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

condition for social order and the liberation of creative values.

It also explains why the propriety and productivity of a struc-

ture-creation process constitute a criterion for a good political

system.

Politicians should also be aware that in each society there

are people whose basic intelligence, natural psychological

world view, and moral reasoning have developed improperly.

Some of these persons contain the cause within themselves,

others were subjected to psychologically abnormal people as

children. Such individuals’ comprehension of social and moral

questions is different, both from the natural and from the objec-

tive viewpoint; they constitute a destructive factor for the de-

velopment of society’s psychological concepts, social structure,

and internal bonds.

At the same time, such people easily interpenetrate the so-

cial structure with a ramified22 network of mutual pathological

conspiracies poorly connected to the main social structure.

These people and their networks participate in the genesis of

that evil which spares no nation. This substructure gives birth

to dreams of obtaining power and imposing one’s will upon

society, and is quite often actually brought about in various

countries, and during historical times as well. It is for this rea-

son that a significant portion of our consideration shall be de-

voted to an understanding of this age-old and dangerous source

of problems.

Some countries with a non-homogeneous population mani-

fest further factors which operate destructively upon the forma-

tion of social structure and the permanent developmental proc-

22 Showing one or more branches. In mathematics, ramification is a geomet-

ric term used for “branching out”. It is also used from the opposite perspec-

tive (branches coming together). [Editor’s note.]

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

79

esses of a society’s psychological world view. Primarily among

these are the racial, ethnic, and cultural differences existing in

virtually every conquest-engendered nation. Memories of for-

mer sufferings and contempt for the vanquished continue to

divide the population for centuries. It is possible to overcome

these difficulties if understanding and goodwill prevail

throughout several generations.

Differences in religious beliefs and the moral convictions

related thereto continue to cause problems, albeit less danger-

ous than the above, unless aggravated by some doctrine of

intolerance or superiority of one faith above others. The crea-

tion of a social structure whose links are patriotic and supra-

religious has, after all, been demonstrated as possible.

All these difficulties become extremely destructive if a so-

cial or religious group, in keeping with its doctrine, demands

that its members be accorded positions which are in fact up-

ward-adjusted with relation to these people’s true talents.

A just social structure woven of individually adjusted per-

sons, i.e. creative and dynamic as a whole, can only take shape

if this process is subjected to its natural laws rather than some

conceptual doctrines. It benefits society as a whole for each

individual to be able to find his own way to self-realization

with assistance from a society which understands these laws,

individual interests and the common good.

One obstacle to the development of a society’s psychologi-

cal world view, the building of a healthy societal structure, and

the institution of proper forms for governing the nation, would

appear to be the enormous populations and vast distances of

giant countries. It is just precisely these nations which give rise

to the greatest ethnic and cultural variations. In a vast spreading

land containing hundreds of millions of people, individuals

lack the support of a familiar homeland and feel powerless to

exert an effect upon matters of high politics. The structure of

society becomes lost in wide-open spaces. What remains is

narrow, generally familial, links.

At the same time, governing such a country creates its own

unavoidable problems: giants suffer from what could be called

permanent macropathy (giant sickness), since the principal

authorities are far away from any individual or local matters.

80

SOME INDESPENSIBLE CONCEPTS

The main symptom is the proliferation of regulations required

for administration; they may appear proper in the capital but

are often meaningless in outlying districts or when applied to

individual matters. Officials are forced to follow regulations

blindly; the scope of using their human reason and differentiat-

ing real situations becomes very narrow indeed. Such behav-

ioral procedures have an impact upon the society, which also

starts to think regulations instead of practical and psychological