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

cure. There is usually insufficient time to discuss a patient’s

delusions with him unless it becomes necessary for reasons of

the safety of said patient and other people. Once the disease has

been cured, however, psychotherapeutic assistance in reinte-

grating the patient into the world of normal thought is defi-

nitely indicated.

If we effect a sufficiently penetrating analysis of the phe-

nomenon of pathocracy and its relationship to its ideology, we

are faced with a clear analogy to the above described relation-

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

203

ship now familiar to all psychiatrists. Some differences will

appear later in the form of details and statistical data, which

can be interpreted both as a function of the above-mentioned

characteristic style of caricaturizing an ideology, pathocracy

effects, and as a result of the macrosocial character of the phe-

nomenon.

As a counterpart of disease, pathocracy has its own etiologi-

cal factors which make it potentially present in every society,

no matter how healthy. It also has its own pathodynamic proc-

esses which are differentiated as a function of whether the

pathocracy in question was born in that particular country

(primary pathocracy), was artificially infected in the country by

some other system of the kind, or was imposed by force.

We have already sketched above the ponerogenesis and

course of such a macrosocial phenomenon in its primary form,

intentionally refraining from mentioning any particular ideol-

ogy. We shall soon address the other two courses mentioned

above.

The ideology of pathocracy is created by caricaturizing the

original ideology of a social movement in a manner character-

istic of that particular pathological phenomenon. The above-

mentioned hysteroidal states of societies also deform the con-

temporary ideologies of the times in question, using a style

characteristic for them. Just as doctors are interested in disease,

the author has become primarily interested in the pathocratic

phenomenon and the analysis thereof. In a similar manner, the

primary concern of those people who have assumed responsi-

bility for the fate of nations should be curing the world of this

heretofore mysterious disease. The proper time will come for

critical and analytical attitudes toward ideologies which have

become the “delusional systems” of such phenomena during

historical times. We should at present focus our attention upon

the very essence of the macrosocial pathological phenomena.

Understanding the nature of a disease is basic to any search

for the proper methods of treatment. The same applies by anal-

ogy with regard to that macrosocial pathological phenomenon,

especially since, in the latter case, mere understanding of the

nature of the disease starts curing human minds and souls .

Throughout the entire process, reasoning approximated to the

204

PATHOCRACY

style elaborated by medicine is the proper method which leads

to untangling the contemporary Gordian knot.

A pathocracy’s ideology changes its function, just as occurs

with a mentally ill person’s delusional system. It stops being a

human conviction outlining methods of action and takes on

other duties which are not openly defined. It becomes a dis-

guising story concealing the new reality from people’s critical

consciousness, both inside and outside one’s nation. The first

function – a conviction outlining methods of action - soon be-

comes ineffective for two reasons: on the one hand, reality

exposes the methods of action as unworkable; on the other

hand, the masses of common people notice the contemptuous

attitude toward the ideology represented by the pathocrats

themselves. For that reason, the main operational theater for the

ideology consists of nations remaining outside the immediate

ambit of the pathocracy, since that world tends to continue

believing in ideologies. The ideology thus becomes the instru-

ment for external action to a degree even greater than in the

above-mentioned relationship between the disease and its delu-

sional system.

Psychopaths are conscious of being different from normal

people. That is why the “political system” inspired by their

nature is able to conceal this awareness of being different. They

wear a personal mask of sanity and know how to create a mac-

rosocial mask of the same dissimulating nature. When we ob-

serve the role of ideology in this macrosocial phenomenon,

quite conscious of the existence of this specific awareness of

the psychopath, we can then understand why ideology is rele-

gated to a tool-like role: something useful in dealing with those

other naive people and nations. Pathocrats must nevertheless

appreciate the function of ideology as being something essen-

tial in any ponerogenic group, especially in the macrosocial

phenomenon which is their “homeland”. This factor of aware-

ness simultaneously constitutes a certain qualitative difference

between the two above-mentioned relationships. Pathocrats

know that their real ideology is derived from their deviant na-

tures, and treat the “other” – the masking ideology - with

barely concealed contempt. And the common people eventually

begin to perceive this as noted above.

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

205

Thus, a well-developed pathocratic system no longer has a

clear and direct relationship to its original ideology, which it

only keeps as its primary, traditional tool for action and mask-

ing. For practical purposes of pathocratic expansion, other ide-

ologies may be useful, even if they contradict the main one and

heap moral denunciation upon it. However, these other ideolo-

gies must be used with care, refraining from official acknow-

ledgement within environments wherein the original ideology

can be made to appear too foreign, discredited, and useless.

The main ideology succumbs to symptomatic deformation,

in keeping with the characteristic style of this very disease and

with what has already been stated about the matter. The names

and official contents are kept, but another, completely different

content is insinuated underneath, thus giving rise to the well

known double talk phenomenon within which the same names

have two meanings: one for initiates, one for everyone else.

The latter is derived from the original ideology; the former has

a specifically pathocratic meaning, something which is known

not only to the pathocrats themselves, but also is learned by

those people living under long-term subjection to their rule.

Doubletalk is only one of many symptoms. Others are the

specific facility for producing new names which have sugges-

tive effects and are accepted virtually uncritically, in particular

outside the immediate scope of such a system’s rule.96 We must

thus point out the paramoralistic character and paranoidal

qualities frequently contained within these names. The action

of paralogisms and paramoralisms in this deformed ideology

becomes comprehensible to us based on the information pre-

sented in Chapter IV. Anything which threatens pathocratic

rule becomes deeply immoral. 97This also applies to the concept

of forgiving the pathocrats themselves; it is extremely danger-

ous and thus “immoral”.

We thus have the right to invent appropriate names which