Q&A

1. What is your book, Path to Power, Road to Ruin, about?

It's about the dangers of people’s dependence on ideologies and ideological thinking. The book explains how ideologies can be so popular, but at the same time so harmful to humanity. It describes the serious consequences that flow from our commitment to ideologies and shows that the claims made to give ideologies credibility are highly flawed and inconsistent with the realities of history and rational thinking. Path to Power, Road to Ruin exposes the myths surrounding the most popular religious and political ideologies. Using historical and current examples, it explains their true nature, what drives their success, and why they are so dangerous for us all. And finally, it describes how we can free ourselves from ideological domination going forward.

2. What were your goals in writing this book?

I wanted to provide people with a detailed information base about ideologies so they could stop listening to other people’s unproven beliefs and make their own smart decisions about which of these ideas to accept and which to reject. I also wanted to show people that there were alternatives to today's ideologies to that offered the same benefits as the ones they're currently committed to that did not have the horrendous consequences. In short, I wanted to convince people to forge their own destiny in belief matters.

3. Why is this subject so important?

It is critical because ideologies are among the most pervasive and widely accepted form of human thought ever developed, attracting hundreds of millions, even billions of followers. They have achieved this status, not because of the validity of their doctrines but rather because they are directly targeted to serve human needs and mitigate human fears. This need-based focus makes people think they are beneficial and benevolent and causes them to give ideologies a pass in terms of critical evaluation. But this is wrong. Ideologies have had serious consequences, caused enormous human suffering, and led to the ruination of societies, throughout history. Going forward, we must understand what we face as we are constantly be bombarded with ideological appeals, many of which have limited validity.

4. How can we discern and understand the true motives behind the narrative that leaders seek to promote?

The leaders’ motives are always the same. We know from history that smart, ambitious people soon come to realize that, if they want to acquire power, dominate their societies, or effect significant change, they have to find ways to attract and control large numbers of followers. People have learned, from experience, that one of the best ways to do this was to harness the motivational and organizational power of mankind’s ideologies and use that clout to persuade people to join their group and commit to their causes. Their ability to actually attract a large group of supporters depends on their ability to effectively address potential followers’ anxieties, fears, desires, wishes, and hopes. The most successful ideologies are not necessarily the ones with the best doctrine, but rather the ones that do the best job of targeting potential supporters’ needs and fears.

5. Why are certain belief systems so appealing and powerful?

Ideologies get their power and attract a following by addressing peoples’ very real anxieties, fears, desires, wishes, and hopes. The three most powerful need/problem areas, according to the experts in the field of psychology, are: the strong desire to reduce existential anxiety about the challenges of daily life and the ever-present threat of death, the need to eliminate doubts and uncertainty about what to think and what to believe, and the powerful craving for status, self-esteem, and belonging. Satisfy these wishes and appease these fears and you go a long way to getting a prospective follower’s attention. Inevitably, the most successful ideologies are the ones whose problem/need presentation resonates most closely with their target audience’s life issues.

6. How does an ideology allow us to buy into hatred and the demonization of others?

Any time an ideology creates certain classes of people and ranks them according to their relative importance or status in society, problems will result. We know, from research, that humans are very quick to spot and focus on differences between themselves and others. This happens at a very early age and is pervasive across our species. Such attitudes make it easy for people to see themselves as superior and others as inferior. Claims of inferiority are typically reinforced by using denigration, dehumanization, and demonization tactics which lower one group relative to the other. Such approaches have the effect of creating dislike, hatred, and set up inevitable conflict. So, when supremacist ideologies claim that certain classes of people are superior to others and have the right to dominate, control and even eliminate those others, hatred is an inevitable consequence.

7. You write of the dangers of political and religious ideologies. Are they similar to cults or any “ism” that blinds us to seeing the truth?

A cult is a group that is centered around a charismatic leader who exerts considerable personal control over his members’ lives and thinking. The cult leader may adopt a belief system, often extreme, to sustain control of his flock. Ideologies, on the other hand, are different, in that they can attract large numbers of people, based primarily on the appeal of a set of beliefs. Ideologies link multiple ideas into a comprehensive view of the world that establishes a framework for people to follow in their day-to-day lives. As a result, ideologies are able to attract significant numbers of people without that same level of personal control, manipulation, and isolation involved in cults. However, it is important to recognize that both are bad for humanity in that they keep people from thinking for themselves and developing evidence-based, rational belief positions.