Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes - Andrew Lobaczewski

internal function created is something like a “psychologist”,

and it doubtless takes advantage of the above-described psy-

chological knowledge collected by psychopaths.

It should be noted that certain of these exclusionary steps

taken by a group in the process of ponerization, should have

been taken against deviants by the ideological group in the

beginning. So rigorous selective measures of a psychological

kind taken by a group is not necessarily an indicator that the

group is ponerogenic. Rather one should carefully examine

what the psychological selection is based on. If any group

seeks to avoid ponerization, it will want to exclude individuals

with any psychological dependence on subjective beliefs, rites,

rituals, drugs, and certainly those individuals that are incapable

of objectively analyzing their own inner psychological content

or who reject the process of Positive disintegration.

In a group in the process of ponerization, spellbinders take

care of “ideological purity”. The leader’s position is relatively

secure. Individuals manifesting doubt or criticism are subject to

paramoral condemnation. Maintaining the utmost dignity and

84 It should also be mentioned that the same process occurs when a psycho-

logical deviant is thrown out of a group of normal people. The way to tell the

difference is that a normal group ejecting a deviant will not seek to exact

revenge on the ejected member, while the deviant will seek revenge on the

group he has been ejected from. [Editor’s note.]

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style, leadership discusses opinions and intentions which are

psychologically and morally pathological. Any intellectual

connections which might reveal them as such are eliminated,

thanks to the substitution of premises operating in the proper

subconscious process on the basis of prior conditioned reflexes.

An objective observer might wish to compare this state to one

in which the inmates of an asylum take over the running of the

institution. The association enters the state wherein the whole

has donned the mask of ostensible normality. In the next chap-

ter, we shall call such a state the “dissimulative phase” with

regard to macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena.

Observing the appropriate state corresponding to the first

ponerological criterion - the atrophy of natural critical facul-

ties with respect to pathological individuals - requires skillful

psychology and specific factual knowledge; the second, more

stable phase can be perceived both by a person of average rea-

son and by public opinion in most societies. The interpretation

imposed, however, is unilaterally moralistic or sociological,

simultaneously undergoing the characteristic feeling of defi-

ciency as regards the possibility of both understanding the phe-

nomenon and counteracting the spread of said evil.

However, in this phase a minority of social groups tend to

consider such a ponerogenic association comprehensible within

the categories of their own world view and the outer layer of

diffusing ideology as a doctrine acceptable to them. The more

primitive the society in question, and the further removed from

direct contact to the union affected by this pathological state,

the more numerous such minorities would be. This very period,

during which the customs of the union become somewhat

milder, often represents simultaneously its most intensive ex-

pansionist activity.

This period may last long, but not forever. Internally, the

group is becoming progressively more pathological, finally

showing its true qualitative colors again as its activities become

ever clumsier. At this point, a society of normal people can

easily threaten ponerologic associations, even at the macroso-

cial level.

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173

Macrosocial Phenomena

When a ponerogenic process encompasses a society’s entire

ruling class, or nation, or when opposition from normal people

is stifled -- as a result of the mass character of the phenomenon,

or by using spellbinding means and physical compulsion, in-

cluding censorship -- we are dealing with a macrosocial pone-

rologic phenomenon. In such a case, however, a society’s trag-

edy, often coupled with that of the researcher’s own suffering,

opens before him an entire volume of ponerologic knowledge,

where he can read all about the laws governing such a process

if he is only able to familiarize himself in time with its natural-

istic language and its different grammar.

Studies in the genesis of evil which are based on observing

small groups of people can indicate the details of these laws to

us. However, it might be thought that this would present a

warped picture that is dependent upon various environmental

conditions which are further dependent on the historical period

in question; this is the backdrop to the phenomena observed.

Nevertheless, such observations may enable us to hazard a

hypothesis to the effect that the general laws of ponerogenesis

may be at least analogous, regardless of the quantity and scope

of the phenomenon in time and space. They do not, however,

permit verification of such a hypothesis.

In studying a macrosocial phenomenon, we can obtain both

quantitative and qualitative data, statistical correlation indices,

and other observations as accurately as might be allowed by the

state of the art in science, research methodology, and the obvi-

ously very difficult situation of the observer.85 We can then use

the classical method, hazarding a hypothesis and then actively

searching for facts which could falsify it. The wide-spread

causative regularity of ponerogenic processes would then be

confirmed within the bounds of the above-mentioned possibili-

ties. This is, in fact, what the author and his colleagues under-

took to do. It is astonishing how neatly causative regularity of

ponerogenic processes observed in small groups govern this

macrosocial phenomenon. The comprehension of the phe-

85 Assuming that one can gather this information and survive the gathering!

[Editor’s note.]

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nomenon thus acquired can serve as a basis for predicting its

future development, to be verified by time. It is in close and

careful observation, and only after time passes, that we become

aware that the colossus has an Achilles heel after all.

The study of macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena meets

with obvious problems: their period of genesis, duration, and

decay is several times longer than the researcher’s scientific

activity. Simultaneously, there are other transformations in

history, customs, economics, and technology; however, the

difficulties confronted in abstracting the appropriate symptoms

need not be insuperable, since our criteria are based on eternal

phenomena subject to relatively limited transformations in

time.

