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

offers aid to anyone who finds himself in trouble, often in such

a way that the person helped does not even know who rendered

the assistance. However, if he caused his misfortune by his

own lack of circumspection with regard to the authorities, he

meets with reproach, but never the withholding of assistance.

It is possible to create such links because this new division

of society gives only limited consideration to factors such as

the level of talent, education or traditions attached to the former

social layers. Neither do reduced prosperity differences dis-

solve these links. One side of this division contains those of the

highest mental culture, simple ordinary people, intellectuals,

headwork specialists, factory workers, and peasants joined by

the common protest of their human nature against the domina-

tion of para-human experiential and governmental methods.

These links engender interpersonal understanding and fellow-

feeling among people and social groups formerly divided by

economic differences and social traditions. The thought proc-

esses serving these links are of a more psychological character,

able to comprehend someone else’s motivations. At the same

time, the ordinary folk retain respect for people who have been

educated and represent intellectual values. Certain social and

moral values also appear and may prove to be permanent.

The genesis, however, of this great interpersonal solidarity

only becomes comprehensible when we know the nature of the

pathological macrosocial phenomenon which brought about the

248

NORMAL PEOPLE UNDER PATHOCRATIC RULE

liberation of such attitudes, complete with recognition of one’s

own humanity and that of others. Another reflection suggests

itself, namely how very different these great links are from

America’s “competitive society”, for whom the former – eco-

nomic and social differences - represent something which is

operational even though it crosses the boundaries of the imagi-

nation.

One would think that a nation’s cultural and intellectual life

would quickly degenerate when subjected to the country’s iso-

lation from the cultural and scientific links with other nations,

pathocratic limitations upon the development of one’s thought,

a censorship system, the mental level of the executives, and all

those other attributes of such rule. Reality nevertheless does

not validate such pessimistic predictions.

The necessity for constant mental effort so crucial for find-

ing some tolerable way of life, not totally bereft of moral sense

within such a deviant reality, causes the development of realis-

tic perception, especially in the area of socio-psychological

phenomena. Protecting one’s mind from the effects of paralo-

gistic propaganda, as well as one’s personality from the influ-

ence of paramoralisms and the other techniques already de-

scribed, sharpens controlled thinking processes and the ability

to discern these phenomena. Such training is also a special kind

of common man’s university.

During such times, society reaches for historical sources in

searching for the ancient causes of its misfortunes and for ways

to improve its fate in the future. Scientific and societal minds

laboriously review the national history in quest of interpreta-

tions of the facts which would be more profound from the point

of view of psychological and moral realism. We soberly dis-

cern what happened years and centuries ago, perceiving the

errors of former generations and the results of intolerance or

emotionally weighted decision-making. Such a great review of

individual, social, and historical world views in this search for

meaning of life and history is a product of unhappy times and

will help along the way back to happy ones.

Another object of consideration became: moral problems

applicable in individual life as well as in history and politics.

The mind starts reaching ever deeper in this area, achieving

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

249

ever more subtle understanding of the matter, because it is

precisely in this world that the old oversimplifications proved

to be unsatisfactory. An understanding of other people, includ-

ing those who commit errors and crimes, appears in a problem-

solving way which was formerly underrated. Forgiveness is

only one step beyond understanding. As Mme. de Stael wrote:

“Tout comprendere, c’est tout pardoner”109.

A society’s religion is affected by analogous transforma-

tions. The proportion of the people maintaining religious be-

liefs is not significantly affected, particularly in countries

wherein the pathocracy was imposed; it does, however, un-

dergo a modification of the contents and quality of such beliefs

in such a way that religion in time becomes more attractive to