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

names” to things. In terms of the study of Semiotics, the question is: did he

name things based on what they were, in essence, or did he simply create a

convention, and arbitrarily name them whatever appealed to him?

The theories of Semiotics propose that there are two levels, or “planes of

articulation”. At the level of any given language, such as Greek, English,

Chinese, or whatever, there is what they call the “Expression plane” that

consists of a lexicon, a phonology and syntax. In other words, the Expression

Plane is the selection of words that belong to that language, the sounds that

the selection of words produce, and the way they are arranged to convey

meaning. That is the first plane. The second plane is called the Content Plane.

This is the array of concepts that the language is capable of expressing. This

last is rather important because, as we have all heard at least once in our

lives, Eskimos have many words for snow while people who do not live in an

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

73

ual and society, as well as the degree to which they approxi-

mate an objective world view, condition the development of

our moral and social attitudes. The correctness of our under-

standing of self and others characterizes the components condi-

tioning our decisions and choices, be they mundane or impor-

tant, in our private lives and social activities.

The level and quality of a given society’s psychological

worldview is also a condition of realization of the full socio-

psychological structure present as a potential in the psycho-

logical variety within our species. Only when we can under-

stand a person in relation to his actual internal contents, not

some substituted external label, can we help him along his path

to proper adjustment to social life, which would be to his ad-

vantage and would also assist in the creation of a stable and

creative structure of society.

Supported by a proper feel for, and understanding of, psy-

chological qualities, such a structure would impart high social

office to individuals possessing both full psychological normal-

ity, sufficient talent and specific preparation. The basic collec-

tive intelligence of the masses of people would then respect

and support them.

And so, in such a society, the only pending problems to be

resolved would be those matters so difficult as to overwhelm

the natural language of concepts, however enriched and quali-

tatively ennobled.

However, there have always been “society pedagogues”,

less outstanding but more numerous, who have become fasci-

nated by their own great ideas, which might, sometimes, even

environment where snow and ice are the dominant features may only have

one or two words for these phenomena.

So it is that the “Content Plane” of a language becomes crucial to what can be

discussed in that language. In order for the sounds of speech to be meaning-

ful, the words formed out of these sounds must have a meaning associated

with them. In other words, the sounds relate to the Content. The Content

Continuum represents the Universe or reality to which our words relate as we

are capable of conceiving it.

!obaczewski is rightly pointing out that the normal person (not to mention

psychology as a whole, though to a lesser extent) has an extremely psycho-

logical vocabulary of limited understanding because the content continuum of

understanding has been artificially truncated, repressed, or otherwise dimin-

ished. [Editor’s note.]

74

SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS

be true, but are more often constricted or contain the taint of

some hidden pathological thought processes. Such people have

always striven to impose pedagogical methods which would

impoverish and deform the development of individuals’ and

societies’ psychological world view; they inflict permanent

harm upon societies, depriving them of universally useful val-

ues. By claiming to act in the name of a more valuable idea,

such pedagogues actually undermine the values they claim and

open the door for destructive ideologies.

At the same time, as we have already mentioned, each soci-

ety contains a small but active minority of persons with various

deviant worldviews, especially in the areas treated above,

which are caused either by psychological anomalies, to be dis-

cussed below, or by the long-term influence of such anomalies

upon their psyches, especially during childhood. Such people

later exert a pernicious influence upon the formative process of

the psychological world view in society, whether by direct

activity or by means of written or other transmission, especially

if they engage in the service of some ideology or other.

Many causes which easily escape the notice of sociologists

and political scientists can thus be broken down into either the

development or involution of this factor, whose meaning for

the life of society is as decisive as the quality of their language

of psychological concepts.

Let us imagine that we want to analyze these processes: we

would construct a sufficiently credible inventory method which

would examine the contents and correctness of the area of

world view in question. After subjecting the appropriate repre-

sentative groups to such testing, we would then obtain indica-

tors of that particular society’s ability to understand psycho-

logical phenomena and dependencies within their country and

other nations. This would simultaneously constitute the basic

indicators of said society’s talent for self-government and pro-

gress, as well as its ability to carry on a reasonable interna-

tional policy. Such tests could provide an early warning system

if such abilities were to deteriorate, in which case, it would be

proper to make the appropriate efforts in the realm of social

pedagogy. In extreme cases, it might be proper for those coun-

tries evaluating the problem to take more direct corrective ac-

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

75

tion, even to isolating the deteriorating country until the appro-

priate corrections are well under way.

Let as adduce another example of a congenial nature: the

development of an adult human’s gifts, skills, realistic thought,

and natural psychological world view will be optimal where the

level and quality of his education and the demands of his pro-

fessional practice correspond to his individual talents. Achiev-

ing such a position provides personal, material, and moral ad-

vantages to him; society as whole also reaps benefits at the

same time. Such a person would then perceive it as social jus-

tice in relation to himself.

If various circumstances combine, including a given soci-

ety’s deficient psychological world view, individual’s are

forced to exercise functions which do not make full use of his

or her talents. When this happens, said person’s productivity is

no better, and often even worse, than that of a worker with

satisfactory talents. Such an individual then feels cheated and

inundated by duties which prevent him from achieving self-

realization. His thoughts wander from his duties into a world of

fantasy, or into matters which are of greater interest to him; in

his daydream world, he is what he should and deserves to be.

Such a person always knows if his social and professional ad-

justment has taken a downward direction; at the same time,