to nothing in an instant by events over which he has no control
at all.
The study of history through its various disciplines offers a
view of mankind that is almost insupportable. The rapacious
movements of hungry tribes, invading and conquering and
destroying in the darkness of prehistory; the barbarian invaders
of the civilized world during medieval times, the bloodbaths of
the crusades of Catholic Europe against the infidels of the
Middle East and then the “infidels” who were their own broth-
ers: the stalking noonday terror of the Inquisition where mar-
tyrs quenched the flames with their blood. Then, there is the
raging holocaust of modern genocide; wars, famine, and pesti-
lence striding across the globe in hundred league boots; and
never more frightening than today.
All of these things produce an intolerable sense of indefen-
sibility against what Mircea Eliade calls the Terror of History.
There are those who will say that now this is all past; man-
kind has entered a new phase; science and technology have
brought us to the brink of ending all this suffering. Many peo-
ple believe that man is evolving; society is evolving; and that
we now have control over the arbitrary evil of our environ-
ment; or at least we will have it after George Bush and his
Neocons have about 25 years to fight the Endless War against
Terror. Anything that does not support this idea is reinterpreted
or ignored.
Science has given us many wonderful gifts: the space pro-
gram, laser, television, penicillin, sulfa-drugs, and a host of
other useful developments which should make our lives more
tolerable and fruitful. However, we can easily see that this is
not the case. It it could be said that never before has man been
so precariously poised on the brink of such total destruction.
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
9
On a personal level, our lives are steadily deteriorating. The
air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted almost be-
yond endurance. Our foods are loaded with substances which
contribute very little to nourishment and may, in fact, be injuri-
ous to our health. Stress and tension have become an accepted
part of life and can be shown to have killed more people than
the cigarettes that some people still smoke to relieve it. We
swallow endless quantities of pills to wake up, go to sleep, get
the job done, calm our nerves and make us feel good. The in-
habitants of the earth spend more money on recreational drugs
than they spend on housing, clothing, food, education or any
other product or service.
At the social level, hatred, envy, greed and strife multiply
exponentially. Crime increases faster than the population.
Combined with wars, insurrections, and political purges, multi-
plied millions of people across the globe are without adequate
food or shelter due to political actions.
And then, of course, drought, famine, plague and natural
disasters still take an annual toll in lives and suffering. This,
too, seems to be increasing.
When man contemplates history, as it is, he is forced to re-
alize that he is in the iron grip of an existence that seems to
have no real care or concern for his pain and suffering. Over
and over again, the same sufferings fall upon mankind multi-
plied millions upon millions of times over millennia. The total-
ity of human suffering is a dreadful thing. I could write until
the end of the world using oceans of ink and forests of paper
and never fully convey this Terror. The beast of arbitrary ca-
lamity has always been with us. For as long as human hearts
have pumped hot blood through their too-fragile bodies and
glowed with the inexpressible sweetness of life and yearning
for all that is good and right and loving, the sneering, stalking,
drooling and scheming beast of unconscious evil has licked its
lips in anticipation of its next feast of terror and suffering.
Since the beginning of time, this mystery of the estate of man,
this Curse of Cain has existed. And, since the Ancient of Days,
the cry has been: My punishment is greater than I can bear!
It is conjectured that, in ancient times, when man perceived
this intolerable and incomprehensible condition in which he
10
EDITOR’S PREFACE
found his existence, that he created cosmogonies to justify all
the cruelties, aberrations, and tragedies of history. It is true
that, man, as a rule and in general, is powerless against cosmic
and geological catastrophes, and it has long been said that the
average man can’t really do anything about military onslaughts,
social injustice, personal and familial misfortunes, and a host of
assaults against his existence too numerous to list.
This is about to change. The book you hold in your hand is
going to give you answers to many of the questions about Evil
in our world. This book is not just about macrosocial evil, it is
also about everyday evil, because, in a very real sense, the two
are inseparable. The long term accumulation of everyday evil
always and inevitably leads to Grand Systemic Evil that de-
stroys more innocent people than any other phenomenon on
this planet.
The book you hold in your hands is also a survival guide.
As I said above, this book will be the most important book you
will ever read. Unless, of course, you are a psychopath.
“What does psychopathy have to do with personal or social
evil?” you may ask.
Absolutely everything. Whether you know it or not, each
and every day your life is touched by the effects of psychopa-
thy on our world. You are about to learn that even if there isn’t
much we can do about geological and cosmological catastro-
phe, there is a lot we can do about social and macrosocial evil,
and the very first thing to do is to learn about it. In the case of
psychopathy and its effects on our world, what you don’t know
definitely can and will hurt you.
Nowadays the word “psychopath” generally evokes images
of the barely restrained - yet surprisingly urbane - mad-dog
serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, of Silence of the Lambs fame.
I will admit that this was the image that came to my mind
whenever I heard the word; almost, that is. The big difference
was that I never thought of a psychopath as possibly being so
cultured or so capable of passing as “normal”. But I was
wrong, and I was to learn this lesson quite painfully by direct
experience. The exact details are chronicled elsewhere; what is
important is that this experience was probably one of the most
painful and instructive episodes of my life, and it enabled me to
POLITICAL PONEROLOGY
11
overcome a block in my awareness of the world around me and
those who inhabit it.
Regarding blocks to awareness, I need to state for the record
that I have spent 30 years studying psychology, history, cul-
ture, religion, myth and the so-called paranormal1. I also have
worked for many years with hypnotherapy - which gave me a
very good mechanical knowledge of how the mind/brain of the
human being operates at very deep levels. But even so, I was