The Logic of Self-Destruction

With a background in philosophy, mathematics, logic and investment banking, the author adopts an interdisciplinary approach to his quest understand the logic of self-destruction as an algorithm of human rationality based on the fact that beliefs share a common logical structure. He makes a fundamental distinction between believing that and believing in - the latter is the source of our problems. He proceeds on the basis of a number of scenarios involving emotions entailing simulation or deception while we strive for well-being - Blakeway defines humans as machines that goal-seek emotional outcomes, a terminology that may put some readers off and situates the discourse in terms of algorithms (later he defines humans as self-referencing biological machines or robustly logical computational devices to stress the logic of belief). Philosophy and language play an important role in defining different structures of well-being and articulating their expression.

As an ideology, capitalism is based on making people richer on the premise that wealth enhances human well-being, which we now know is true only up to a point, even if advertising tries to persuade us otherwise as a form of tactical deception. However, it still drives political systems towards continuous economic growth, which itself embodies a logic of self-destruction in terms of the environment. As the author points out, this is particularly clear in the ideology of many who oppose the scientific consensus on global warming. He maintains that ideologies defined by measures of emotional well-being are false because the ideology itself alters the perception of the emotion that is the measure of its truth, thus creating a circular causality (p. 244). Within an ideological framework, self-destructive acts are rationally derived from manipulated emotional behaviour – one can see how this applies to suicide bombers with their belief in their ultimate well-being in paradise even if this involves the destruction of their own life and that of others in the process. With respect to belief in an ideology, the committed believer is unable to escape a pattern of irrefutability and may be pressured into modifying his behaviour to demonstrate compliance with the belief, with inevitable self-destructive consequences. This is a complex and demanding book, but the topic could not be more important in our time.