with other lands and people, or enjoy the star-studded sky of
the south, the colors of nature, and the faces and costumes of
women. He would also like to give free rein to his imagination
and immortalize his name in works of art, whether sculptured
in marble or eternalized in myth and poetry.
From time immemorial, then, man has dreamed of a life in
which the measured effort of mind and muscle would be punc-
tuated by well-deserved rest. He would like to learn nature’s
laws so as to dominate her and take advantage of her gifts. Man
enlisted the natural power of animals in order to make his
dreams come true, and when this did not meet his needs, he
turned to his own kind for this purpose, in part depriving other
humans of their humanity simply because he was more power-
ful.
Dreams of a happy and peaceful life thus gave rise to force
over others, a force which depraves the mind of its user. That is
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
85
why man’s dreams of happiness have not come true throughout
history. This hedonistic view of “happiness” contains the seeds
of misery and feed the eternal cycle whereby good times give
birth to bad times, which in turn cause the suffering and mental
effort which produce experience, good sense, moderation, and
a certain amount of psychological knowledge, all virtues which
serve to rebuild more felicitous conditions of existence.
During good times, people progressively lose sight of the
need for profound reflection, introspection, knowledge of oth-
ers, and an understanding of life’s complicated laws. Is it worth
pondering the properties of human nature and man’s flawed
personality, whether one’s own or someone else’s? Can we
understand the creative meaning of suffering we have not un-
dergone ourselves, instead of taking the easy way out and
blaming the victim? Any excess mental effort seems like point-
less labor if life’s joys appear to be available for the taking. A
clever, liberal, and merry individual is a good sport; a more
farsighted person predicting dire results becomes a wet-blanket
killjoy.
Perception of the truth about the real environment, espe-
cially an understanding of the human personality and its values,
ceases to be a virtue during the so-called “happy” times;
thoughtful doubters are decried as meddlers who cannot leave
well enough alone. This, in turn, leads to an impoverishment of
psychological knowledge, the capacity of differentiating the
properties of human nature and personality, and the ability to
mold minds creatively. The cult of power thus supplants those
mental values so essential for maintaining law and order by
peaceful means. A nation’s enrichment or involution regarding
its psychological world view could be considered an indicator
of whether its future will be good or bad.
During “good” times, the search for truth becomes uncom-
fortable because it reveals inconvenient facts. It is better to
think about easier and more pleasant things. Unconscious
elimination of data which are, or appear to be, inexpedient
gradually turns into habit, and then becomes a custom accepted
by society at large. The problem is that any thought process
based on such truncated information cannot possibly give rise
to correct conclusions; it further leads to subconscious substitu-
86
THE HYSTEROIDAL CYCLE
tion of inconvenient premises by more convenient ones,
thereby approaching the boundaries of psychopathology.
Such contented periods for one group of people - often
rooted in some injustice to other people or nations - start to
strangle the capacity for individual and societal consciousness;
subconscious factors take over a decisive role in life. Such a
society, already infected by the hysteroidal23 state, considers
any perception of uncomfortable truth to be a sign of “ill-
breeding”. J. G. Herder’s24 iceberg is drowned in a sea of falsi-
fied unconsciousness; only the tip of the iceberg is visible
above the waves of life. Catastrophe waits in the wings. In such
times, the capacity for logical and disciplined thought, born of
necessity during difficult times, begins to fade. When commu-
nities lose the capacity for psychological reason and moral
criticism, the processes of the generation of evil are intensified
at every social scale, whether individual or macrosocial, until
everything reverts to “bad” times.
We already know that every society contains a certain per-
centage of people carrying psychological deviations caused by
various inherited or acquired factors which produce anomalies
in perception, thought, and character. Many such people at-
tempt to impart meaning to their deviant lives by means of
social hyperactivity. They create their own myths and ideolo-
gies of overcompensation and have the tendency to egotisti-
cally insinuate to others that their own deviant perceptions and
the resulting goals and ideas are superior.
When a few generations’ worth of “good-time” insouciance
results in societal deficit regarding psychological skill and
moral criticism, this paves the way for pathological plotters,
23 Hysteria is a diagnostic label applied to a state of mind, one of unmanage-
able fear or emotional excesses. Here it is being used to describe “fear of
truth” or fear of thinking about unpleasant things so as to not “rock the boat”
of current contentment. [Editor’s note.]
24 Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), a theologian by training and profes-
sion, greatly influenced German letters with his literary criticism and his
philosophy of history. Along with W. Goethe and Schiller, he made Weimar
the seat of German neohumanism. His analogy of national cultures as organic
beings had an enormous impact on modern historical consciousness. Nations,
he argued, possessed not only the phases of youth, maturity, and decline but
also singular, incomparable worth. His mixture of anthropology and history
was characteristic of the age. [Editor’s note.]
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
87
snake-charmers, and even more primitive impostors to act and
merge into the processes of the origination of evil. They are
essential factors in its synthesis. In the next chapter I shall at-
tempt to persuade my readers that the participation of patho-
logical factors, so underrated by the social sciences, is a com-
mon phenomenon in the processes of the origin of evil.
Those times which many people later recall as the “good old
days” thus provide fertile soil for future tragedy because of the
progressive devolution of moral, intellectual, and personality
values which give rise to Rasputin-like eras.
