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

“editorial deadline was already closed”. Gradually, it became

clear that the book did not pass the “insider’s” inspections.

The time for this book’s major political value is not over;

it’s scientific essence remains permanently valuable and inspi-

rational. It may serve a great purpose in coming times, when

properly adjusted and expanded. Further investigations in these

areas may yield a new understanding of human problems that

32

PREFACE

have plagued humanity for millennia. Ponerology may buttress

the centuries old moral sciencea by a modern natural approach.

Thus this work may contribute to progress toward a universal

peace.

That is the reason that I laboured to retype on my computer

the whole already fading manuscript after twenty years. No

essential changes have been introduced, and it is presented as it

was written in New York all those many years ago. So let it

remain as a document of a very dangerous work of eminent

scientists and myself, undertaken in dark and tragic times under

impossible conditions; still a piece of good science.

The author’s desire is to place this work in the hands of

those who are capable of taking this burden over and progress-

ing with the theoretical research in ponerology, enrich it with

detailed data to replace that which has been lost, and put it in

praxis for various valuable purposes it may serve – for the good

of individual people and for all nations.

I am thankful to Madame Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Profes-

sor Arkadiusz Jadczyk, and their Friends for their heartfelt

encouragement, understanding, and their labour in bringing my

old work to be published.

Andrew M. !obaczewski.

Rzeszów – Poland, December 2005

CHAPTER IV

PONEROLOGY

Ever since ancient times, philosophers and religious think-

ers representing various attitudes in different cultures have

been searching for the truth regarding moral values, attempting

to find criteria for what is right, and what constitutes good ad-

vice. They have described the virtues of human character at

length and suggested these be acquired. They have created a

heritage containing centuries of experience and reflection. In

spite of the obvious differences of originating cultures and

attitudes, even though they worked in widely divergent times

and places, the similarity, or complementary nature, of the

conclusions reached by famous ancient philosophers are strik-

ing. It demonstrates that whatever is valuable is conditioned

and caused by the laws of nature acting upon the personalities

of both individual human beings and collective societies.

It is equally thought-provoking to see how relatively little

has been said about the opposite side of the coin; the nature,

causes, and genesis of evil. These matters are usually cloaked

behind the above generalized conclusions with a certain

amount of secrecy. Such a state of affairs can be partially as-

cribed to the social conditions and historical circumstances

under which these thinkers worked; their modus operandi may

have been dictated at least in part by personal fate, inherited

traditions, or even prudishness. After all, justice and virtue are

the opposites of force and perversity; the same applies to truth-

fulness vs. mendacity, similarly like health is the opposite of an

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

97

illness. It is also possible that whatever they thought or said

about the true nature of evil was later expunged and hidden by

those very forces they sought to expose.

The character and genesis of evil thus remained hidden in

discreet shadows, leaving it to literature to deal with the subject

in highly expressive language. But, expressive though the liter-

ary language might be, it has never reached the primeval source

of the phenomena. A certain cognitive space remained as an

uninvestigated thicket of moral questions which resist under-

standing and philosophical generalizations.

Present-day philosophers developing meta-ethics are trying

to push on along the elastic space leading to an analysis of the

language of ethics, contributing bits and pieces toward elimi-

nating the imperfections and habits of natural conceptual lan-

guage. Penetrating this ever-mysterious nucleus is highly

tempting to a scientist.

At the same time, active practitioners in social life and nor-

mal people searching for their way are significantly condi-

tioned by their trust in certain authorities. Eternal temptations

such as trivializing insufficiently-proven moral values or dis-

loyally taking advantage of naive human respect for them, find

no adequate counterweight within a rational understanding of

reality.

If physicians behaved like ethicists, i.e. relegated to the

shadow of their personal experience relatively un-esthetic dis-