Andrew Lobaczewski - Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
and always more sensible contents, thereupon building a bridge
right over the period of madness to a now healthy reality. Such
an operation of course requires the necessary skills in the do-
main of psychopathology, since every disease has its own style
of deforming the patient’s original world of experiences and
convictions. The deformed ideological system created by
pathocracy should be subjected to analogous analysis, fishing
out the primeval and certainly more sensible values. This must
utilize knowledge of the specific style whereby a pathocracy
caricaturizes the ideology of a movement upon which it feeds
parasitically.
This great disease of Pathocracy accommodates various so-
cial ideologies to its own properties and the pathocrats’ inten-
tions, thereby depriving them of any possibility of natural de-
velopment and maturation in the light of man’s healthy com-
mon sense and scientific reflection. This process also trans-
forms these ideologies into destructive factors, preventing them
from participating in the constructive evolution of social struc-
tures and condemning their adherents to frustration. Along with
its degenerate growth, such an ideology is rejected by all those
social groups governed by healthy common sense. The activi-
ties of such an ideology thus induce nations to stick to their old
tried-and-true basics in terms of structural forms, providing
hard-line conservatives with the best weapon possible. This
causes stagnation of the evolutionary processes, which is con-
trary to the overall laws of social life, and brings about a po-
larization of attitudes among various social groups, resulting in
revolutionary moods. The operations of the pathologically al-
tered ideology thus facilitate the pathocracy’s penetration and
expansion.
Only by means of retrospective psychological analysis upon
the ideology, reverting to the time which preceded ponerogenic
infection, and taking into account the pathological quality and
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the causes for its deformation, can the original creative values
be discovered and bridges built right over the time frame of
morbid phenomena.
Such skillful unhusking of the original ideology, including
some reasonable elements which emerged after the ponero-
genic infection appeared, may be enriched by values elaborated
in the meantime and become capable of further creative evolu-
tion. It will thus be in the position to activate transformations in
accordance with the evolutionary nature of social structures,
which will in turn render these societies more resistant to pene-
tration by pathocratic influences.
Such analysis presents us with problems which must be
skillfully overcome, namely finding the proper semantic desig-
nates. Thanks to characteristic creativity in this area, pathoc-
racy produces a mass of suggestive names prepared in such a
way as to divert attention from a phenomenon’s essential quali-
ties. Whoever has been ensnared in this semantic trap even
once loses not only the capacity for objective analysis of that
type of phenomenon; he also partially loses his ability to use
his common sense. Producing such effects within human minds
is the specific purpose of this patho-semantics; one must first
protect one’s own person against them and then proceed to
protect social consciousness.
The only names we can accept are those with a historical
tradition contemporary to the facts and reaching back to pre-
infection times. For instance, if we call pre-Marxist socialism
“Utopian socialism”, it will be difficult for us to understand
that it was much more realistic and socially creative than the
later movements already laced with pathological material.
However, such caution does not suffice when we are deal-
ing with phenomena which cannot be measured within the
natural structure of concepts because they were produced by a
macrosocial pathological process. We must thus again under-
score that the light of natural healthy common sense is insuffi-
cient for effecting such retrospective refinement of ideological
values later deformed by such a process. Psychological objec-
tivity, adequate knowledge in the area of psychopathology, and
the data contained in the prior chapters of this book are indis-
pensable for this purpose.
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299
Thus equipped, we also become qualified to create indis-
pensable new names which would elucidate the actual proper-
ties of phenomena, providing we pay sufficient attention to
precepts of semantics with all the probity and economy, as
would demand William of Ockham. After all, these names will
spread throughout the earth and help many people correct their
world view and social attitude. Such activity, albeit legalistic,
actually aims at depriving pathocratic circles of their name
controlling monopoly; their predicable protests will merely
prove that we are on the right track.
Ideology thus regenerated regains the natural life and evolu-
tionary capacity which pathologization has stifled. At the same
time, however, it loses its ability to fulfill imposed functions
such as feeding a pathocracy and cloaking it from both healthy
common sense criticism and something even more dangerous,
namely a feel for psychological reality and its humorous as-
pects.
Condemning an ideology because of its errors, whether con-
tained from the outset or absorbed later, will never deprive it of
this imputed function, especially not in the minds of people
who failed to condemn it for similar reasons. If we further at-
tempt to analyze such a condemned ideology, we will never
achieve the effect which has a curative influence upon the hu-
man personality; we will simply miss the truly important fac-
tors and be unable to fill a certain space with contents. Our
thoughts will then be forced to evade whatever blocks their
freedom, thereby erring among ostensible truths. Once some-
thing succumbs to psychopathological factors, it cannot be
understood unless the proper categories are utilized.
Immunization
Many infectious diseases give an organism a natural immu-
nity for a period between a few years and many. Medicine imi-
tates this biological mechanism by introducing vaccines which
enable an organism to become immune without passing
through the disease. More and more frequently, psychothera-
pists attempt to immunize a patient’s psyche to various trauma-
tizing factors which are too difficult to eliminate from his life.
