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

question, understanding this “doubletalk” requires simultane-

ous fluency in both languages.

Average people succumb to the first layer’s suggestive in-

sinuations for a long time before they learn to understand the

second one as well. Anyone with certain psychological devia-

tions, especially if he is wearing the mask of normality with

which we are already familiar, immediately perceives the sec-

ond layer to be attractive and significant; after all, it was built

by people like him. Comprehending this doubletalk is therefore

a vexatious task, provoking quite understandable psychological

resistance; this very duality of language, however, is a pathog-

nomonic80 symptom indicating that the human union in ques-

tion is touched by the ponerogenic process to an advanced de-

gree.

The ideology of unions affected by such degeneration has

certain constant factors regardless of their quality, quantity, or

scope of action: namely, the motivations of a wronged group,

radical righting of the wrong, and the higher values of the in-

dividuals who have joined the organization. These motivations

facilitate sublimation of the feeling of being wronged and dif-

ferent, caused by one’s own psychological failings, and appear

to liberate the individual from the need to abide by uncomfort-

able moral principles.

In the world full of real injustice and human humiliation,

making it conducive to the formation of an ideology containing

the above elements, a union of its converts may easily succumb

to degradation. When this happens, those people with a ten-

80 Specific characteristics of a disease. [Editor’s note.]

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PONEROLOGY

dency to accept the better version of the ideology will tend to

justify such ideological duality.

The ideology of the proletariat,81 which aimed at revolu-

tionary restructuring of the world, was already contaminated by

a schizoid deficit in the understanding of, and trust for, human

nature; small wonder, then, that it easily succumbed to a proc-

ess of typical degeneration in order to nourish and disguise a

macrosocial phenomenon whose basic essence is completely

different.82

For future reference, let us remember: ideologies do not

need spellbinders. Spellbinders need ideologies in order to

subject them to their own deviant goals.

On the other hand, the fact that some ideology degenerated

along with its corollary social movement, later succumbing to

81 From the Communist Manifesto: “By proletariat [is meant] the class of

modern wage laborers, who, having no means of production of their own, are

reduced to selling their labor-power in order to live.” [Editor’s note.]

82 Fascism seems to be the diametric opposite of Communism and Marxism,

both in a philosophic and political sense, and also opposed democratic capi-

talist economics along with socialism and liberal democracy. It viewed the

state as an organic entity in a positive light rather than as an institution de-

signed to protect collective and individual rights, or as one that should be

held in check. Fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose state

control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic which

accurately describes what was passed off under the name of Communism.

The fascist state regulates and controls (as opposed to nationalizing) the

means of production. Fascism exalts the nation, state, or race as superior to

the individuals, institutions, or groups composing it. Fascism uses explicit

populist rhetoric; calls for a heroic mass effort to restore past greatness; and

demands loyalty to a single leader, often to the point of a cult of personality.

Again, we see that Fascism was passed off as Communism. So, what actually

seems to have happened is that the original ideals of the proletariat were

cleverly subsumed to State corporatism. Most people in the west are not

aware of this because of the Western propaganda against Communism. The

word “Fascist” has become a slur throughout the world since the stunning

failure of the Axis powers in World War II. In contemporary political dis-

course, adherents of some political ideologies tend to associate fascism with

their enemies, or define it as the opposite of their own views. There are no

major self-described fascist parties or organizations anywhere in the world.

However, at the present time, in the U.S., the system is far more fascist than

democratic, which probably explains the existence of the years of anti-

Communist propaganda. That would demonstrate an early process of poneri-

zation of Western democracy which, at present, has almost completed the

transformation to full-blown fascism. [Editor’s note.]

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

167

this schizophrenia and serving goals which the originators of