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

reminded of the dissimulative state or phase of a patient at-

tempting to play the role of a normal person, hiding his patho-

logical reality although he continues to be sick or abnormal.

Let as therefore use the term “the dissimulative phase of

pathocracy” for the state of affairs wherein a pathocratic sys-

tem ever more skillfully plays the role of a normal sociopoliti-

cal system with “different” doctrinal institutions.

In this phase, normal people within the country ruled by

pathocrats become resistant and adapt themselves to the situa-

tion. On the outside, however, this phase is marked by out-

standing ponerogenic activity . The pathological material of this

system can all-too-easily infiltrate into other societies, particu-

larly if they are more primitive, and all the avenues of

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pathocratic expansion are facilitated because of the decrease of

commonsensical criticism on the part of the nations constitut-

ing the territory of expansionism.

Meanwhile, in the pathocratic country, the active structure

of government rests in the hands of psychopathic individuals,

and essential psychopathy plays a starring role, especially dur-

ing the dissimulative phase. However, individuals with obvious

pathological traits must be removed from certain areas of activ-

ity: namely, political posts with international exposure, where

such personalities could betray the pathological contents of the

phenomenon. Individuals with obvious pathological traits are

also limited in their ability to exercise diplomatic functions or

to become fully cognizant with the political situations of the

countries of normal man. Therefore, the persons selected for

such positions are chosen because they have thought-processes

more similar to the world of normal people; in general, they are

sufficiently connected to the pathological system to provide a

guarantee of loyalty.95 An expert in various psychological

anomalies can nevertheless discern the discreet deviations upon

which such links are based. Another factor to be noted is the

great personal advantages accorded to such demi-normal indi-

viduals by the pathocracy. Small wonder, then, that such loy-

alty is sometimes deceptive. This applies in particular to the

sons of typical pathocrats, who of course enjoy trust because

they have been reared to allegiance since infancy; if through

some happy genetic coincidence they have not inherited patho-

logical properties, their nature takes precedence over nurture.

Similar needs apply to other areas as well. The building di-

rector for a new factory is often someone barely connected

with the pathocratic system but whose skills are essential. Once

the plant is operational, administration is taken over by

pathocrats, which then often leads to technical and financial

ruin.

The army similarly needs people endowed with perspicacity

and essential qualifications, especially in the area of modern

weapons and warfare. At crucial moments, healthy common

sense can override the results of pathocratic drill. In such a

state of affairs, many people are forced to adapt, accepting the

95 Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell come to mind here. [Editor’s note.]

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ruling system as a status quo, but also criticizing it. They fulfill

their duties amid doubts and conflicts of conscience, always

searching for a more sensible way out which they discuss

within trusted circles. In effect, they are always hanging in a

limbo between pathocracy and the world of normal people.

Deficiently faithful people have been and are a factor of the

pathocratic system’s internal weakness.

The following questions thus suggest themselves: what

happens if the network of understanding among psychopaths

achieves power in leadership positions with international expo-

sure? This can happen, especially during the later phases of the

phenomenon. Goaded by their character, such deviant people

thirst for just that even though it ultimately conflicts with their

own life interest, and so they are removed by the less patho-

logical, more logical wing of the ruling apparatus. Such devi-

ants do not understand that a catastrophe would otherwise en-

sue. Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or bur-

ied deep in the ground along with the human body whose death

they are causing.

If the many managerial positions are assumed by individu-

als deprived of sufficient abilities to feel and understand the

majority of other people, and who also exhibit deficiencies in

technical imagination and practical skills - (faculties indispen-

sable for governing economic and political matters) - this then

results in an exceptionally serious crisis in all areas, both

within the country in question and with regard to international

relations. Within, the situation becomes unbearable even for

those citizens who were able to feather their nest into a rela-

tively comfortable modus vivendi . Outside, other societies start

to feel the pathological quality of the phenomenon quite dis-

tinctly. Such a state of affairs cannot last long. One must then

be prepared for ever more rapid changes, and also behave with

great circumspection.

