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

subconscious process on the basis of prior conditioned reflexes.

An objective observer might wish to compare this state to one

in which the inmates of an asylum take over the running of the

institution. The association enters the state wherein the whole

has donned the mask of ostensible normality. In the next chap-

ter, we shall call such a state the “dissimulative phase” with

regard to macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena.

Observing the appropriate state corresponding to the first

ponerological criterion - the atrophy of natural critical facul-

ties with respect to pathological individuals - requires skillful

psychology and specific factual knowledge; the second, more

stable phase can be perceived both by a person of average rea-

son and by public opinion in most societies. The interpretation

imposed, however, is unilaterally moralistic or sociological,

simultaneously undergoing the characteristic feeling of defi-

ciency as regards the possibility of both understanding the phe-

nomenon and counteracting the spread of said evil.

However, in this phase a minority of social groups tend to

consider such a ponerogenic association comprehensible within

the categories of their own world view and the outer layer of

diffusing ideology as a doctrine acceptable to them. The more

primitive the society in question, and the further removed from

direct contact to the union affected by this pathological state,

the more numerous such minorities would be. This very period,

during which the customs of the union become somewhat

milder, often represents simultaneously its most intensive ex-

pansionist activity.

This period may last long, but not forever. Internally, the

group is becoming progressively more pathological, finally

showing its true qualitative colors again as its activities become

ever clumsier. At this point, a society of normal people can

easily threaten ponerologic associations, even at the macroso-

cial level.

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173

Macrosocial Phenomena

When a ponerogenic process encompasses a society’s entire

ruling class, or nation, or when opposition from normal people

is stifled -- as a result of the mass character of the phenomenon,

or by using spellbinding means and physical compulsion, in-

cluding censorship -- we are dealing with a macrosocial pone-

rologic phenomenon. In such a case, however, a society’s trag-

edy, often coupled with that of the researcher’s own suffering,

opens before him an entire volume of ponerologic knowledge,

where he can read all about the laws governing such a process

if he is only able to familiarize himself in time with its natural-

istic language and its different grammar.

Studies in the genesis of evil which are based on observing

small groups of people can indicate the details of these laws to

us. However, it might be thought that this would present a

warped picture that is dependent upon various environmental

conditions which are further dependent on the historical period

in question; this is the backdrop to the phenomena observed.

Nevertheless, such observations may enable us to hazard a

hypothesis to the effect that the general laws of ponerogenesis

may be at least analogous, regardless of the quantity and scope

of the phenomenon in time and space. They do not, however,

permit verification of such a hypothesis.

In studying a macrosocial phenomenon, we can obtain both

quantitative and qualitative data, statistical correlation indices,

and other observations as accurately as might be allowed by the

state of the art in science, research methodology, and the obvi-

ously very difficult situation of the observer.85 We can then use

the classical method, hazarding a hypothesis and then actively

searching for facts which could falsify it. The wide-spread

causative regularity of ponerogenic processes would then be

confirmed within the bounds of the above-mentioned possibili-

ties. This is, in fact, what the author and his colleagues under-

took to do. It is astonishing how neatly causative regularity of

ponerogenic processes observed in small groups govern this

macrosocial phenomenon. The comprehension of the phe-

85 Assuming that one can gather this information and survive the gathering!

[Editor’s note.]

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PONEROLOGY

nomenon thus acquired can serve as a basis for predicting its

future development, to be verified by time. It is in close and

careful observation, and only after time passes, that we become

aware that the colossus has an Achilles heel after all.

The study of macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena meets

with obvious problems: their period of genesis, duration, and

decay is several times longer than the researcher’s scientific

activity. Simultaneously, there are other transformations in

history, customs, economics, and technology; however, the

difficulties confronted in abstracting the appropriate symptoms

need not be insuperable, since our criteria are based on eternal

phenomena subject to relatively limited transformations in

time.

The traditional interpretation of these great historical dis-

eases has already taught historians to distinguish two phases.

The first is represented by a period of spiritual crisis in a soci-

ety,86 which historiography associates with exhausting of the

ideational, moral, and religious values heretofore nourishing

the society in question. Egoism among individuals and social

groups increases, and the links of moral duty and social net-

works are felt to be loosening. Trifling matters thereupon

dominate human minds to such an extent that there is no room

left for thinking about public matters or a feeling of commit-

ment to the future. An atrophy of the hierarchy of values within

the thinking of individuals and societies is an indication

thereof; it has been described both in historiographic mono-

graphs and in psychiatric papers. The country’s government is

finally paralyzed, helpless in the face of problems which could

be solved without great difficulty under other circumstances.

Let us associate such periods of crisis with the familiar phase in

social hysterization .

The next phase has been marked by bloody tragedies, revo-

lutions, wars, and the fall of empires. The deliberations of his-

86 Sorokin, Pitirim. (1941). Social and Cultural Dynamics, Volume Four:

Basic Problems, Principles and Methods , New York: American Book Com-

pany. Sorokin, Pitirim. (1957). Social and Cultural Dynamics, One Volume

Revision . Boston: Porter Sargent. Simonton, Dean Keith. (1976). “Does

Sorokin’s data support his theory?: A study of generational fluctuations in

philosophical beliefs.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 15: 187-

198.

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175

torians or moralists regarding these occurrences always leave

behind a certain feeling of deficiency with reference to the

possibility of perceiving certain psychological factors dis-

cerned within the nature of phenomena; the essence of these

factors remains outside the scope of their scientific experience.

A historian observing these great historical diseases is

struck first of all by their similarities , easily forgetting that all

diseases have many symptoms in common because they are

states of absent health. A ponerologist thinking in naturalistic