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

psychopathy inspires the overall phenomenon in a well-

developed pathocracy and betrays biological analogies to the

well known phenomenon called Daltonism, color-blindness or

near-blindness as regard to red and green. For the purpose of an

intellectual exercise, let us thus imagine that Daltonists have

managed to take over power in some country and have forbid-

den the citizens from distinguishing these colors, thus eliminat-

ing the distinction between green (unripe) and ripe tomatoes.

Special vegetable patch inspectors armed with pistols and pick-

ets would patrol the areas to make sure the citizens were not

selecting only ripe tomatoes to pick, which would indicate that

they were distinguishing between red and green. Such inspec-

tors could not, of course, be totally color-blind themselves

(otherwise they could not exercise this extremely important

function), They could not suffer more than near-blindness as

regards these colors. However, they would have to belong to

the clan of people made nervous by any discussion about col-

ors.

With such authorities around, the citizens might even be

willing to eat a green tomato and affirm quite convincingly that

it was ripe. But once the severe inspectors left for some other

garden far away, there would be the shower of comments it

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does not behoove me to reproduce in a scientific work. The

citizens would than pick nicely vine-ripened tomatoes, make a

salad with cream, and add a few drops of rum for flavor.

May I suggest that all normal people whom fate has forced

to live under pathocratic rule make the serving of a salad ac-

cording to the above recipe into a symbolic custom. Any guest

recognizing the symbol by its color and aroma will refrain from

making any comments. Such a custom might hasten the rein-

stallation of a normal man’s system.

The pathological authorities are convinced that the appro-

priate pedagogical, indoctrinational, propaganda, and terrorist

means can teach a person with a normal instinctive substratum,

range of feelings, and basic intelligence to think and feel ac-

cording to their own different fashion. This conviction is only

slightly less unrealistic, psychologically speaking, than the

belief that people able to see colors normally can be broken of

this habit.

Actually, normal people cannot get rid of the characteristics

with which the Homo sapiens species was endowed by its

phylogenetic past. Such people will thus never stop feeling and

perceiving psychological and socio-moral phenomena in much

the same way their ancestors had been doing for hundreds of

generations. Any attempt to make a society subjugated to the

above phenomenon “learn” this different experiential manner

imposed by pathological egotism is, in principle, fated for fail-

ure regardless of how many generations it might last. It does,

however, call forth a series of improper psychological results

which may give the pathocrats the appearance of success.

However, it also provokes society to elaborate pinpointed,

well-thought-out self-defense measures based on its cognitive

and creative efforts.

Pathocratic leadership believes that it can achieve a state

wherein those “other” people’s minds become dependent by

means of the effects of their personality, perfidious pedagogical

means, the means of mass-disinformation, and psychological

terror; such faith has a basic meaning for them. In their concep-

tual world, pathocrats consider it virtually self-evident that the

“others” should accept their obvious, realistic, and simple way

of apprehending reality. For some mysterious reason, though,

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the “others” wriggle out, slither away, and tell each other jokes

about pathocrats. Someone must be responsible for this: pre-

revolutionary oldsters, or some radio stations abroad. It thus

becomes necessary to improve the methodology of action, find

better “soul engineers” with a certain literary talent, and isolate

society from improper literature and any foreign influence .

Those experiences and intuitions whispering that this is a Sisy-

phean labor must be repressed from the field of consciousness

of the pathocrat.

The conflict is thus dramatic for both sides. The first feels

insulted in its humanity, rendered obtuse, and forced to think in

a manner contrary to healthy common sense. The other stifles

the premonition that if this goal cannot be reached, sooner or

later things will revert to normal man’s rule, including their

vengeful lack of understanding of the pathocrats’ personalities.

So if it does not work, it is best not to think about the future,

just prolong the status quo by means of the above-mentioned

efforts. Toward the end of this book, it will behoove us to con-

sider the possibilities for untying this Gordian knot.

However, such a pedagogical system, rife with pathological

egotisation and limitations, produces serious negative results,

especially in those generations unfamiliar with any other condi-

tions of life. Personality development is impoverished, particu-

larly regarding the more subtle values widely accepted in socie-

ties. We observe the characteristic lack of respect for one’s

own organism and the voice of nature and instinct, accompa-

nied by brutalization of feelings and customs, to be explained

away by the excuse of injustice. The tendency to be morally

judgmental in interpreting the behavior of those who caused

one’s suffering sometimes leads to a demonological world

view. At the same time, adaptation and resourcefulness within

these different conditions become the object of cognition.

