Тег: pathocracy

How repressive regimes and large-scale evil arise

Why does large-scale evil exist, encompassing entire societies and nations, such as dictatorships, repression, genocides, and wars? Psychiatrist Andrzej Łobachevsky, in his book “Political Penerology: The Science of the Nature of Evil Applied to Politics,” concludes that mental abnormalities play a key role in its emergence. People with such abnormalities often attempt to make sense of their pathological perception of the world. Particularly dangerous are individuals with primary psychopathy, who, due to emotional deficits, lack a conscience and experience no guilt or remorse for harming others. Under certain circumstances, the small number of psychopaths with insane ambitions can strike at the vulnerabilities of a society and plunge it into conditions leading to large-scale tragedies.

At the same time, pathological ideologies such as fascism or authoritarian communism are often developed and promoted by schizoid personalities, although readers of “schizoid declarations” frequently fail to notice this. Psychopaths, meanwhile, join social movements that adhere to such ideologies, where they can hide their deficiencies and successfully pursue their lust for power. They easily pretend to be sincere followers of the ideology, perform all the dirty and cruel work for the movement that no one else would undertake, infiltrate its leadership, and eventually seize control. Psychopaths ultimately become the generative factor of pathocracy—a system of governance in which a pathological minority seizes control over a society of normal people.

To suppress resistance, they resort to terror and propaganda, eliminating individuals who are dangerous to them and forcing everyone else to adopt pathological patterns of thinking. Such patterns are especially readily accepted by approximately 6% of the population, who possess the least resistance to the influence of psychopaths. They become active supporters of the pathocracy and accomplices in its atrocities. War is also one of the tools for strengthening pathocracy, helping to redirect the population’s attention from important issues toward imperialistic ambitions and dividing them into parts loyal and disloyal to the regime. Furthermore, there is no avoiding the control of science, which is directed to serve the interests of the pathocracy.

Lobachevsky believes that the only means against evil is the knowledge of its existence and its true nature. Based on this knowledge, evil must be fought just like any other pathology—using medical and therapeutic methods, including mandatory therapy for primary psychopaths. At the same time, it is very important to mitigate punishments and forgive individuals who have committed evil. Before the public, they must be presented as suffering from an illness rather than as being guilty, because a punitive and vengeful approach does not allow people to understand the true nature of their behavior, and thus deprives them of the opportunity to effectively prevent such behavior in the future. By striving for retribution rather than cure, we will leave future generations with exactly the same problems we have now, including the problem of pathocracy.

Voluntarist, Bitarch

Who strives for political power and how to solve the problem of pathocracies

Voluntarist, Bitarch

Regarding the question of who typically holds political power, there is a vast difference between a healthy average individual, who feels aversion to harming others, empathy, and other social feelings, and a minority of “degenerates” who do not care about the well-being of others and are ready to realize their ambitions even at the cost of numerous victims. Obviously, individuals belonging to the first category simply do not strive for political power, preferring to build social connections based on voluntary agreements. And this clearly demonstrates the very essence of the institution of statehood, proving once again that states are simply stationary bandits.

I think everyone agrees that power is very often held by psychopathic personalities. This state of affairs could be explained by their high manipulative abilities. But that is not the only essence—in the struggle for power, such individuals simply face no serious competition. Healthy people do not need power supported by coercive force, nor are they likely to be able to utilize it to its full extent, even if they occupy a high political post. At the same time, a psychopath craves power and is always capable of using all its tools, including those for destroying potential competitors. Furthermore, upon taking power, they attract other similar personalities who also crave a high position. And fair and empathetic people are left with nothing but to step aside, otherwise state repression may be applied to them.

We can discuss for a long time the problems that the abuse of power leads to. But it would be better to see that such abuse is simply unavoidable. For the reasons already mentioned, a psychopath, or at least an individual who, while not completely ill, is nonetheless more insensitive, will always have an advantage in obtaining political power. Any “monopoly on violence” over time becomes a pathocracy—a regime where power belongs to people with mental disorders. And here it would be appropriate to ask the etatists—do you really want to live in a social system that will, at some point, guaranteedly hand your life over to the disposal of mentally ill individuals?

People studying the problem of pathocracies usually propose mandatory psychological evaluation for all potential candidates for political posts as a solution. Of course, if we analyze such an approach in more detail, we will realize that it is unlikely to avoid the problem of corruption. But if it worked, we would quickly obtain a government that is at least incapable of effectively resorting to repressive and violent tools. And this would make it easier to achieve a free, non-violent society.

Therefore, it is still important to develop methods of social pressure that would not allow psychopaths to achieve any success. Any individual who demonstrates signs of psychopathy, and even more so one who has committed violence in the past, should be subject to serious ostracism (especially in the sphere of electoral rights) and pushed toward therapeutic procedures aimed at treating their mental disorder. After all, to guaranteedly dismantle “monopolies on violence” and “stationary bandits,” we must first make the emergence of pathocracies absolutely impossible, i.e., solve the problem of the presence of violent psychopathic individuals in society. If there are none, no one will need any political power.