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

factors to continue their ponerogenic activities, both within

ourselves and others. Nothing poisons the human soul and de-

prives us of our capacity to understand reality more objectively

than this very obedience to that common human tendency to

take a moralistic view of human behavior.

Practically speaking, to say the least, each instance of be-

havior that seriously hurts some other person contains within

its psychological genesis the influence of some pathological

factors, among other things, of course. Therefore, any interpre-

tation of the causes of evil which would limit itself to moral

categories is an inappropriate perception of reality. This can

lead, generally speaking, to erroneous behavior, limiting our

capacity for counteraction of the causative factors of evil and

opening the door for lust for revenge. This frequently starts a

new fire in the ponerogenic processes. We shall therefore con-

sider a unilaterally moral interpretation of the origins of evil to

be wrong and immoral at all times. The idea of overcoming this

common human inclination and its results can be considered a

moral motive intertwined throughout ponerology.

If we analyze the reasons why some people frequently

overuse such emotionally-loaded interpretations, often indig-

nantly rejecting a more correct interpretation, we shall of

course also discover pathological factors acting within them.

Intensification of this tendency in such cases is caused by re-

pressing from the field of consciousness any self-critical con-

cepts concerning their own behavior and its internal reasons.

The influence of such people causes this tendency to intensify

in others.

~~~

Paramoralisms: The conviction that moral values exist and

that some actions violate moral rules is so common and ancient

a phenomenon that it seems to have some substratum at man’s

150

PONEROLOGY

instinctive endowment level (although it is certainly not totally

adequate for moral truth), and that it does not only represent

centuries’ of experience, culture, religion, and socialization.

Thus, any insinuation framed in moral slogans is always sug-

gestive, even if the “moral” criteria used are just an “ad hoc”

invention. Any act can thus be proved to be immoral or moral

by means of such paramoralisms utilized as active suggestion,

and people whose minds will succumb to such reasoning can

always be found.

In searching for an example of an evil act whose negative

value would not elicit doubt in any social situation, ethics

scholars frequently mention child abuse. However, psycholo-

gists often meet with paramoral affirmations of such behavior

in their practice, such as in the above-mentioned family with

the prefrontal field damage in the eldest sister. Her younger

brothers emphatically insisted that their sister’s sadistic treat-

ment of her son was due to her exceptionally high moral quali-

fications, and they believed this by auto-suggestion. Paramoral-

ism somehow cunningly evades the control of our common

sense, sometimes leading to acceptance or approval of behavior

that is openly pathological.73

Paramoralistic statements and suggestions so often accom-

pany various kinds of evil that they seem quite irreplaceable.

Unfortunately, it has become a frequent phenomenon for indi-

viduals, oppressive groups, or patho-political systems to invent

ever-new moral criteria for someone’s convenience. Such sug-

gestions often partially deprive people of their moral reasoning

and deform its development in youngsters. Paramoralism facto-

ries have been founded worldwide, and a ponerologist finds it

hard to believe that they are managed by psychologically nor-

mal people.

73 Many examples of recent years include children beaten to death by their

parents for “religious reasons”. The parents may claim that the child is demon

possessed, or that they have behaved so loosely that only beating them will

“straighten them out”. Another example is circumcision, both for boys and

girls by certain ethnic groups. The Indian custom of suttee, where the wife

climbs on the funeral pyre of her husband; or in Muslim cultures where, if a

woman is raped, it is the duty of her male family members to kill her to wipe

away the shame from the family name. All of these acts are claimed to be

“moral”, but they are not, they are pathological and criminal. [Editor’s note.]

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

151

The conversive74 features in the genesis of paramoralisms

seem to prove they are derived from mostly subconscious re-

jection (and repression from the field of consciousness) of

something completely different, which we call the voice of

conscience.

A ponerologist can nevertheless indicate many observations

supporting the opinion that various pathological factors partici-