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

ruling class, or nation, or when opposition from normal people

is stifled -- as a result of the mass character of the phenomenon,

or by using spellbinding means and physical compulsion, in-

cluding censorship -- we are dealing with a macrosocial pone-

rologic phenomenon. In such a case, however, a society’s trag-

edy, often coupled with that of the researcher’s own suffering,

opens before him an entire volume of ponerologic knowledge,

where he can read all about the laws governing such a process

if he is only able to familiarize himself in time with its natural-

istic language and its different grammar.

Studies in the genesis of evil which are based on observing

small groups of people can indicate the details of these laws to

us. However, it might be thought that this would present a

warped picture that is dependent upon various environmental

conditions which are further dependent on the historical period

in question; this is the backdrop to the phenomena observed.

Nevertheless, such observations may enable us to hazard a

hypothesis to the effect that the general laws of ponerogenesis

may be at least analogous, regardless of the quantity and scope

of the phenomenon in time and space. They do not, however,

permit verification of such a hypothesis.

In studying a macrosocial phenomenon, we can obtain both

quantitative and qualitative data, statistical correlation indices,

and other observations as accurately as might be allowed by the

state of the art in science, research methodology, and the obvi-

ously very difficult situation of the observer.85 We can then use

the classical method, hazarding a hypothesis and then actively

searching for facts which could falsify it. The wide-spread

causative regularity of ponerogenic processes would then be

confirmed within the bounds of the above-mentioned possibili-

ties. This is, in fact, what the author and his colleagues under-

took to do. It is astonishing how neatly causative regularity of

ponerogenic processes observed in small groups govern this

macrosocial phenomenon. The comprehension of the phe-

85 Assuming that one can gather this information and survive the gathering!

[Editor’s note.]

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PONEROLOGY

nomenon thus acquired can serve as a basis for predicting its

future development, to be verified by time. It is in close and

careful observation, and only after time passes, that we become

aware that the colossus has an Achilles heel after all.

The study of macrosocial ponerogenic phenomena meets

with obvious problems: their period of genesis, duration, and

decay is several times longer than the researcher’s scientific

activity. Simultaneously, there are other transformations in

history, customs, economics, and technology; however, the

difficulties confronted in abstracting the appropriate symptoms

need not be insuperable, since our criteria are based on eternal

phenomena subject to relatively limited transformations in

time.

The traditional interpretation of these great historical dis-

eases has already taught historians to distinguish two phases.

The first is represented by a period of spiritual crisis in a soci-

ety,86 which historiography associates with exhausting of the

ideational, moral, and religious values heretofore nourishing

the society in question. Egoism among individuals and social

groups increases, and the links of moral duty and social net-

works are felt to be loosening. Trifling matters thereupon

dominate human minds to such an extent that there is no room

left for thinking about public matters or a feeling of commit-

ment to the future. An atrophy of the hierarchy of values within

the thinking of individuals and societies is an indication

thereof; it has been described both in historiographic mono-

graphs and in psychiatric papers. The country’s government is

finally paralyzed, helpless in the face of problems which could

be solved without great difficulty under other circumstances.

Let us associate such periods of crisis with the familiar phase in

social hysterization.

The next phase has been marked by bloody tragedies, revo-

lutions, wars, and the fall of empires. The deliberations of his-

86 Sorokin, Pitirim. (1941). Social and Cultural Dynamics, Volume Four:

Basic Problems, Principles and Methods, New York: American Book Com-

pany. Sorokin, Pitirim. (1957). Social and Cultural Dynamics, One Volume

Revision. Boston: Porter Sargent. Simonton, Dean Keith. (1976). “Does

Sorokin’s data support his theory?: A study of generational fluctuations in

philosophical beliefs.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 15: 187-

198.

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

175

torians or moralists regarding these occurrences always leave