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

ally the majority) who do not become discouraged and form a

permanent wing inhibiting the process of ponerization. The

equilibrium of the dissimulative phase is thus also to the advan-

tage of those people whose human and religious feelings are

normal. Nonetheless, isolated generations may thus have the

impression that the observed state represents its permanent and

essential characteristics, including the errors they cannot ac-

cept.

We must therefore pose the following question: Can the

most constant and sensible action based on the natural world

view and theological and moral reflections ever completely

eliminate the effects of a ponerological process which has long

been surmounted?

Based on experience gleaned from individual patients, a

psychotherapist would doubt such a possibility. The conse-

quences of the influence of pathological factors can only be

definitely liquidated if a person becomes aware that he was the

object of their activity. Such a method of careful correction of

detail may sound reminiscent of the work done by an art re-

storer who decided against removing all later paint-overs and

revealing the master’s original work in toto, but rather retained

and conserved a few failed corrections for posterity.

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Even against the conditional backdrop of time furthering the

healing process, such efforts at step-by-step untying of knots

based on the natural world view only leads toward a moralizing

interpretation of the effects of uncomprehended pathological

factors, with the consequence of panic and the tendency to

retreat to an apparently safer side. The organism of the relig-

ious group thus will retain some dormant foci of the disease

which may become active under certain permitting conditions.

We should therefore realize that following the path of natu-

ralistic apperception of the process of the genesis of evil, at-

tributing the proportionate “fault” to the influence of various

pathological factors, can ease our minds of the burden repre-

sented by the disturbing results of a moralizing interpretation of

their role in ponerogenesis. This also permits more detailed

identification of the results of their operation, as well as defini-

tive elimination thereof. Objective language proves to be not

only more accurate and economical to work with, but also

much safer as a tool of action when dealing with difficult situa-

tions and delicate matters.

Such a more precise and consistent solution for the prob-

lems inherited from centuries of ponerological nescience is

possible whenever a given religion represents a current of

gnosis and faith which was originally authentic enough . A

courageous approach to remedying conditions caused by pres-

ently perceptible poneric processes, or by chronic perseverance

of survivals from such states far in the past, thus demands both

acceptance of this new science and a clear conviction of origi-

nal truth and basic science. Doubts will otherwise block any

such intent by means of insufficiently objectified fear, even if

they have been repressed deep into the subconscious. We must

be convinced that the Truth can endure such a washing in

modern detergent; not only will it not lose its eternal values,

but it will actually regain its original freshness and noble col-

ors.

With regard to the second above-mentioned situation, when

the ponerogenic process leading to pathocracy has affected

some secular and political movement, the situation of religion

in such a country will be completely different. Polarization of

attitudes with regard to religion then becomes inevitable. The

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social religious organization cannot help but assume a critical

attitude, becoming a support for opposition on the part of the

society of normal people. This in turn provokes the movement

affected by this phenomenon to an ever more intolerant attitude

toward religion. Such a situation thus places a given society’s

religion before the specter of physical destruction.

Whenever pathocracy emerges in an autonomous process,

this means that the religious systems dominating that country

were unable to prevent it in time.

As a rule, the religious organizations of any given country

have sufficient influence upon society to be able to oppose

nascent evil if they act with courage and reason. If they cannot,

this is the result of either fragmentation and strife among vari-

ous denominations or of internal corruption within the religious

system. As a result, religious organizations have long tolerated

and even uncritically inspired the development of pathocracy.

This weakness later becomes the cause of religion’s disasters.

In the case of an artificially infected pathocracy, the relig-

ious system’s joint liability may be lesser, albeit still generally

concrete. It is justified to exonerate a country’s religious sys-

tems for the state of affairs if the pathocracy has been imposed

by force. Specific conditions emerge in this situation: the relig-

ious organizations have the morally stronger defensive posi-

tion, are able to accept material losses, and can also undergo

their own recuperative process.

