logical factors alone do not – themselves - decide about the
spread of evil. Other factors have parallel importance: socio-
economic conditions, and moral and intellectual deficits.
Individuals and nations that are able to endure injustice in
the name of moral values can more easily find a way out of
such difficulties without resorting to violent means. A rich
moral tradition contains the experience and reflections of cen-
turies in this regard. This book describes the role of these addi-
tional factors in the genesis of evil, which have been insuffi-
ciently understood for centuries; such explication is essential
for completing the overall picture and permitting more effec-
tive practical measures to be formulated.
Thus, emphasizing the role of pathological factors in the
genesis of evil does not minimize the responsibility of social
moral failings and intellectual deficits in contributing to the
situation. Real moral deficits and a grossly inadequate concep-
tion of human reality and psychological and moral situations
are frequently caused by some earlier or contemporary activity
on the part of pathological factors.
However, we must also acknowledge the constant, biologi-
cally determined presence within every human society of this
small minority of individuals who are carriers of qualitatively
diverse, but ponerologically active, pathological factors. Any
discussion on what came first in the process of the genesis of
evil, moral failings or the activities of pathological factors, can
thus be considered academic speculation. On the other hand,
the Bible is worth re-reading through the eyes of a ponerolo-
gist.
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Detailed analysis of the personality of the average normal
person nearly always reveals conditions and difficulties caused
by the effects upon him of some kind of pathological factor. If
the activity was far removed in time or space, or the factor
relatively obvious, healthy common sense is generally suffi-
cient to correct such effects. If the pathological factor remains
incomprehensible, the person has difficulty understanding the
cause of his problems; he sometimes appears to remain a life-
long slave of imaginings and patterns of behavioral response
which originated under the influence of pathological individu-
als. This is what occurred in the above-mentioned family,
where the source of pathological induction was the eldest sister
with perinatal damage of the prefrontal fields of her brain cor-
tex. Even when she obviously abused her youngest child, her
brothers attempted to interpret this in a paramoralistic manner,
a sacrifice in the name of “family honor”.
Such matters should be taught to everyone in order to facili-
tate auto-pedagogical self-monitoring. Certain outstanding
psychopathologists became convinced that developing a
healthy functional view of human reality is impossible without
factoring in psychopathological findings, are correct, a conclu-
sion difficult to accept by people who believe they have at-
tained a mature world view without such burdensome studies.
The older egotistical defenders of the natural world view have
tradition, belles-lettres, even philosophy on their side. They do
not realize that during the present time, their manner of com-
prehending life’s questions renders the battle with evil more
problematic. However, the younger generation is more familiar
with biology and psychology, and is thus more amenable to an
objective understanding of the role of pathological phenomena
in the processes of the genesis of evil.
Parallax68, often even a wide gap, frequently occurs be-
tween human and social reality, which is biological by nature
and frequently influenced by the above-mentioned refusal to
factor in psychopathological elements, as well as the traditional
perceptions of reality as taught by philosophy, ethics, and secu-
lar and canon law. This gap is easily discernible to those people
68 The difference in appearance or position of an object when viewed from
two different locations. [Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
143
whose psychological world view was formed in a manner dif-
ferent from the natural way of a normal person. Many of them
consciously and subconsciously take advantage of this weak-
ness in order to force themselves into it, along with their my-
opically-determined activities characterized by egoistical con-
cepts of self-interest. Still people, whether pathologically indif-
ferent to other peoples’ or nations’ hurts, or lacking in knowl-
edge as to what is human and decent, then find an open gate to
bulldoze their different way of life through unobliging socie-
ties.
Will we ever be able to overcome this age-old problem of
humanity sometime in the yet undetermined future, with the
assistance of the biological and psychological sciences making
progress in the study of various pathological factors participat-
ing in ponerogenic processes? That will depend on the support
of the societies in question. Scientific and societal awareness of
the role played by the above-mentioned factors in the genesis
of evil will help public opinion to elaborate an appropriate
position against evil, which will then cease to be so fascinat-
ingly mysterious. If properly modified based on an understand-
ing of the nature of phenomena, the law will permit prophylac-
tic countermeasures to the origin of evil.
Over the centuries, every society has been subjected to natu-
ral eugenic processes which cause defective individuals, in-
cluding those with above-mentioned features, to drop out of
reproductive competition or reduce their birth rate. These proc-
esses are rarely seen as such, often being screened by the ac-
companying evil or some other conditions apparently relegat-
ing them to the background. Conscious comprehension of these
matters based on proper knowledge and approximate moral
criteria could render these processes less stormy in form, not so
full of bitter experience. If human consciousness and con-
science are properly formed and good advice in these matters is
heeded, the balance of these processes could be tipped mark-
edly in the positive direction. After a number of generations,
society’s burden of inherited pathological factors would be
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PONEROLOGY
reduced below a certain critical level, and their participation in
ponerogenic processes would begin to fade away. 69
Ponerogenic Phenomena and Processes
Following the real space-time network of qualitatively
complex causative links as occur in ponerogenic processes
requires the proper approach and experience. The fact that psy-
chologists daily face multiple cases of dealing with such devi-
ants or their victims means that they are becoming progres-
sively more skilled in understanding and describing the many
components of psychological causation. They are observing
feedback on closed causative structures. However, this skill
sometimes proves insufficient in overcoming our human ten-
dency to concentrate upon some facts while ignoring others,