Andrew Lobaczewski - Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
the selection of words produce, and the way they are arranged to convey
meaning. That is the first plane. The second plane is called the Content Plane.
This is the array of concepts that the language is capable of expressing. This
last is rather important because, as we have all heard at least once in our
lives, Eskimos have many words for snow while people who do not live in an
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73
ual and society, as well as the degree to which they approxi-
mate an objective world view, condition the development of
our moral and social attitudes. The correctness of our under-
standing of self and others characterizes the components condi-
tioning our decisions and choices, be they mundane or impor-
tant, in our private lives and social activities.
The level and quality of a given society’s psychological
worldview is also a condition of realization of the full socio-
psychological structure present as a potential in the psycho-
logical variety within our species. Only when we can under-
stand a person in relation to his actual internal contents, not
some substituted external label, can we help him along his path
to proper adjustment to social life, which would be to his ad-
vantage and would also assist in the creation of a stable and
creative structure of society.
Supported by a proper feel for, and understanding of, psy-
chological qualities, such a structure would impart high social
office to individuals possessing both full psychological normal-
ity, sufficient talent and specific preparation. The basic collec-
tive intelligence of the masses of people would then respect
and support them.
And so, in such a society, the only pending problems to be
resolved would be those matters so difficult as to overwhelm
the natural language of concepts, however enriched and quali-
tatively ennobled.
However, there have always been “society pedagogues”,
less outstanding but more numerous, who have become fasci-
nated by their own great ideas, which might, sometimes, even
environment where snow and ice are the dominant features may only have
one or two words for these phenomena.
So it is that the “Content Plane” of a language becomes crucial to what can be
discussed in that language. In order for the sounds of speech to be meaning-
ful, the words formed out of these sounds must have a meaning associated
with them. In other words, the sounds relate to the Content. The Content
Continuum represents the Universe or reality to which our words relate as we
are capable of conceiving it.
!obaczewski is rightly pointing out that the normal person (not to mention
psychology as a whole, though to a lesser extent) has an extremely psycho-
logical vocabulary of limited understanding because the content continuum of
understanding has been artificially truncated, repressed, or otherwise dimin-
ished. [Editor’s note.]
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SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS
be true, but are more often constricted or contain the taint of
some hidden pathological thought processes. Such people have
always striven to impose pedagogical methods which would
impoverish and deform the development of individuals’ and
societies’ psychological world view; they inflict permanent
harm upon societies, depriving them of universally useful val-
ues. By claiming to act in the name of a more valuable idea,
such pedagogues actually undermine the values they claim and
open the door for destructive ideologies.
At the same time, as we have already mentioned, each soci-
ety contains a small but active minority of persons with various
deviant worldviews, especially in the areas treated above,
which are caused either by psychological anomalies, to be dis-
cussed below, or by the long-term influence of such anomalies
upon their psyches, especially during childhood. Such people
later exert a pernicious influence upon the formative process of
the psychological world view in society, whether by direct
activity or by means of written or other transmission, especially
if they engage in the service of some ideology or other.
Many causes which easily escape the notice of sociologists
and political scientists can thus be broken down into either the
development or involution of this factor, whose meaning for
the life of society is as decisive as the quality of their language
of psychological concepts.
Let us imagine that we want to analyze these processes: we
would construct a sufficiently credible inventory method which
would examine the contents and correctness of the area of
world view in question. After subjecting the appropriate repre-
sentative groups to such testing, we would then obtain indica-
tors of that particular society’s ability to understand psycho-
logical phenomena and dependencies within their country and
other nations. This would simultaneously constitute the basic
indicators of said society’s talent for self-government and pro-
gress, as well as its ability to carry on a reasonable interna-
tional policy. Such tests could provide an early warning system
if such abilities were to deteriorate, in which case, it would be
proper to make the appropriate efforts in the realm of social
pedagogy. In extreme cases, it might be proper for those coun-
tries evaluating the problem to take more direct corrective ac-
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
75
tion, even to isolating the deteriorating country until the appro-
priate corrections are well under way.
Let as adduce another example of a congenial nature: the
development of an adult human’s gifts, skills, realistic thought,
and natural psychological world view will be optimal where the
level and quality of his education and the demands of his pro-
fessional practice correspond to his individual talents. Achiev-
ing such a position provides personal, material, and moral ad-
vantages to him; society as whole also reaps benefits at the
same time. Such a person would then perceive it as social jus-
tice in relation to himself.
If various circumstances combine, including a given soci-
ety’s deficient psychological world view, individual’s are
forced to exercise functions which do not make full use of his
or her talents. When this happens, said person’s productivity is
no better, and often even worse, than that of a worker with
satisfactory talents. Such an individual then feels cheated and
inundated by duties which prevent him from achieving self-
realization. His thoughts wander from his duties into a world of
fantasy, or into matters which are of greater interest to him; in
his daydream world, he is what he should and deserves to be.