Pathocracy is a disease of great social movements followed

by entire societies, nations, and empires. In the course of hu-

man history, it has affected social, political, and religious

movements, as well as the accompanying ideologies, character-

istic for the time and the ethnological conditions, and turned

them into caricatures of themselves. This occurs as a result of

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the activities of similar etiological factors in this phenomenon,

namely the participation of pathological agents in a pathody-

namically similar process. That explains why all the pathocra-

cies of the world are and have been so similar in their essential

properties. Contemporaneous ones easily find a common lan-

guage, even if the ideologies nourishing them and protecting

their pathological contents from exposure differ widely.

Identifying these phenomena through history and properly

qualifying them according to their true nature and contents, not

according to the ideology in question, which succumbed to the

characteristic process of caricaturization, is a job for historians.

However, it must be understood that the primary ideology was

undoubtedly socially dynamic and contained creative elements,

otherwise it would have been incapable of nurturing and pro-

tecting the pathocratic phenomenon from recognition and criti-

cism for very long. It would also have been incapable of fur-

nishing the pathological caricature with the tools for imple-

menting its expansionist goals on the outside.

Defining the moment at which a movement has been trans-

formed into something we can call a pathocracy as a result of

the ponerogenic process is a matter of convention. The process

is temporally cumulative and reaches a point of no return at

some particular moment. Eventually, however, internal con-

frontation with the adherents of the original ideology occurs,

thus finally affixing the seal of the pathocratic character of the

phenomenon. Naziism most certainly passed this point of no

return, but was prevented from all-out confrontation with the

adherents of the original ideology because the Allied armies

smashed its entire military might.

Pathocracy and Its Ideology

It should be noted that a great ideology with mesmerizing

values can also easily deprive people of the capacity for self-

critical control over their behavior. The adherents of such ideas

tend to lose sight of the fact that the means used, not just the

end, will be decisive for the result of their activities. Whenever

they reach for overly radical methods of action, still convinced

that they are serving their idea, they are not aware that their

goal has already changed. The principle “the end justifies the

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means” opens the door to a different kind of person for whom a

great idea is useful for purposes of liberating themselves from

the uncomfortable pressure of normal human custom. Every

great ideology thus contains danger, especially for small minds.

Therefore, every great social movement and its ideology can

become a host upon which some pathocracy initiates its para-

sitic life.

The ideology in question may have been marked by deficits

in truth and moral criteria from the very outset, or by the ef-

fects of activities by pathological factors. The original, very

high-minded idea, may also have succumbed to early contami-

nation characteristic of a particular time and social circum-

stance. If such an ideology is infiltrated by foreign, local cul-

tural material which, being heterogeneous, destroys the original

coherent structure of the idea, the actual value may become so

enfeebled that it loses some of its attractiveness for reasonable

people. Once weakened, however, the sociological structure

can succumb to further degeneration, including the activation

of pathological factors, until it has become transformed into its

caricature: the name is the same, but the contents are different.

Differentiating the essence of the pathological phenomenon

from its contemporary ideological host is thus a basic and nec-

essary task, both for scientific-theoretical purposes and for

finding practical solutions for the problems derived from the

existence of the above-mentioned macrosocial phenomena.

If, in order to designate a pathological phenomenon, we ac-

cept the name furnished by the ideology of a social movement

which succumbed to degenerative processes, we lose any abil-

ity to understand or evaluate that ideology and its original con-

tents or to effect proper classification of the phenomenon, per

se. This error is not semantic; it is the keystone of all other

comprehension errors regarding such phenomena, rendering us

intellectually helpless, and depriving us of our capacity for

purposeful, practical action.

This error is based upon compatible propaganda elements of

incompatible social systems. This has, unfortunately, become

much too common and is reminiscent of the very first clumsy

attempts to classify mental diseases according to the systems of

delusions manifested by the patients. Even today, people who

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have not received training in this field will consider a sick per-

son who manifests sexual delusions to be crazy in this area, or

someone with religious delusions to be a “religious maniac”.

The author has even encountered a patient who insisted that he

had become the object of cold and hot rays (paresthesia) on the

basis of a special agreement concluded by the U.S.A. and the

U.S.S.R.

As early as the end of the nineteenth century, famous pio-

neers of contemporary psychiatry correctly distinguished be-

tween the disease and the patient’s system of delusions. A dis-

ease has its own etiological causes, whether determined or not,