The Art of Ponerology

The Art of Ponerology
by Erick San Juan


The whole nation has entered the final stretch of the political race. Whether we like it or not, all of us were dragged into this race as legitimate voters who will have the final say at the polling centers. Unfortunately, the current trend that we are experiencing is gutter politics that what makes politics (or is it the politician) dirty. Mud slinging, black propaganda, lies – manufactured and sometimes true, are what we are being fed on a daily basis through different channels.

These are just samples of what kind of future leaders awaits the different government offices, from the highest to the lowest. It reminds me of a book written by a self-claimed Polish refugee in America, Andrew M. Lobaczewski, his book entitled Political Ponerology. The term ponerology which he invented means the study of the nature of political evil. The author believes that psychopaths are driven by rejection to take over governments and make whole nations and societies evil. But what are psychopaths? According to Lobaczewski, they are manipulative, mostly men, who totally lack empathy for other people. Though they have learned to appear normal, that is merely a survival tactic. They lie without conscience, have sexual relations without regard for the feelings for the feeling of their victims, they hurt others because they don’t care about them, they foment division in all human relationships, and they justify complete selfishness because they feel superior to the adjusted world. When psychopaths manage to achieve political power they can and do murder without remorse because they don’t feel the pain of humanity. And they will murder for such crimes as simply disagreeing with them.

Psychopaths also keep up their "psychopathic fiction" by being charming conversationalists. They expertly tell "unlikely but convincing" stories about themselves, easily blending truth with lies. Not only can they lie effortlessly, they are completely unfazed when caught in a lie. They simply rework their story, to the confusion of those who know the truth. They may pretend remorse, but are equally skilled at rationalizing their behavior, often portraying themselves as the victims (and blaming the real victims).

Lobaczewski claims just 6% of a typical nation is composed of psychopaths but ten times that number, or 6% have various psychological illnesses that permit them to support, even violently, the psychopath. They become the nouveau riche of the new society, while another 12% are callous or cowardly enough to create the bureaucracy. In short, it takes only 18% of the population to run an evil state.

Given these facts based on the author’s study of what he termed as political ponerolgy, we will be at the lookout for a possible candidate with that leaning to become a psychopath or might be supporting one. Although it is important to note that psychopaths also thrive in corporations that usually support candidates in the political battleground as campaign funders. I’m sure that there are psychopaths already in our midst and if we will not be careful, we might put some of them in power. Psychopaths only thrive in a society where the public has lost its ability to think. The first step is awareness of the reality of what goes on behind the scenes of political power. It would be potentially dangerous when given unlimited access to budgets and intelligence networks by virtue of the scope of influence given to these political psychopaths.

The voting public has still more time to use that ability to think analytically to choose the right one in spite of the daily dose of political ads, news and views from the political analysts and "experts". Remember that the enemy hides in plain sight. A fellow blogger, Jonty Marasigan said that lawyers and non-management experts have failed us.He made an unsolicited advice that let's try a genuine resource manager and strategist to solve the nation woes. Why not?