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

eric transformation of some human union into its yet undefined

cartoon counterpart has begun and advanced sufficiently, they

perceive this fact with almost infallible sensitivity: a circle has

been created wherein they can hide their failings and psycho-

logical differentness, find their own modus vivendi, and maybe

even realize their youthful Utopian dream of a world where

they are in power and all those other, “normal people”, are

forced into servitude. They then begin infiltrating the rank and

file of such a movement; pretending to be sincere adherents

poses no difficulty for the psychopath, since it is second nature

for them to play a role and hide behind the mask of normal

people.

The psychopaths’ interest in such movements is not an ex-

clusive result of their egoism and lack of moral scruples. These

people have in fact been hurt by nature and society.93 An ideol-

93 It is important to note here that it is not meant that the psychopath has been

“emotionally” hurt, or that such “hurt” has contributed to their state of being.

Rather, as the author explained to me in private correspondence: “For them

you are their worst enemy. You are hurting them very painfully. For a psy-

chopath, revealing his real condition, tearing down his Cleckley mask, brings

the end of his self-admiration. You are threatening them with destruction of

their secret world, and bring to null their dreams of ruling and introducing [a

social system where they can rule and be served]. When his real condition is

publicly revealed, a psychopath feels like a wounded animal.

“You are partly right in finding some similarity of the essential psychopath

with the thought [processes] of a crocodile. They are somewhat mechanical.

But, are they guilty that they have inherited an abnormal gene, and that their

instinctive substratum is different from that of the majority of the human

population? Such a person is not able to feel like a normal person, or to un-

derstand a person bearing a normal instinctive endowment. [It is important]

to try to understand the psychopath, and have some pity for them [as you

would have pity for a crocodile and its right to exist in nature]. Limiting the

POLITICAL PONEROLOGY

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ogy liberating a social class or a nation from injustice may thus

seem to them to be friendly; unfortunately it also gives rise to

unrealistic hopes that they themselves will be liberated as well.

The pathological motivations which appeared in a union at the

time it begins to be affected by the ponerogenic process strikes

them as familiar and hope-inspiring. They therefore insinuate

themselves into such a movement preaching revolution and war

against that unfair world so foreign to them.

They initially perform subordinate functions in such a

movement and execute the leaders’ orders, especially whenever

something needs to be done which inspires revulsion in oth-

ers.94 Their evident zealotry and cynicism gives rise to criticism

role of psychopaths in ponerogenesis, particularly in the case of the tragedies

they cause women, thus reducing their numbers, is the real aim.

“Take as well in your consideration that in the whole pool of pathological

factors taking part in ponrogenezis all kinds of psychopathies make up some-

thing less than half. The other pathologic conditions, usually not hereditary,

make up more than other half. Stalin was not a psychopath. He was a case of

frontal characteropathy due to the damage of frontal centers (10A&B) caused

be a disease he suffered as a newborn. This produces dramaticaly dangerous

characters.” [Editor’s note.]

94 Here, we cannot help but think of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Donald

Rumsfeld, protégés of the neocon philosopher, Leo Strauss. Strauss evi-

dences typical schizoidal doctrinaire characteristics.

“Like Plato, Strauss believed that the supreme political ideal is the rule of the

wise. But the rule of the wise is unattainable in the real world. Now, accord-

ing to the conventional wisdom, Plato realised this, and settled for the rule of

law. But Strauss did not endorse this solution entirely. Nor did he think that it

was Plato's real solution - Strauss pointed to the ‘nocturnal council’ in Plato's

Laws to illustrate his point.

“The real Platonic solution as understood by Strauss is the covert rule of the

wise. This covert rule is facilitated by the overwhelming stupidity of the

gentlemen. The more gullible and unperceptive they are, the easier it is for

the wise to control and manipulate them. [...]

“For Strauss, the rule of the wise is not about classic conservative values like

order, stability, justice, or respect for authority. The rule of the wise is in-

tended as an antidote to modernity. Modernity is the age in which the vulgar

many have triumphed. It is the age in which they have come closest to having

exactly what their hearts desire - wealth, pleasure, and endless entertainment.

But in getting just what they desire, they have unwittingly been reduced to

beasts.