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

and often do not embrace a specific, scientific meaning. [Editor’s note.]

40

INTRODUCTION

scope of precision, almost as though they foresaw that someone

– at some point in time - might use their works in order to ex-

plain what cannot be explained, not even in the best literary

language. Had these writers not been so precise and descriptive

in their language, this author would have been unable to use

their works for his own scientific purposes.

In general, most people are horrified by such literature; in

hedonistic societies particularly, people have the tendency to

escape into ignorance or naive doctrines. Some people even

feel contempt for suffering persons. The influence of such

books can thus be partially harmful; we should counteract that

influence by indicating what the authors had to leave out be-

cause our ordinary world of concepts and imaginings cannot

contain it.

The reader will therefore find herein no bloodcurdling de-

scriptions of criminal behavior or human suffering. It is not the

author’s job to present a graphic return of material adduced by

people who saw and suffered more than he did, and whose

literary talents are greater. Introducing such descriptions into

this work would run counter to its purpose: it would not only

focus attention on some occurrences to the exclusion of many

others, but would also distract the mind from the real heart of

the matter, namely, the general laws of the origin of evil.

In tracking the behavioral mechanisms of the genesis of

evil, one must keep both abhorrence and fear under control,

submit to a passion for epistemological science, and develop

the calm outlook needed in natural history. We must never lose

sight of the objective: to trace the processes of ponerogenesis;

where they can lead and what threat they can pose to us in the

future.

This book therefore aims to take the reader by the hand into

a world beyond the concepts and imaginings he has relied on to

describe his world since childhood, in an overly egotistic way,

probably because his parents, surroundings, and the community

of his country used concepts similar to his own. Thereafter, we

must show him an appropriate selection from the world of fac-

tual concepts which have given birth to recent scientific think-

ing and which will allow him an understanding of what has

remained irrational in his everyday system of concepts.


POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

41

However, this tour of another reality will not be a psycho-

logical experiment conducted upon readers’ minds for the sole

purpose of exposing the weak points and gaps in their natural

world view. Rather, it an urgent necessity due to our contempo-

rary world’s pressing problems, which we can ignore only at

our peril.

It is important to realize that we cannot possibly distinguish

the path to nuclear catastrophe from the path to creative dedica-

tion unless we step beyond this world of natural egotism and

well known concepts. Then we can come to the understanding

that the path was chosen for us by powerful forces, against

which our nostalgia for homey, familiar human concepts can be

no match. We must step beyond this world of everyday, illu-

sory thinking for our own good and for the good of our loved

ones.

The social sciences have already elaborated their own con-

ventional language which mediates between the ordinary man’s

view and a fully objective naturalistic view. It is useful to sci-

entists in terms of communication and cooperation, but it is still

not the kind of conceptual structure which can fully take into

account the biological, psychological, and pathological prem-

ises at issue in the second and fourth chapters of this book. In

the social sciences, the conventional terminology eliminates

critical standards and puts ethics on ice; in the political sci-

ences, it leads to an underrated evaluation of factors which

describe the essence of political situations when evil is at the

core.

This social science language left the author and other inves-

tigators feeling helpless and scientifically stranded early in our

research on the mysterious nature of this inhuman historical

phenomenon which engulfed our nation, and still fires his at-

tempts to reach an objective understanding of it. Ultimately, I

had no choice but to resort to objective biological, psychologi-

cal, and psychopathological terminology in order to bring into

focus the true nature of the phenomenon, the heart of matter.

The nature of the phenomena under investigation as well as

the needs of readers, particularly those unfamiliar with psycho-

pathology, dictate the descriptive manner which must first in-

troduce the data and concepts necessary for further comprehen-

42

INTRODUCTION

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Известный политолог Сергей Кургинян в своей новой книге рассматривает феномен так называемой «подковерной политики». Одновременно он разрабатывает аппарат, с помощью которого можно анализировать нетранспарентные («подковерные») политические процессы, и применяет этот аппарат к анализу текущих событий. Автор анализирует самые актуальные события новейшей российской политики. Отставки и назначения, аресты и высказывания, коммерческие проекты и политические эксцессы. При этом актуальность (кто-то скажет «сенсационность») анализируемых событий не заслоняет для него подлинный смысл происходящего. Сергей Кургинян не становится на чью-то сторону, не пытается кого-то демонизировать. Он выступает не как следователь или журналист, а как исследователь элиты. Аппарат теории элит, социология закрытых групп, миропроектная конкуренция, политическая культурология позволяют автору разобраться в происходящем, не опускаясь до «теории заговора» или «войны компроматов».

Сергей Ервандович Кургинян

Политика / Образование и наука