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

defended in Mill’s system. Mill argued that free discourse was vital to ensure

progress. He argued that we could never be sure if a silenced opinion did not

hold some portion of the truth. Ingeniously, he also argued that even false

opinions have worth, in that in refuting false opinions the holders of true

opinions have their beliefs reaffirmed. Without having to defend one’s be-

liefs, Mill argued, the beliefs would become dead and we would forget why

we held them at all. [Editor’s note.]

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

59

Only now is sociology successfully dealing with the diffi-

culties which resulted, laboriously reinforcing the existing

foundations of science by the achievements of psychology, a

science which by its very nature treats the individual as the

basic object of observation. This restructuring and acceptance

of an objective psychological language will in time permit

sociology to become a scientific discipline which can mirror

the social reality with sufficient objectivity and attention to

detail in order to render it a basis for practical action. After all,

it is man who is the basic unit of society, including the entire

complexity of his human personality.

In order to understand the functioning of an organism,

medicine begins with cytology, which studies the variegated

structures and functions of cells. If we want to understand the

laws governing social life, we must similarly first understand

the individual human being, his physiological and psychologi-

cal nature, and fully accept the quality and scope of differences

(particularly psychological ones) among the individuals who

constitute two sexes, different families, associations, and social

groups, as well as the complex structure of society itself.

The doctrinaire and propaganda-based Soviet system con-

tains a characteristic built-in contradiction whose causes will

be readily understandable toward the end of this book. Man’s

descent from the animals, bereft of any extraordinary occur-

rences, is accepted there as the obvious basis for the materialis-

tic world view. At the same time, however, they suppress the

fact that man has an instinctive endowment, i.e. something in

common with the rest of the animal world. If faced with espe-

cially troublesome questions, they sometimes admit that man

contains an insignificant survival of such phylogenetic heri-

tage, however, they prevent the publication of any work study-

ing this basic phenomenon of psychology.14

14 See: “A Mess in Psychiatry”, an interview with Robert van Voren, General

Secretary of Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry, published in the Dutch newspa-

per De Volkskrant on August 9, 1997 where he says: “Since 1950 Soviet

psychiatry has not just been standing still, but has gone downhill. Absolutely

nothing has changed. The bulk of the [Russian] psychiatrists could never find

a job as a psychiatrist in the West. There, methods of treatment are customary

about which you cannot even talk anymore in the West. ” [Editor’s note.]

60

SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS

In order to understand humanity, however, we must gain a

primary understanding of mankind’s instinctive substratum and

appreciate its salient role in the life of individuals and socie-

ties. This role easily escapes our notice, since our human spe-

cies’ instinctive responses seem so self-evident and are so

much taken for granted that it arouses insufficient interest. A

psychologist, schooled in the observation of human beings,

does not fully appreciate the role of this eternal phenomenon of

nature until he has years of professional experience.

Man’s instinctive substratum has a slightly different bio-

logical structure than that of animals. Energetically speaking, it

has become less dynamic and become more plastic, thereby

giving up its job as the main dictator of behavior. It has become

more receptive to the controls of reasoning, without, however,

losing much of the rich specific contents of the human kind.

It is precisely this phylogenetically developed basis for our

experience, and its emotional dynamism, that allow individuals

to develop their feelings and social bounds, enabling us to in-

tuit other people’s psychological state and individual or social

psychological reality. It is thus possible to perceive and under-

stand human customs and moral values. From infancy, this

substratum stimulates various activities aiming at the develop-

ment of the mind’s higher functions. In other words, our in-