All language subtitles for The Theory Of Stupidity (by Dietrich Bonhoeffer).en-US

The Theory of Stupidity
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young German theologian

and pastor who lived during the Nazi period
and was considered a leading figure in the

resistance to the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned
in 1943 and executed in 1945, a few weeks

before the fall of Berlin, on charges of having
participated in a plot against Hitler.

During his imprisonment Bonhoeffer wrote a
collection of letters in which he reflected

on the fact that his country of poets and
thinkers had turned into a collective of cowards

and criminals, and came to the conclusion
that the root of the problem was not the wickedness

of people, but their stupidity.
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According to Bonhoeffer stupidity is an enemy
of good much more dangerous than wickedness

because while one can protest against evil,
can unmask it and can fight it with force

if necessary, because evil always contains
the seeds of its own destruction, there is

no defense against stupidity and madness.
Neither protests nor force are of any use

against stupidity, since it is never available
to reason.

If irrefutable facts contradict a fool's personal
prejudices, he will consider them merely accidental

and will ignore and set them aside, regarding
them as exceptions.

Thus, the fool, compared with the scoundrel,
will inevitably be satisfied and self-satisfied

with himself. The fool, according to Bonhoeffer,
can easily become dangerous, for it does not

take much to make him aggressive. The result
is that madness and stupidity require a much

more cautious handling than evil does. We
should never try to reason with the fool,

because it is useless and dangerous.
If we want to know how to get the better of

stupidity we must try to understand its nature.
Stupidity is not essentially an intellectual

defect, but a moral one. There are men with
great intellect but fundamentally stupid and

others who are intellectually limited but
far from being stupid.

The impression we get from this is that stupidity
is acquired rather than congenital; it is

acquired under certain circumstances in which
men make fools of themselves or allow others

to make fools of themselves. We further observe
that stupidity is less common in asocials

or loners than in individuals or groups who
are inclined or condemned to sociability.

From this it would seem that stupidity is
a sociological rather than a psychological

problem.
According to Bonhoeffer, every violent revolution,

whether political or religious, produces an
explosion of stupidity in a large segment

of the population.
The power of one needs the stupidity of the

other. And it is not that particular human
capacities such as intellect suddenly fail,

but it seems that under the crushing impact
of growing power man is deprived of that inner

independence and more or less consciously
gives up an autonomous position in which to

evaluate for himself, with his own brain,
the new state of things.

The fool may often be stubborn, but this should
not lead us to think that he is independent.

In conversations with a stupid individual
we often feel that it is almost impossible

to talk to the man in front of us, to talk
to him personally. Instead we are confronted

with a series of slogans, buzzwords and the
like, which have gained power over him. He

is under a curse, he is blinded, his very
humanity is being prostituted and exploited.

Once he has surrendered his will and become
a mere tool, there is no limit to the evil

the fool will go to, but all will happen while
he will be unable to see that he is doing

evil. And herein lies the danger of a diabolical
exploitation of human stupidity, which can

do irreparable damage. According to Bonhoeffer
only an act of internal redemption can free

a person from his own stupidity. Until this
happens any attempt to educate them would

be futile.
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