Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity – an explanation for today’s madness?
Dietrich Bonhoefer was a German pastor during the NS regime of 1933-45, who spoke critically against the ideology of the Nazis and especially their antisemitism from the start. In 1943, he was arrested as part of the resistance and on April 9th, 1945 executed on behalf of Hitler himself, only a few weeks before the liberation of the concentration camp he was imprisoned in by the allied forces. Bonhoefer wondered a lot about what drove normal citizens to become hateful racists without any regrets to repress, humiliate and punish people that did not any harm to them.
He concluded that their main motivation was not malice but stupidity, which he considers a much bigger threat to a humanistic society. It is noteworthy that Bonhoeffer does not describe stupidity as an intellectual deficit or a lack of cognitive capabilities, but more of a character or moral problem. From my perspective, he sees stupidity as a surrender of reflective thinking and therefore as independent from any educational degree. That means a highly educated person can nevertheless be stupid as a person with little education can be smart.
For a person to be able to act out of malice, two conditions have to be fulfilled: First, she must have a moral compass categorizing what is good and evil. Secondly, she must do something she considers evil on purpose. As a result, malice always carries the potential of self-destruction since it may cause an unpleasant feeling. A stupid person on the other hand is complacent since she lacks such a moral compass and does not even consider the possibility her way of thinking or acting might be evil.
Bonhoefer describes stupidity not as an innate but acquired attribute occurring more frequently in groups of people and therefore also as a social phenomenon. It appears to be some kind of natural law that the more centralized power grows, the more people will be infected with stupidity. Or, in other words, the stupidity of a majority is the basis of the power of a minority. The self-confidence and bossiness of a stupid person should not deceive about the fact that she is controlled. If you talk with her, it appears you do not talk with the person herself but with an empty shell consisting of phrases and dogmas. A person robbed of her reflective thinking this way and thereby transformed into a submissive puppet can conduct evil without even knowing it and therefore without any feeling of injustice or remorse.
From my perspective, Bohnhoefers theory of stupidity and the mechanisms he describes, influenced by the development in Nazi Germany, can very easily be transported into our modern time. Sure, it is not nearly as bad as back then, at least at the moment. For example, during the Covid crisis, politicians and the media as well started an outrageous propaganda campaign consisting of installing fear towards a so declared killer virus as well as hate against the unvaccinated or people otherwise critically towards Covid restrictions.
Parts of the society inhaled this propaganda without any critical thoughts and discriminated against or terrorized other people without any feeling of reasonableness, e.g. regarding wearing masks or going for vaccination. Even obviously opposing perspectives were not reflected, e.g. an almost religious belief in the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine received and at the same time, the certainty that the unvaccinated are a danger that hast to be kept far away. Another example is the growing lust for war and military escalation since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Also because of massive medial propaganda, many people are highly outraged now and hate everything that is Russian, completely neglecting their double standards of morality, since the foreign policy e.g. of the USA is at least as bloody as Russia’s. If you remind them why they are outraged in the case of Russia but not in the case of the USA, they shout the whataboutery phrase right in your face or call you an agent of the Kremlin. But what’s even worse, despite an endless and bloody history of human wars, especially two world wars, people still think military upgrades and escalation are the keys to peace. Albert Einstein once said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and we have a lot of people stupid enough to think and act exactly this way without considering the serious consequences.
But how can stupidity be cured? In that regard, the conclusion of Bonhoefer is very disillusioning. From his perspective, it should be given up to discuss with stupid people or try to persuade them, since it will not work anyway. Every argument contradicting her position, no matter how good, will be neglected or considered irrelevant. So any discussion will be a waste and may be even dangerous since a stupid person might react very aggressively when questioned or criticized. A real, internal liberation of a person from stupidity may only happen if there is a preceding external liberation. But what means external liberation? From my perspective, and here we come to the depressing part, first of all, it means learning through pain.
Like the Germans in history had to suffer through a devastating war ruining their country, maybe the covid hardliners have to suffer the consequences of their actions personally, e.g. a worsened health status, to change their perspective. And perhaps history will repeat itself and it again needs a large war to convince all the couch generals that sanctions, weapon deliveries, and ongoing military escalation are very bad ideas. It is sad but it may be inevitable. But Bonhoefers theory of stupidity may also offer a perspective in which directions the efforts of critical people and groups should go: Away from energy and resource-consuming, fruitless attempts to convince stupid and ignorant people to increase networking and cooperation with others who are already critical. To develop and provide alternatives and the respective structures, when the masses are ready for it.
By Peter Mueller
[1st edition/23, page 6]