The traditional interpretation of these great historical dis-

eases has already taught historians to distinguish two phases.

The first is represented by a period of spiritual crisis in a soci-

ety,86 which historiography associates with exhausting of the

ideational, moral, and religious values heretofore nourishing

the society in question. Egoism among individuals and social

groups increases, and the links of moral duty and social net-

works are felt to be loosening. Trifling matters thereupon

dominate human minds to such an extent that there is no room

left for thinking about public matters or a feeling of commit-

ment to the future. An atrophy of the hierarchy of values within

the thinking of individuals and societies is an indication

thereof; it has been described both in historiographic mono-

graphs and in psychiatric papers. The country’s government is

finally paralyzed, helpless in the face of problems which could

be solved without great difficulty under other circumstances.

Let us associate such periods of crisis with the familiar phase in

social hysterization.

The next phase has been marked by bloody tragedies, revo-

lutions, wars, and the fall of empires. The deliberations of his-

86 Sorokin, Pitirim. (1941). Social and Cultural Dynamics, Volume Four:

Basic Problems, Principles and Methods, New York: American Book Com-

pany. Sorokin, Pitirim. (1957). Social and Cultural Dynamics, One Volume

Revision. Boston: Porter Sargent. Simonton, Dean Keith. (1976). “Does

Sorokin’s data support his theory?: A study of generational fluctuations in

philosophical beliefs.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 15: 187-

198.

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175

torians or moralists regarding these occurrences always leave

behind a certain feeling of deficiency with reference to the

possibility of perceiving certain psychological factors dis-

cerned within the nature of phenomena; the essence of these

factors remains outside the scope of their scientific experience.

A historian observing these great historical diseases is

struck first of all by their similarities, easily forgetting that all

diseases have many symptoms in common because they are

states of absent health. A ponerologist thinking in naturalistic

terms tends to doubt that we are dealing with only one kind of

societal disease, thereby leading to a certain differentiation of

forms with regard to ethnological and historical conditions.

Differentiating the essence of such states is more appropriate to

the reasoning patterns we are familiar with from the natural

sciences. The complex conditions of social life, however, pre-

clude using the method of distinction, which is similar to etio-

logical criterion in medicine: qualitatively speaking, the phe-

nomena become layered in time, conditioning each other and

transforming constantly. We should then rather use certain

abstract patterns, similar to those used in analyzing the neurotic

states of human beings.

Governed by this type of reasoning, let us here attempt to

differentiate two pathological states of societies; their essence

and contents appear different enough, but they can operate

sequentially in such a way that the first opens the door to the

second. The first such state has already been sketched in the

chapter on the hysteroidal cycle; we shall adduce a certain

number of other psychological details hereunder. The next

chapter shall be dedicated to the second pathological state, for

which I have adopted the denomination of “pathocracy”.

States of Societal Hysterization

When perusing scientific or literary descriptions of hysteri-

cal phenomena, such as those dating from the last great in-

crease in hysteria in Europe encompassing the quarter-century

preceding World War I, a non-specialist may gain the impres-

sion that this was endemic to individual cases, particularly

among woman. The contagious nature of hysterical states,

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however, had already been discovered and described by Jean-

Martin Charcot87.

It is practically impossible for hysteria to manifest itself as a

mere individual phenomenon, since it is contagious by means

of psychological resonance, identification, and imitation. Each

human being has a predisposition for this malformation of the

personality, albeit to varying degrees, although it is normally

overcome by rearing and self-rearing, which are amenable to

correct thinking and emotional self-discipline.

During “happy times” of peace dependent upon social injus-

tice, children of the privileged classes learn to repress from

their field of consciousness the uncomfortable ideas suggesting

that they and their parents are benefitting from injustice against

others. Such young people learn to disqualify disparage the

moral and mental values of anyone whose work they are using

to over-advantage. Young minds thus ingest habits of subcon-

scious selection and substitution of data, which leads to a hys-

terical conversion economy of reasoning. They grow up to be

somewhat hysterical adults who, by means of the ways ad-

duced above, thereupon transmit their hysteria to the next gen-

eration, which then develops these characteristics to an even

greater degree. The hysterical patterns for experience and be-

havior grow and spread downwards from the privileged classes

until crossing the boundary of the first criterion of ponerology:

the atrophy of natural critical faculties with respect to patho-

logical individuals.

When the habits of subconscious selection and substitution

of thought-data spread to the macrosocial level, a society tends

87 Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 - 1893) French neurologist. His work greatly

impacted the developing fields of neurology and psychology. Charcot took an

interest in the malady then called hysteria. It seemed to be a mental disorder

with physical manifestations, of immediate interest to a neurologist. He

believed that hysteria was the result of a weak neurological system which

was hereditary. It could be set off by a traumatic event like an accident, but

was then progressive and irreversible. To study the hysterics under his care,

he learned the technique of hypnosis and soon became a master of the rela-

tively new "science." Charcot believed that a hypnotized state was very

similar to a bout of hysteria, and so he hypnotized his patients in order to

induce and study their symptoms. He was single-handedly responsible for