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

It also turned out that the carriers of some physiological

anomalies known to physicians and sometimes to psycholo-

gists, and which are primarily hereditary in nature, manifest

split tendencies similar to schizoids. In a similar manner, peo-

ple whom nature has unfortunately saddled with a short life and

an early cancer-related death frequently indicate a characteris-

tic and irrational attraction for this phenomenon. These latter

observations were decisive in my agreeing to call the phe-

nomenon by this name, which had originally struck me as se-

mantically overly loose. An individual’s decreased resistance

to the effects of pathocracy and his attraction to this phenome-

non appear to be a holistic response of person’s organism , not

merely of his psychological makeup alone.

Approximately 6% of the population constitutes the active

structure of the new rulership, which carries its own peculiar

consciousness of its own goals. Twice as many people consti-

tute a second group: those who have managed to warp their

personalities to meet the demands of the new reality. This leads

to attitudes which can already be interpreted within the catego-

ries of the natural psychological world view, i.e. the errors we

are committing are much smaller. It is of course not possible to

draw an exact boundary between these groups; the separation

adduced here is merely descriptive in nature.

This second group consists of individuals who are, on the

average, weaker, more sickly, and less vital. The frequency of

known mental diseases in this group is at twice the rate of the

national average. We can thus assume that the genesis of their

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225

submissive attitude toward the regime, their greater susceptibil-

ity to pathological effects, and their skittish opportunism in-

cludes various relatively impalpable anomalies. We observe

not only physiological anomalies, but also the kinds described

above at the lowest intensity, with the exception of essential

psychopathy.

The 6% group constitute the new nobility; the 12% group

gradually forms the new bourgeoisie, whose economic situa-

tion is the most advantageous. Adapting to the new conditions,

not without conflicts of conscience, transforms this latter group

into both dodgers and, simultaneously, intermediaries between

the oppositional society and the active ponerological group,

whom they can talk to in the appropriate language. They play

such a crucial role within this system that both sides must take

them into account. Since their technical capacities and skills

are better than those of the active pathocratic group, they as-

sume various managerial positions. Normal people see them as

persons they can approach, generally without being subjected

to pathological arrogance.

So it is that only 18% of the country’s population is in favor

of the new system of government; but concerning the layer we

have called the bourgeoisie, we may even be doubtful of the

sincerity of their attitudes. This is the situation in the author’s

homeland. This proportion can be variously estimated in other

countries, from 15% in Hungary to 21% in Bulgaria, but it is

never more than a relatively small minority.

The great majority of the population forms the society of

normal people, gradually creating an informal communications

network. It behooves us to wonder why these people reject the

advantages conformity affords, consciously preferring the op-

posing role: poverty, harassment, and curtailment of human

freedoms. What ideals motivate them? Is this merely a kind of

romanticism representing ties to tradition and religion? Still, so

many people with a religious upbringing change their world

view to that of the Pathocrats very quickly. The next chapter is

dedicated to this question.

For the moment, let us limit ourselves to stating that a per-

son with a normal human instinctive substratum, good basic

intelligence, and full faculties of critical thought would have a

226

PATHOCRACY

difficult time accepting such a compromise; it would devastate

his personality and engender neurosis. At the same time, such a

system easily distinguishes and separates him from its own

kind regardless of his sporadic hesitations. No method of

propaganda can change the nature of this macrosocial phe-

nomenon or the nature of a normal human being. They remain

foreign to each other.

The above-described subdivision into three sections should

not be identified with membership in any party, which is offi-

cially ideological but in fact pathocratic. Such a system con-

tains many normal people forced to join such a party by various

circumstances, and who must pretend as best they can to repre-

sent said party’s more reasonable adherents. After a year or two

of obtusely executed instructions, they start becoming inde-

pendent and reestablishing their severed ties to society. Their

former friends begin to get the gist of their double game. This

is the situation of large numbers of the adherents of the former

ideology, which is now fulfilling its changed function. They are

also the first to protest that this system does not truly represent

their old political beliefs. We must also remember that spe-

cially trusted people, whose loyalty to the pathocracy is a fore-

gone conclusion due to their psychological nature and the

functions they perform, have no need to belong to the party;

they stand above it .

After a typical pathocratic structure has been formed, the

population is effectively divided – polarized - according to

completely different lines from what someone raised outside

the purview of this phenomenon might imagine, and in a man-

ner whose actual conditions are also impossible to comprehend

for someone lacking essential specialized training. However, an

intuitive sense for these causes gradually forms among the

majority of society in a country affected by the phenomenon. A

person raised in a normal man’s system is accustomed since

childhood to seeing economic and ideological problems in the

foreground, possibly also the results of social injustice. Such

concepts have proved illusory and ineffective in a most tragic

manner: the macrosocial phenomenon has its own properties

and laws which can only be studied and comprehended within

the appropriate categories.

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227

However, in leaving behind our old natural method of com-

prehension and learning to track the internal causality of the

phenomenon, we marvel at the surprising exactness with which

the latter turns out to be subjected to its own regular laws. With

regard to individuals, there is always a greater scope of some

individualism and environmental influences. In statistical

analyses these variable factors disappear and the essential con-

stant characteristics surface. The entirety is thus clearly subject

to causative determination. This explains the relative ease of

transition from studying causation to predicting future changes

in the phenomenon. In time, the adequacy of collected knowl-

edge has been confirmed by the accuracy of these predictions.

Let us now take individual cases into consideration. For in-

stance: we meet two people whose behavior makes us suspect