineer and create value for the many, you get distortions. And distortions don't go away. They accumulate. So you look around today and society is not just broke. It's broken, right? You can't have a functioning society where people can't buy homes. They can't send their kids to school.

They can't start them off in life with. without massive debt. I was reading the other day, the average person your age, Gen Z, has over $94,000 in debt already. This is unsustainable. But in a system like ours, debt becomes the primary formal wealth. What we call growth is often just this expansion of debt, right? So think about it. You go to school and let's say school costs $30,000 a year for argument's And let's say you get a loan for 100% of it. But the government is going to count all 30,000 as economic, as education GDP. Let's take housing, right, as a different issue. So let's say somebody buys a house and let's say it's a nice average house, right? Five, six hundred thousand dollar house and

they put 20% down. Well, they don't own the house. They own a massive liability. Yeah. Not to the government, because the government gets to count all 600,000. That's housing GDP. So again, this isn't just dangerous. It's inverted because we're turning our citizens into renters of their own future. And this to me is what really brings us next into what I think is this utilization of everything. This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. And I'm Emma Wehrman talking with Christine Minidis, author of Why the World Doesn't Make Sense, Reclaiming the Liberty You Didn't Know You Lost. Wow. Yeah, some of the things you said about money right there were absolutely mind-boggling. I think everyone needs to hear that. So you go more into that and you said two chapters of your book. So that's why the world doesn't make sense, that book. That's right. I've got one chapter, which is a history of money, barter through Bitcoin. And then I've got another chapter which talks about where's money going next in the digital era. And it's, I think the chapter is actually called control, but it's all about control and programmable money. as we move forward.

And yeah, I think all of this really plays into, you know, this increasingly kind of feudal society that especially people your age find yourselves in. Yeah, speaking of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, could you talk about what that means? So we already know what happened. You just explained to us the shift of money being based off of some tangible, valuable resource that was in a certain limited amount to being based off of trust. And what is it like now where money is based off of, I don't know, sometimes even just coins or ideas or even like GIF images, like a dog that people come up with? Like, I don't completely understand it. What does that imply about our society?

Nothing good. But I will say, Bitcoin is a little bit different. So let me give you maybe a different led to think about Bitcoin. because as with a lot of things, you can have something that's an attempt to reset and then it gets dragged away. And what comes afterwards is yet another lie, which is what I think you see with Bitcoin and crypto. So let's go back to the way that we were talking about money, right? Money is based in natural law, truth, all these kinds of things. Well, money's also got characteristics that it has to have. And as we move from barter, which was really messy. and efficient into commodities, right? We started trading with everything from shells, salt,

livestock, metals. We humans came to agree that money's got to have certain fundamental characteristics, right? It's got to be acceptable. You don't want to receive something. Others aren't going to get back from you. It's got to be durable. It's got to be fungible, right? If I give you a buck, you got to be able to give me any buck back. You shouldn't have to give me the same one. Divisible, recognizable, portable, right, you want to be able to take it with you and scarce. So this last one about scarcity is really critical, right? This is how we start to get on the path of Bitcoin. And scarcity is really logical, again, if you think about it,

because dramatically increasing the supply of anything makes it more common and decreases its value. So we created a way of measuring and determining this, and we called it stock to flow. And it's a really easy concept that just measures the circulating supply of any asset that's out there, which is the stock versus the flow of new production. You want that ratio as high as possible. And now, of course, all this were still back in the day

when money was market money, governed by the laws of nature and mathematics, timeless truth. And so one commodity emerged that not only checked off a lot of those fundamental characteristics, but it also had the highest stock to flow ratio. That was gold. And that's why for thousands of years, it came to be so revere.

That's how gold got to be there. Now, over the years with the Egyptians and the Greeks, we started realizing that money is actually doing three things, right? It's a unit of account, the medium of exchange that lets us trade, and it's a store of value to go back to that earlier conversation. And so in a market economy, the most sellable and desirable good available, the one that's best at these three functions, is the soundest money. Now, all that, you know, kind of ties back into natural law, but this is where Bitcoin picks up because as we've deviated now from sound market money and gone into an era of fiat and trust-based political money, Bitcoin was an attempt to pick up on that original story

and bring us back as an evolution in sound money but for a digital era. So it addressed the issues that persisted over time with gold, things like divisibility and weight, portability. Paper currencies, you know, sitting on top of gold had kind of helped to solve these things. But Bitcoin, just doesn't have those issues at all. You layer in, Bitcoin has the highest stock to flow ratio of any known asset because it's capped at $21 million. Right. Yeah. So making it the hardest, soundest money we've ever had. Right. And then like gold and other commodity market money, it's grounded in the principles of natural law. So that's, I think, really the way to understand Bitcoin is Bitcoin is an evolution in the story of sound money. Yeah, that's brilliant. Thank you for

explaining that. So as we close out, I think we should maybe end off on the note of talking about are we on the cusp of the civic renewal or the next era of humanity, as I saw that you suggested in your book. Well, I think we're on the cusp of something for sure. We are at one of those moments in the history where it's, you know, every 80 to 100 plus years, we tend to see huge changes in this world. And what we're witnessing right now is the collapse of the post-war order. And, you know, we're all the generation that gets to decide what's next, what's on the other side of that. And so this is where I really wanted to talk about timeless truth, because whatever comes next, I think it needs to be grounded in this. And so as, you know, we look at the path forward,

you know, I think definitely a renewed focus on education can't hurt, starting with the Western canon to ground ourselves in these truths. And I think it's why schools like yours are so important. Yes. But also I wanted to touch on this idea that as we discover what's next, you know, so often we want to focus on others. There's this tendency to want to fix society. But instead, if we fix ourselves, develop ourselves, the ripple effects will be far greater, right? The reality is you don't need thousands and thousands of people in every town.

We need handfuls who just opt out of the madness and build something sane. It's how it starts, how it always has, right? The world's not changed by complacent majorities. They usually just follow the lead of a small group of thoughtful, determined individuals who do what others don't and refuse to surrender their principles. So I don't know. I like to believe that reclaiming our liberty really only requires a remnant at a brave and clear-eyed who are willing to name reality, uphold virtue, and reclaim their sovereignty

of who they are as humans no matter of the cost. So, you know, that happens if political renewal comes great. But if it doesn't, you're not trapped because the deepest form of liberty, it doesn't wait for permission. It just begins the moment you stop outsourcing your integrity to broken systems and start living in alignment with truth. And it starts with us. And, you know, I think there's enough out there who get it. So that gives me hope. Wow. Once again, absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much. That makes a lot of sense to me, and I think if some of us hope, you know, that even there's just a few of us, that remnant can make a big impact. Thank you so much for being with us today. Such an absolute pleasure. Really appreciate it. Our guest has been Christine Menetus, author of Why the World Doesn't Make Sense, Reclaiming the Liberty You Didn't Know You Lost. And I'm Emma Weerman on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.