In practice, we use this most often with people subjected to the
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destructive influence of characteropathic individuals. Immuniz-
ing someone against the destructive effects of psychopathic
personalities is somewhat more difficult; however, it represents
a closer analogy to the task which should be performed with
regard to nations succumbing to the influence of pathocratic
psychological diversion.
Societies governed by a pathocratic system for many years
develop the above-described natural immunization, along with
the characteristic detachment from the phenomenon and sar-
donic humor. In combination with the growth of practical
knowledge, this state should be taken into account every time
we wish to evaluate a given country’s political situation. We
should also underscore that this immunity refers to the patho-
logical phenomenon per se, not its ideology, which explains
why it is also effective against any other pathocracy, no matter
the ideological mask. The psychological experience gained
permits the same phenomenon to be recognized according to its
actual properties; the ideology is treated in accordance with its
true role.
Psychotherapy properly run upon an individual who suc-
cumbed to the destructive influence of the life conditions under
pathocratic rule, always brings about a significant improvement
in psychological immunization. In making a patient conscious
of the pathological qualities of such influences, we facilitate his
development of that critical detachment and spiritual serenity
which natural immunization could not have produced. We thus
do not merely imitate nature; we actually achieve a better-than-
natural quality of immunity, which is more effective in protect-
ing a patient from neurotic tensions and reinforcing his practi-
cal everyday resourcefulness. An awareness of the biological
essence of the phenomenon provides them with a preponder-
ance both over the phenomenon and those people who lack
such awareness.
This type of psychological immunity also proves more per-
manent. If natural immunity lasts the life of the generation
wherein it was produced, scientifically-based immunity can be
transmitted further. Similarly, natural immunity plus the practi-
cal knowledge upon which it is based may be very difficult to
transmit to nations which have not had such immediate experi-
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
301
ence, but the kind which is based on generally accessible scien-
tific data can be transmitted to other nations without superhu-
man efforts.
We are faced with two related goals. In countries affected
by the above-discussed phenomenon, we should attempt to
transform the existing natural immunity into that better-quality
immunity, thus making it possible to increase operative ease
while lowering psychological tensions. With regard to those
individuals and societies which indicate an obvious immunode-
ficiency and are threatened by pathocratic expansion, we
should facilitate the development of artificial immunity.
This immunity is generated mainly as a natural result of
understanding the real contents of the macrosocial phenome-
non.
This awareness causes a stormy experiential period not be-
reft of protest, but this substitute disease process is short-lived.
Stripping the naturalistic reality heretofore protected by an
ideological mask is an effective and necessary assistance for
individuals and societies. Within a short period of time, this
begins to protect them from the ponerogenic activities of patho-
logical factors mobilized within the pathocracy’s monolithic
front. Appropriate indications of the practical means for pro-
tecting one’s own mental hygiene will facilitate and accelerate
the creation of such valuable psychological immunity in a
manner similar to the results of a vaccine activity.
Such individual and collective psychological immunity,
based on a naturalistically objectified understanding of this
other reality, is colored by a feeling of proper knowledge,
which thus creates a new human network; achieving such im-
munity appears a necessary precondition for success regarding
any efforts and actions of a political nature which would aim at
having governments taken over by a society of normal people.
Without such consciousness and immunization, it will always
be difficult to achieve cooperation between free countries and
nations suffering under pathocratic rule. No language of com-
mon communication can be guaranteed by any political doc-
trines based on the natural imagination of people lacking both
the practical experience and a naturalistic understanding of the
phenomenon.
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~~~
The most modern and expensive weapons threatening hu-
manity with global catastrophe are presently obsolete the very
day they are produced.
Why?
They are the weapons of a war which must never take place,
and the nations of the world pray that it never does.
The history of mankind has been a history of wars, which
makes it lack eternal meaning in our eyes. A new great war
would represent the triumph of madness over the nations’ will
to live.
International reason must therefore prevail, reinforced by
the newly discovered moral values and naturalistic science
concerning the causes and genesis of evil.
The “new weapon” suggested herein kills no one; it is nev-
ertheless capable of stifling the process of the genesis of evil
within a person and activating his own curative powers. If so-
cieties are furnished an understanding of the pathological na-
ture of evil, they will be able to effect concerted action based
on moral and naturalistic criteria.
This new method of solving eternal problems will be the
most humanitarian weapon ever used in human history, as well
as the only one which can be used safely and effectively. We
may also hope that using such a weapon will help end centuries
of warfare among nations.
CHAPTER X
A VISION OF THE FUTURE
If it is to bear ripe fruit, every human activity must take root
in the soil of two time frames: past and future. The past pro-
vides us knowledge and experience which teach us to solve
problems and warn us when we are about to commit errors
reminiscent of past mistakes. A realistic apperception of the
past and a sometimes painful understanding of its errors and
evils thus become necessary preconditions for building a hap-
pier future.
A similarly realistic vision of the future, complemented by
well thought out detailed data, endows our contemporary ac-
tivities with a direction and renders their goals more concrete.
Mental effort aimed at forming such a vision enables us to
overcome psychological barriers to free reason and imagina-
tion, barriers caused by egotism and survival of habits from the
past. People fixated upon the past gradually lose contact with
