Stupidity and evil in the times of Trump
Bonhoeffer on stupidity (entire quote)
Taken from a circular letter, addressing many topics, written to
three friends and co-workers in the conspiracy against Hitler, on the
tenth anniversary of Hitler’s accession to the chancellorship of
Germany.
‘Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may
protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by
use of force.
Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own
subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of
unease.
Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the
use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts
that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such
moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are
irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as
incidental.
In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious
one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes
dangerous by going on the attack.
For that reason, greater caution is
called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to
persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and
dangerous.
‘If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek
to understand its nature.
This much is certain, that it is in essence
not an intellectual defect but a human one.
There are human beings who
are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are
intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to
our surprise in particular situations.
The impression one gains is not
so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain
circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this
to happen to them.
We note further that people who have isolated
themselves from others or who lives in solitude manifest this defect
less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or
condemned to sociability.
And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps
less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular
form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a
psychological concomitant of certain external conditions.
Upon closer
observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in
the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature,
infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.
It would even seem
that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of
the one needs the stupidity of the other.
The
process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for
instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail.
Instead, it seems
that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived
of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up
establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.
The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to
the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one
virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with
slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He
is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.
Having
thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of
any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This
is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can
once and for all destroy human beings.
‘Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of
liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come
to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation
becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until
then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person.
This
state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know
what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these
circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is
thinking and acting responsibly.
The word of the Bible that the fear of
God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of
human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine
way to overcome stupidity.
‘But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that
they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid
in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power
expect more from peoples’ stupidity. than from their inner independence
and wisdom.’
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010.
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