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

when the Nazis began to stride in their hundred league jack-

boots across Europe. These researchers lived through that, and

then when the Nazis were driven out and replaced by the

Communists under the heel of Stalin, they faced years of op-

pression the likes of which those of us today who are choosing

to take a stand against the Bush Reich cannot even imagine.

But, based on the syndrome that describes the onset of the dis-

ease, it seems that the United States, in particular, and perhaps

the entire world, will soon enter into “bad times” of such horror

and despair that the Holocaust of World War II will seem like

just a practice run.

And so, since they were there, and they lived through it and

brought back information to the rest of us, it may well save our

lives to have a map to guide us in the falling darkness.

Laura Knight-Jadczyk

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

In presenting my honored readers with this volume, which I

generally worked on during the early hours before leaving to

make a difficult living, I would first like to apologize for the

defects which are the result of anomalous circumstances. I

readily admit that these lacunae should be filled, time-

consuming as that may be, because the facts on which this

book are based are urgently needed; through no fault of the

author’s, these data have come too late.

The reader is entitled to an explanation of the long history

and circumstances under which this work was compiled, not

just of the content itself. This is, in fact, the third manuscript I

have created on this same subject. I threw the first manuscript

into a central-heating furnace, having been warned just in time

about an official search, which took place minutes later. I sent

the second draft to a Church dignitary at the Vatican by means

of an American tourist and was absolutely unable to obtain any

kind of information about the fate of the parcel once it was left

with him.

This long history of subject-matter elaboration made work

on the third version even more laborious. Prior paragraphs and

former phrases from one or both of the first drafts haunt the

writer’s mind and make proper planning of the content more

difficult.

The two lost drafts were written in very convoluted lan-

guage for the benefit of specialists with the necessary back-

ground, particularly in the field of psychopathology. The irre-

trievable disappearance of the second version also meant the

28

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

loss of the overwhelming majority of statistical data and facts

which would have been so valuable and conclusive for special-

ists in the field. Several analyses of individual cases were also

lost.

The present version contains only such statistical data that

had been memorized due to frequent use, or that could be re-

constructed with satisfactory precision. I also added those data,

particularly the more accessible ones from the field of psycho-

pathology, which I considered essential in presenting this sub-

ject to readers with a good general education, and especially to

representatives of the social and political sciences and to politi-

cians. I also nurse the hope that this work may reach a wider

audience and make available some useful scientific data which

may serve as a basis for comprehension of the contemporary

world and its history. It may also make it easier for readers to

understand themselves, their neighbors, and other nations of

the world.

Who produced the knowledge and performed the work

summarized within the pages of this book? It was a joint en-

deavor consisting of not only my efforts, but also representing

the results of many researchers, some of them not known to the

author. The situational genesis of this book makes it virtually

impossible to separate the accomplishments and give proper

credit to every individual for his or her efforts.

I worked in Poland far away from active political and cul-

tural centers for many years. That is where I undertook a series

of detailed tests and observations which were to be combined

with the resulting generalizations of various other experiment-

ers in order to produce an overall introduction for an under-

standing of the macrosocial phenomenon surrounding us. The

name of the person who was expected to produce the final syn-

thesis was a secret, as was understandable and necessary given

the time and the situation. I would very occasionally receive

anonymous summaries of the results of tests made by other

researchers in Poland and Hungary; a few data were published,

as they raised no suspicions that a specialized work was being

compiled, and these data could still be located today.

The expected synthesis of this research did not occur. All of

my contacts became inoperative as a result of the wave of post-

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

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