Pathocrats may be able to use primitive and brutal means to

combat religion, but it is very difficult for them to attack the

essence of religious convictions. Their propaganda proves

overly primitive and brings about the familiar phenomena of

immunization or resistance on the part of normal people, with

the final result being the opposite of the intended moral reac-

tion . Pathocrats can only use brute force to destroy religion if

they feel the latter’s weakness. The principle of “divide and

conquer” can be used if there are various denominations with a

long history of enmity, but the effects of such measures are

generally ephemeral and can lead to unity among the denomi-

nations.

The specific practical knowledge collected by the society of

normal people under pathocratic rule, together with the phe-

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nomenon of the psychological immunization, begin to exert

their own characteristic effect upon the structure of religious

denominations. If some religious system succumbed to ponero-

genic infection sometime during its history, the effects and

chronic survivals thereof persevere within for centuries. As

already adduced, remedying this by means of philosophical and

moral reflections meets with specific psychological difficulties.

But under pathocratic rule, in spite of the abuse suffered by

such a religious organization, the latter organism specific anti-

bodies are transfused which cure the ponerogenic survivals.

Such a specific process aims at ridding the religious struc-

ture of those deformations which were the effect of the opera-

tion of the pathological factors familiar to us. Insofar as the

appearance of pathocracy in various guises throughout human

history, always resulting from human errors which opened the

door to the pathological phenomenon, one must also look on

the other side of the coin. We should understand this in the

light of that underrated law, when the effect of a particular

causative structure has a teleological meaning of its own. It

would, however, be highly advantageous for this recuperative

process to be accompanied by greater awareness of the nature

of the phenomena, which also acts similarly in terms of devel-

oping psychological immunity and healing human personali-

ties. Such awareness could also help elaborate safer and more

effective plans of action.

If individuals and groups believing in God are able to accept

an objective understanding of macrosocial pathological phe-

nomena, especially this most dangerous one, the natural out-

come will thus prove to be a certain separation of religious and

ponerological problematics, which qualitatively occupy differ-

ent levels of reality. Church attention can then revert to ques-

tions regarding man’s relationship with God, an area for which

churches have a calling. On the other hand, resistance to pone-

rological phenomena and their worldwide spread should be

largely assumed by scientific and political institutions whose

actions are based on a naturalistic understanding of the nature

and genesis of evil. Such a separation of duties can never be

quite consistent, since the genesis of evil includes participation

of human moral failings, and overcoming these based on relig-

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277

ious premises has been the responsibility of religious associa-

tions since times immemorial.

Some religions and denominations subjected to pathocratic

rule are forced by such circumstance to become overly in-

volved in matters conventionally referred to as political, or

even in economic efforts. This is necessary both in order to

protect the existence of the religious organization itself and in

order to help fellow believers or other citizens suffering abuse.

It is important, however, to avoid having such a state of affairs

become permanent in the shape of habit and tradition, since this

could later make it more difficult to revert to normal human

government.

In spite of existing differences of conviction and tradition,

the basis for cooperative effort on the part of people with good

will should contain that characteristic convergence of the con-

clusions we deduce between the precepts of the Christian Gos-

pels (and other monotheistic religions) and a ponerological

view of the genesis of evil. The faithful of various religions and

denominations do in fact believe in the same God, and at pre-

sent they are threatened by the same macrosocial pathologic

phenomenon. This creates sufficient data to enable a search for

cooperation in affecting achievements whose value is so obvi-

ous.

CHAPTER IX

THERAPY FOR THE WORLD

For centuries, attempts were made to treat various diseases

based on naive understanding and upon experience transmitted

from generation to generation. This activity was not ineffec-

tive; in many cases it produced advantageous results. Supersed-

ing this traditional medicine with the newly generating modern

science in Europe caused social health to deteriorate initially.

However, it was only with the help of modern science that

many diseases were vanquished, ailments against which tradi-

tional medicine had been helpless. This occurred because a

naturalistic comprehension of disease and its causes created a

basis for counteraction.

Regarding the phenomena discussed in this work, our situa-

tion is similar to the one engendered by the above-mentioned

crisis with reference to the health of European nations. We

have left behind the traditional socio-moral organization but

have not yet elaborated a more valuable science, one which

would fill in the gap. We therefore need newly established