Such a person always knows if his social and professional ad-
justment has taken a downward direction; at the same time,
however, if he fails to develop a healthy critical faculty con-
cerning the upper limits of his own talents, his daydreams may
“fix on” an unfair world where “all you need is power”. Revo-
lutionary and radical ideas find fertile soil among such people
in downward social adaptations. It is in society’s best interests
to correct such conditions not only for better productivity, but
to avoid tragedies.
Another type of individual, on the other hand, may achieve
an important post because they belong to privileged social
groups or organizations in power while their talents and skills
are not sufficient for their duties, especially the more difficult
problems. Such persons then avoid the problematic and dedi-
cate themselves to minor matters quite ostentatiously. A com-
ponent of histrionics appears in their conduct and tests indicate
that their correctness of reasoning progressively deteriorates
after only a few years’ worth of such activities. In the face of
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SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS
increasing pressures to perform at a level unattainable for them,
and in fear of being discovered as incompetent, they begin to
direct attacks against anyone with greater talent or skill, remov-
ing them from appropriate posts and playing an active role in
degrading their social and professional adjustment. This, of
course, engenders a feeling of injustice and can lead to the
problems of the downwardly adapted individual as described
above. Upwardly-adjusted people thus favor whip-cracking,
totalitarian governments which would protect their positions.
Upward and downward social adjustments, as well the
qualitatively improper ones, result in a waste of any society’s
basic capital, namely the talent pool of its members. This si-
multaneously leads to increasing dissatisfaction and tensions
among individuals and social groups; any attempt to approach
human talent and its productivity problematics as a purely pri-
vate matter must therefore be considered dangerously naive.
Development or involution in all areas of cultural, economic
and political life depend on the extent to which this talent pool
is properly utilized. In the final analysis, it also determines
whether there will be evolution or revolution.
Technically speaking, it would be easier to construct appro-
priate methods that enable us to evaluate the correlations be-
tween individual talents and social adjustment in a given coun-
try, than to deal with the prior proposition of the development
of psychological concepts. Conducting the proper tests would
furnish us a valuable index that we might call “the social order
indicator.” The closer the figure to +1.0, the more likely the
country in question would be to fulfill that basic precondition
for social order and take the proper path in the direction of
dynamic development. A low correlation would be an indica-
tion that social reform is needed. A near-zero or even negative
correlation should be interpreted as a danger-sign that revolu-
tion is imminent. Revolutions in one country often cause mani-
fold problems for other countries, so it is in the best interests of
all countries to monitor such conditions.
The examples adduced above do not exhaust the question of
causative factors influencing the creation of a social structure
which would adequately correspond to the laws of nature. Our
species-instinct level has already encoded the intuition that the
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77
existence of society’s internal structure, based on psychologi-
cal variations, is necessary; it continues to develop alongside
our basic intelligence, inspiring our healthy common sense.
This explains why the most numerous part of populations,
whose talents are near average, generally accepts its modest
social position in any country as long as the position fulfills the
indispensable requirements of proper social adjustment and
guarantees an equitable way of life no matter at what level of
society the individual finds their proper fit.
This average majority accepts and respects the social role of
people whose talents and education are superior, as long as
they occupy appropriate positions within the social structure.
The same people, however, will react with criticism, disrespect,
and even contempt, whenever someone as average as them-
selves compensates for his deficiencies by flaunting an up-
wardly-adjusted position. The judgments pronounced by this
sphere of average but sensible people can often be highly accu-
rate, which can and should be all the more remarkable if we
take into account that said people could not possibly have had
sufficient knowledge of many of the actual problems, be they
scientific, technical, or economic.21
An experienced politician can rarely assume that the diffi-
culties in the areas of economics, defense, or international pol-
icy will be fully understand by his constituency. However, he
can and should assume that his own comprehension of human
matters, and anything having to do with interpersonal relations
within said structure, will find an echo in this same majority of
his society’s members. These facts partially justify the idea of
democracy, especially if a particular country has historically
had such a tradition, the social structure is well developed, and
the level of education is adequate. Nevertheless, they do not
represent psychological data sufficient to raise democracy to
the level of a moral criterion in politics. A democracy com-
posed of individuals of inadequate psychological knowledge
can only devolve.
21 Very often false opinion polls are used to attempt to manipulate a society’s
perception of its officials. This never works for very long as, eventually,
incompetence is revealed to all. [Editor’s note.]
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SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS
The same politician should be conscious of the fact that so-
ciety contains people who already carry the psychological re-
sults of social maladjustment. Some of these individuals at-
tempt to protect positions for which their skills are not com-
mensurate, while others fight to be allowed to use their talents.
Governing a country becomes increasingly difficult when such
battles begin to eclipse other important needs. That is why the
creation of a fair social structure continues to be a basic pre-
condition for social order and the liberation of creative values.
It also explains why the propriety and productivity of a struc-
ture-creation process constitute a criterion for a good political
system.
Politicians should also be aware that in each society there
are people whose basic intelligence, natural psychological
world view, and moral reasoning have developed improperly.
