A Theory of the Self-Perverse: The Mechanism of Legitimized Destruction
In certain societies, people may even kill because they recognize no boundaries beyond those they themselves embody. A boundary becomes the preservation of one’s own distorted limits. At that moment, civilization ceases to function — because civilization begins with the acknowledgment of limits that transcend the individual.
Civilization rests upon:
• recognition of boundaries (law, ethics, self-restraint),
• the capacity to suppress impulses,
• the cultivation and refinement of instinct.
Yet within a self-perverse society, the perception emerges that restraining one’s own foolishness or bestiality is a denial of freedom. Bestiality is redefined as freedom. Whoever attempts to restrain it becomes an enemy — and within this logic, the “enemy” has no right to exist.
At this stage, society comes to regard as virtuous the defense of its own foolishness against those capable of transcending or denying it. It understands — instinctively — that if guided by individuals able to eliminate its baseness, it would lose something essential to its identity. Prevention is therefore perceived as annihilation.
If such a society were “controlled” — in the sense of being cultivated rather than tyrannized — by those capable of denying foolishness, it would lose the possibility of remaining foolish. For it, that loss equals death. This is not fear of losing freedom, but fear of losing the right to be “base”.
Thus:
• Boundaries are perceived as an attack — society rejects external boundaries.
• Cultivation is perceived as oppression — society perceives cultivation as a threat.
• Intelligence or morality is perceived as a threat — society confuses destructive impulses with freedom.
• The destructive drive is renamed freedom — society morally legitimizes its own “primitiveness” as “self-defense.”
This is the decisive turn: once a destructive impulse legitimizes itself by its own criteria, it no longer needs concealment. It may kill because it is “defending freedom.” It may destroy because it is “rejecting limitations.” It may eliminate opponents because it is “acting naturally.” It may even deny its violence or killing — because society, operating as a collective organism of self-preservation, absorbs and justifies the act.
Foolishness, feeble-mindedness, or bestiality becomes moralized as an instinct of survival.
This pattern is universal. It can manifest:
• in totalitarian regimes,
• in crowd psychology,
• in digital spaces,
• in cultural decadence,
• in workplaces or schools,
• in fragile societies,
• wherever individuals embodying higher values are perceived as existential threats.
It may even appear under the guise of “equality” or “anarchism” — within a society that rejects inherent law or human rights, yet seeks an “anarchy” legitimized by its own traits.
And where boundaries lose transcendence, civilization dissolves from within.