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

On a personal level, our lives are steadily deteriorating. The

air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted almost be-

yond endurance. Our foods are loaded with substances which

contribute very little to nourishment and may, in fact, be injuri-

ous to our health. Stress and tension have become an accepted

part of life and can be shown to have killed more people than

the cigarettes that some people still smoke to relieve it. We

swallow endless quantities of pills to wake up, go to sleep, get

the job done, calm our nerves and make us feel good. The in-

habitants of the earth spend more money on recreational drugs

than they spend on housing, clothing, food, education or any

other product or service.

At the social level, hatred, envy, greed and strife multiply

exponentially. Crime increases faster than the population.

Combined with wars, insurrections, and political purges, multi-

plied millions of people across the globe are without adequate

food or shelter due to political actions.

And then, of course, drought, famine, plague and natural

disasters still take an annual toll in lives and suffering. This,

too, seems to be increasing.

When man contemplates history, as it is, he is forced to re-

alize that he is in the iron grip of an existence that seems to

have no real care or concern for his pain and suffering. Over

and over again, the same sufferings fall upon mankind multi-

plied millions upon millions of times over millennia. The total-

ity of human suffering is a dreadful thing. I could write until

the end of the world using oceans of ink and forests of paper

and never fully convey this Terror. The beast of arbitrary ca-

lamity has always been with us. For as long as human hearts

have pumped hot blood through their too-fragile bodies and

glowed with the inexpressible sweetness of life and yearning

for all that is good and right and loving, the sneering, stalking,

drooling and scheming beast of unconscious evil has licked its

lips in anticipation of its next feast of terror and suffering.

Since the beginning of time, this mystery of the estate of man,

this Curse of Cain has existed. And, since the Ancient of Days,

the cry has been: My punishment is greater than I can bear!

It is conjectured that, in ancient times, when man perceived

this intolerable and incomprehensible condition in which he

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EDITOR’S PREFACE

found his existence, that he created cosmogonies to justify all

the cruelties, aberrations, and tragedies of history. It is true

that, man, as a rule and in general, is powerless against cosmic

and geological catastrophes, and it has long been said that the

average man can’t really do anything about military onslaughts,

social injustice, personal and familial misfortunes, and a host of

assaults against his existence too numerous to list.

This is about to change. The book you hold in your hand is

going to give you answers to many of the questions about Evil

in our world. This book is not just about macrosocial evil, it is

also about everyday evil, because, in a very real sense, the two

are inseparable. The long term accumulation of everyday evil

always and inevitably leads to Grand Systemic Evil that de-

stroys more innocent people than any other phenomenon on

this planet.

The book you hold in your hands is also a survival guide.

As I said above, this book will be the most important book you

will ever read. Unless, of course, you are a psychopath.

“What does psychopathy have to do with personal or social

evil?” you may ask.

Absolutely everything. Whether you know it or not, each

and every day your life is touched by the effects of psychopa-

thy on our world. You are about to learn that even if there isn’t

much we can do about geological and cosmological catastro-

phe, there is a lot we can do about social and macrosocial evil,

and the very first thing to do is to learn about it. In the case of

psychopathy and its effects on our world, what you don’t know

definitely can and will hurt you.

Nowadays the word “psychopath” generally evokes images

of the barely restrained - yet surprisingly urbane - mad-dog

serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, of Silence of the Lambs fame.

I will admit that this was the image that came to my mind

whenever I heard the word; almost, that is. The big difference

was that I never thought of a psychopath as possibly being so

cultured or so capable of passing as “normal”. But I was

wrong, and I was to learn this lesson quite painfully by direct

experience. The exact details are chronicled elsewhere; what is

important is that this experience was probably one of the most

painful and instructive episodes of my life, and it enabled me to

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

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overcome a block in my awareness of the world around me and

those who inhabit it.