The above is a sketch of the causative understanding of real-
ity which in no way contradicts a teleological25 perception of
the sense of causality. Bad times are not merely the result of
hedonistic regression to the past; they have a historical purpose
to fulfill.
Suffering, effort, and mental activity during times of immi-
nent bitterness lead to a progressive, generally heightened,
regeneration of lost values, which results in human progress.
Unfortunately, we still lack a sufficiently exhaustive philoso-
phical grasp of this interdependence of causality and teleology
regarding occurrences. It seems that prophets were more clear-
sighted, in the light of the laws of creation, than philosophers
such as E. S. Russell26, R. B. Braithwaite27, G. Sommerhoff28,
and others who pondered this question.
25 Teleology is the supposition that there is design, purpose, directive princi-
ple, or finality in the works and processes of nature, and the philosophical
study of that purpose. [Editor’s note.]
26 Russell, E.S. 1916. Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of
Animal Morphology. London: Murray. [Editor’s note.]
27 Braithwaite, R.B. (1900-1990): British philosopher best known for his
theories in the philosophy of science and in moral and religious philosophy.
Braithwaite’s work in the philosophy of the physical sciences was important
for his theories on the nature of scientific inductive reasoning and the use of
models, as well as on the use of probabilistic laws. He also applied his scien-
tific background to his studies of moral and religious philosophy, particularly
in the application of mathematical game theory. In his book Theory of Games
as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher (1955), he demonstrated the ways in
which game theory could be used to arrive at moral choices and ethical deci-
sions. His classic work was Scientific Explanation: A Study of Theory, Prob-
ability and Law in Science (1953), on the methodology of natural science.
[Editor's note.]
28 G. Sommerhoff, Analytical Biology (O.U.P., 1950). [Editor’s note.]
88
THE HYSTEROIDAL CYCLE
When bad times arrive and people are overwhelmed by an
excess of evil, they must gather all their physical and mental
strength to fight for existence and protect human reason. The
search for some way out of the difficulties and dangers rekin-
dles long-buried powers of discretion. Such people have the
initial tendency to rely on force in order to counteract the
threat; they may, for instance, become “trigger-happy” or de-
pendent upon armies.
Slowly and laboriously, however, they discover the advan-
tages conferred by mental effort; improved understanding of
the psychological situation in particular, better differentiation
of human characters and personalities, and, finally, comprehen-
sion of one’s adversaries. During such times, virtues which
former generations relegated to literary motifs regain their real
and useful substance and become prized for their value. A wise
person capable of furnishing sound advice is highly respected.
How astonishingly similar were the philosophies of Socra-
tes and Confucius, those half-legendary thinkers who, albeit
near-contemporaries, resided at opposite ends of the great con-
tinent. Both lived during evil, bloody times and adumbrated a
method for conquering evil, especially regarding perception of
the laws of life and knowledge of human nature. They searched
for criteria of moral values within human nature and considered
knowledge and understanding to be virtues. Both men, how-
ever, heard the same wordless internal Voice warning those
embarking upon important moral questions: “Socrates, do not
do this”. That is why their efforts and sacrifices constitute per-
manent assistance in the battle against evil.
Difficult and laborious times give rise to values which fi-
nally conquer evil and produce better times. The succinct and
accurate analysis of phenomena, made possible thanks to the
conquest of the expendable emotions and egotism characteriz-
ing self-satisfied people, opens the door to causative behavior,
particularly in the areas of philosophical, psychological, and
moral reflection; this tips the scale to the advantage of good-
ness. If these values were totally incorporated into human-
kind’s cultural heritage, they could sufficiently protect nations
from the next era of errors and distortions. However, the col-
lective memory is impermanent and particularly liable to re-
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
89
move a philosopher and his work from his context, namely his
time and place and the goals which he served.
Whenever an experienced person finds a moment of relative
peace after a difficult and painful effort, his mind is free to
reflect unencumbered by the expendable emotions and outdated
attitudes of the past, but aided by the cognizance of bygone
years. He thus comes closer to an objective understanding of
phenomena and a view of actual causative links, including such
links which cannot be understood within the framework of
natural language. He thus meditates upon an ever-expanding
circle of general laws while contemplating the meaning of
those former occurrences which separated the periods of his-
tory. We reach for ancient precepts because we understand
them better; they make it easier for us to understand both the
genesis and the creative meaning of unhappy times.
The cycle of happy, peaceful times favors a narrowing of
the world view and an increase in egotism; societies become
subject to progressive hysteria and to that final stage, descrip-
tively known to historians, which finally produces times of
despondency and confusion, that have lasted for millennia and
continue to do so. The recession of mind and personality which
is a feature of ostensibly happy times varies from one nation to
another; thus some countries manage to survive the results of
such crises with minor losses, whereas others lose nations and
empires. Geopolitical factors have also played a decisive role.
The psychological features of such crises doubtless bear the
stamp of the time and of the civilization in question, but one
common denominator must have been an exacerbation of soci-
ety’s hysterical condition. This deviation or, better yet, forma-
tive deficiency of character, is a perennial sickness of societies,
especially the privileged elites. The existence of exaggerated
individual cases, especially such characterized as clinical, is an
offshoot of the level of social hysteria, quite frequently corre-
lated with some additional causes such as carriers of minor
lesions of brain tissue. Quantitatively and qualitatively, these
individuals may serve to reveal and evaluate such times, as
indicated in history’s Book of San Michele 29. From the perspec-
