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

imposed upon other people by means of pathological egotism.

We can observe marginal Christian sects today whose begin-

nings were doubtless of this nature.

If a religion which later fell apart into numerous doctrinal

variations had such a beginning, the above-mentioned regen-

erative processes effected by healthy common sense will bring

about a point of advancement that the said religion’s ministers

perceive to be a threat to the religion’s existence. Protecting

their own faith and social position will then cause them to em-

ploy violent means against anyone daring to criticize or bring

about liberalization. The pathological process begins anew.

Such is the state of affairs we may be actually witnessing to-

day.

However, the mere fact that some religious association has

succumbed to the ponerization process does not constitute

proof that the original gnosis or vision was contaminated from

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the outset by errors which opened the door to invasion by

pathological factors, or that it was an effect of their influence.

In order for the doors to be opened to infection by pathological

factors and furthering progressive degeneration, it suffices for

such a religious movement to succumb to contamination some-

time later in its history , e.g. as a result of excessive influence

on the part of initially foreign archetypes of secular civiliza-

tion, or of compromises with the goals of the country’s rulers.

This succinct summary repeats my above adduced causes

and laws of the course of the ponerological process, this time

with regard to religious groups. Important differences should

be underscored, however. Religious associations are among the

most enduring and long-lived social structures, historically

speaking. The ponerological process in such a group runs its

course in a much larger time frame. In effect, man needs relig-

ion so much that every such group, provided it is numerous

enough, will contain a large number of normal people (gener-

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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PATHOCRACY AND RELIGION

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