A person who has been the object of the egotistic behavior

of pathological individuals for a long time becomes saturated

with their characteristic psychological material to such an ex-

tent that we can frequently discern the kind of psychological

anomalies which affected him. The personalities of former

concentration-camp inmates were saturated with generally

psychopathic material ingested from camp commanders and

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tormentors, creating a phenomenon so widespread that it later

became a primary motive to seek psychotherapy. Becoming

aware of this makes it easier for them to throw off this burden

and re-establish contact with the normal human world. In par-

ticular, being shown appropriate statistical data concerning the

appearance of psychopathy in a given population facilitates

their search for understanding of their nightmare years and a

rebuilding of trust in their fellow man.

This kind of psychotherapy would be extremely useful for

those people who need it most, but it has unfortunately proved

too risky for a psychotherapist. Patients easily make connective

transfers, unfortunately all too often correct, between the in-

formation learned during such therapy (particularly in the area

of psychopathy) and the reality surrounding them under the

rule of so-called “popular democracy”. Former camp inmates

are unhappily unable to hold their tongues in check, which

causes intervention on the part of political authorities.

When American soldiers returned from North Vietnamese

prison camps, many of them proved to have been subjected to

indoctrination and other methods of influencing by pathologi-

cal material. A certain degree of transpersonification appeared

in many of these. In the U.S.A. this was called “programming”

and outstanding psychotherapists proceeded to effect therapy

for the purpose of deprogramming them. It turned out that they

met with opposition and critical commentary concerning their

skills, among other things. When I heard about this, I breathed

a deep sigh and thought: Dear God, what interesting work that

would make for a psychotherapist who understands such mat-

ters well.

The pathocratic world, the world of pathological egotism

and terror, is so difficult to understand for people raised outside

the scope of this phenomenon that they often manifest childlike

naiveté, even if they have studied psychopathology and are

psychologists by profession. There are no real data in their

behavior, advice, rebukes, and psychotherapy. That explains

why their efforts are boring and hurtful and frequently come to

naught. Their egotism transforms their good will into bad re-

sults.

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If someone has personally experienced such a nightmarish

reality, he considers people who have not progressed in under-

standing it within the same time frame to be simply presump-

tuous, sometimes even malicious. In the course of his experi-

ence and contact with this macrosocial phenomenon, he has

collected a certain amount of practical knowledge about the

phenomenon and its psychology and learned to protect his own

personality. This experience, unceremoniously rejected by

“people who don’t understand anything”, becomes a psycho-

logical burden for him, forcing him to live within a narrow

circle of persons whose experiences have been similar. Such a

person should rather be treated as the bearer of valuable scien-

tific data; understanding would constitute at least partial

psychotherapy for him, and would simultaneously open the

door to a comprehension of reality.

I would here like to remind psychologists that these kinds of

experiences and their destructive effects upon the human per-

sonality are not unknown to scientific practice and experience.

We often meet with patients requiring appropriate assistance:

individuals raised under the influence of pathological, espe-

cially psychopathic, personalities who were forced with a

pathological egotism to accept an abnormal way of thinking.

Even an approximate determination of the type of pathological

factors which operated on him allow us to pinpoint psycho-

therapeutic measures. In practice we most frequently meet

cases wherein such a pathological situation operated on a pa-

tient’s personality in early childhood, as a result of which we

must utilize long term measures and work very carefully, using

various techniques, in order to help him develop his true per-

sonality.

Children under parental pathocratic rule are “protected” un-

til school age. Then they meet with decent, normal people who

attempt to limit the destructive influences as much as possible.

The most intense effects occur during adolescence and the

ensuing time frame of intellectual maturation which can occur

with the input of decent people. This rescues the society of

normal people from deeper deformations in personality devel-

opment and widespread neurosis. This period remains within

persistent memory and is thus amenable to insight, reflection,

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and disillusion. Such people’s psychotherapy would consist

almost exclusively of utilizing the correct knowledge of the

essence of the phenomenon.