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

the present and are thus incapable of doing much good for the

future. Let us therefore direct our minds toward the future,

beyond the ostensibly insuperable realities of present age.

There are many advantages to be gained from constructively

planning the future, including the more distant time perspec-

tive, if we can foresee its shape and facilitate pinpointed solu-

tions. This requires that we properly analyze reality and make

correct predictions, i.e. discipline of thought so as to exclude

any subconscious data manipulation and any excessive influ-

ence from our emotions and preferences. Elaborating such an

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original vision so as to make it a reified blueprint for a new

reality is the best way to educate human minds for other simi-

larly difficult tasks in the concrete future.

This would also permit timely elimination of many differ-

ences of opinion which could later lead to violent conflicts;

these sometimes result from an insufficiently realistic apper-

ception of the present state of affairs, various pipe-dream atti-

tudes, or propaganda activities. If it is logically developed and

avoids collisions with an adequately objective understanding of

phenomena which have already been discussed in part, such a

constructive vision can come true in future reality.

Such planning should be reminiscent of a well-organized

technical project, wherein the designers’ work is preceded by

an examination of conditions and possibilities. Executing the

work also requires time-frame planning in accordance with the

appropriate technical data and the human safety factor. We

know from experience that increasing the scope and accuracy

of design activities makes their execution and utility more prof-

itable. Similarly, the more modern and inventive constructions

generally prove more effective than tradition-bound ones.

The design and construction of a new social system should

also be based upon proper distinctions of reality and should

receive appropriate elaboration in many details in order to

prove effective in execution and action. This will require aban-

doning some traditional customs of political life which allowed

human emotions and egoism to play too great a role. Creative

reasoning has become the sole and necessary solution, since it

determines real data and finds novel solutions without losing

the ability to act under real-life conditions.

The absence of such prior constructive effort would lead

both to knowledge gaps about the reality to be operated in and

to a shortage of people with the crucial preparation needed for

creating new systems. Particularly for a nation now affected by

pathocracy, when regaining the right to decide one’s own fate,

would be improvisation which is expensive and dangerous.

Violent disputes among the adherents of various structural

concepts which may often be unrealistic, immature, or outdated

because they have lost their historical significance in the mean-

time, may even cause a civil war.

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Wherever old social systems created by historical processes

have been almost totally destroyed by the introduction of state

capitalism and the development of pathocracy, that nation’s

social and psychological structure has been obliterated. The

replacement is a pathological structure reaching into every

corner of a country, causing all areas of life to degenerate and

become unproductive. Under such conditions, it proves unfea-

sible to reconstruct a social system based on outdated traditions

and the unrealistic expectations that such a structure does exist.

What is needed is a design of action which will first permit the

fastest possible reconstruction of this basic socio-psychological

structure and then allow it to participate in social life’s

autonomization process.

The past has furnished us virtually no pattern for this indis-

pensable activity, which can thus be based only upon the more

general kind of data described at the beginning of this work.

We are therefore immediately faced with the need to rely upon

modern science. At least one generation’s worth of time has

also been lost, and with it the evolution which should have

creatively transformed the old structural forms. We should thus

be guided by imaginings of what should have happened if a

given society had had the right to free development during this

time, rather than by data from the past, presently outdated,

albeit historically real.

In the meantime, many divergent ways of thinking have

taken root in those countries. Private capitalism’s world of

social institutions has become distant and hard to understand.

There is no longer anybody left who could be a capitalist or act

independently within such a system. Democracy has become an

imperfectly comprehended slogan for communicating within

the society of normal people. The workers cannot imagine the

reprivatization of great industrial plants and oppose any efforts

in that direction. They believe that rendering the country inde-

pendent would bring them participation in both management

and profits. Those societies have accepted some social institu-

tions, such as a public health service and free education

through university level. They want the operation of such insti-

tutions reformed by subordinating them to healthy common

sense and appropriate scientific criteria as well as tried –and

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true elements of valid traditions. What should be restored is the

general laws of nature which should govern societies; the struc-

tural forms should be reconstructed in a more modern manner,

which will facilitate their acceptance.

Some transformations already made are historically irre-

versible. Regaining the right to shape one’s own future would

thus create a dangerous and even tragic “system void”. A pre-

monition of such a critical situation already worries people in

those countries, stifling their will to act; this situation should be

prevented immediately. The only way is well-organized effort

in analytical and constructive thought directed toward a socie-

tal system with highly modern economic and political founda-

tions.

Nations suffering under pathocratic governments would also

participate in such a constructive effort, which would represent

excellent input to the above-mentioned general task of treating

our sick world. Undeterred in our hope that the time will soon

come when such nations will revert to normal human systems,

we should build a social system with a view to what will hap-

pen after pathocracy.

This social system will be different from and better than

anything which existed earlier. A realistic vision of a better

future and participation in creating it will heal battered human

souls and bring order into thought processes. This constructive

work trains people to govern themselves under such different

conditions and knocks the weapon out of the hands of anyone

who serves evil, increasing the latter’s feeling of frustration

and an awareness that his pathological work is nearing an end.

A careful reading of this book may cause us to discern the

outlines of a creative vision of such a future societal system so

sorely needed by nations suffering under pathocratic rule; if so,

this represents a reward for the author’s effort rather than re-

sults of pure chance. Just such a vision accompanied me

throughout the period of my work on this book (although the

latter nowhere indicates a name nor any more precise details

for it), rendering assistance and proving a useful support in the

future. In some way, it is thus present on the pages and be-

tween the lines of this work.

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307

Such a social system of the future would have to guarantee

its citizens wide scope personal freedom and an open door to

utilizing their creative possibilities in both individual and col-

lective efforts. At the same time, however, it must not indicate

the well known weaknesses manifested by a democracy in its

domestic and foreign policy. Not only should individuals’ per-

sonal interest and the common good be appropriately balanced

in such a system; they should be woven right into the overall

picture of social life at the level where an understanding of its

laws causes any discrepancy between them to disappear. The

opinion of the wide mass of the citizenry, dictated primarily by

the voices of basic intelligence and dependent upon the natural

world view, should be balanced by the skills of people who

utilize an objective cognition of reality and possess the appro-

priate training in their special areas. Appropriate and well

thought out system solutions should be used for this purpose.

The foundations for practical solutions within such an im-

proved system would contain criteria such as creating the right

conditions for enriched development of human personalities

including the psychological world view, whose societal role

has already been adduced. Individual socio-professional adap-

tation, the creation of an interpersonal network, and a healthy

active socio-psychological structure should be facilitated to the

maximum possible extent.

Structural, legal, and economic solutions should be consid-

ered in such a way that fulfilling these criteria would also open

the door for an individual’s optimal self-realization within so-

cial life, which would simultaneously be for the good of the

community. Other traditional criteria such as the dynamics of

economic development will thereupon prove secondary to these

more general values. The result of this would be the nation’s

economic development, political skill, and creative role in the

international sphere.

The priorities in terms of value criteria would thus shift

consistently in the direction of psychological, social, and moral

data. This is in keeping with the spirit of the times, but actual

execution thereof demands imaginative effort and constructive

thought in order to achieve the above-mentioned practical

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goals. After all, everything begins and ends within the human

psyche.

Such a system would have to be evolutionary by nature, as

it would be based upon an acceptance of evolution as a law of

nature. Natural evolutionary factors would play an important

role therein, such as the course of cognition continually proc-

essing from more primitive and easily accessible data to more

actual, intrinsic, and subtle matters. The principle of evolution

would have to be imprinted firmly enough upon the basic phi-

losophical foundations of such a system so as to protect it con-

sistently from future revolution.

Such a social system would by nature be more resistant to

the danger of having macrosocial pathological phenomena

develop within. Its foundations would be an improved devel-

opment of the psychological world view and society’s links

structure coupled with a scientific and social consciousness of

the essence of such phenomena. This should furnish the foun-

dation for mature methods of education. Such a system should

also have built-in permanent institutions which were heretofore

unknown and whose task will be preventing the development

of ponerogenic processes within society, particularly among

governing authorities.

A “Council of Wise Men” would be an institution com-

posed of several people with extremely high general, medical,

and psychological qualifications; it would have the right to

examine the physical and psychological health of candidates

before the latter are elected to the highest government posi-

tions. A negative council opinion should be hard to challenge.

That same council would serve the head of state, the legislative

authorities, and the executives regarding counsel in matters

entering its scope of scientific competence. It would also ad-

dress the public in important matters of biological and psycho-

logical life, indicating essential moral aspects. Such a council’s

duties would also include maintaining contact and discussions

with the religious authorities in such matters.

The security system for persons with various psychological

deviations would be in charge of making their life easier while

skillfully limiting their participation in the processes of the

genesis of evil. After all, such persons are not impervious to

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309

persuasion provided it is based upon proper knowledge of the

matter. Such an approach would also help progressively dimin-

ish societies’ gene pool burdens of hereditary aberrations. The

Council of Wise Men would furnish the scientific supervision

for such activities.

The legal system would be subjected to wide ranging trans-

formations in virtually every area, progressing from formulae

whose establishment was based on a society’s natural world

view and ancient tradition to legal solutions based upon an

objective apperception of reality, particularly the psychological

one. As a result, law studies would have to undergo true mod-

ernization, since the law would become a scientific discipline

sharing the same epistemological principles as all the other

sciences.

What is now called “penal” law would be superseded by

another kind of law with a completely modernized foundation

based on an understanding of the genesis of evil and of the

personalities of people who commit evil. Such law would be

significantly more humanitarian while furnishing individuals

and societies more effective protection from undeserved abuse.