Is stupidity as dangerous as ignorance???...
¿Pueden las personas ignorantes ser tan peligrosas como las personas malvadas?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 - 9 April 1945) was a German Christian leader who participated in the resistance movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer, a Protestant pastor and Lutheran theologian, was arrested and imprisoned. While in prison he was accused of allegedly taking part in the plots planned by members of the Abwehr (Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler and for that reason he was finally hanged on April 9, 1945.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "On Stupidity" (full quote).
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of good than of malice. One can protest against evil; one can be exposed and, if necessary, prevented by the use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion, in the sense that it leaves people with at least a feeling of discomfort.
We are helpless against stupidity. Neither protests nor the use of force contribute anything here; the reasons fall on deaf ears; it is simply not necessary to believe in the facts that contradict one's injustice — at such moments the fool even becomes critical - and if the facts are irrefutable, they are simply set aside as if they were inconsequential, as if by chance.
With all this, the stupid person, unlike the malicious one, is completely satisfied with himself and, slightly irritated, becomes dangerous when he initiates the attack. For this reason, greater caution is required than with a malicious one. We will never try to convince the stupid with reasons again, because it is foolish and dangerous.
Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity acts as a reflection of past and present events. Every person knows how to identify evil, so he should not hesitate to act against it. However, in the face of ignorance there is defenselessness, because it does not attend to reasons and usually spreads silently.
The fool grants veracity at a given moment to the most implausible idea, the most ridiculous conspiracy and the most dangerous proclamation. It is frequently noticed on social networks.
The problem is that irrational voices get infected, go viral and spread in a society that discovers with bewilderment, how ignorance is, at a given moment, more threatening than malice itself. How is this unique phenomenon orchestrated?.
"Against stupidity-
Bonhoeffer's theory of Stupidity: Origin and Characteristics:
There are figures lost at the dawn of history that deserve to be recovered and honored. One of them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and Christian leader who joined the resistance movement against Nazism. And not only that, he rose as a prominent image in his opposition to Hitler's anti-Semitic policies.
He was locked up and charged with conspiracy, after it was discovered that he was helping Jews to flee to Switzerland. In 1945 he was taken to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he was hanged. There remains his legacy, his reflections on totalitarianism and a theory that is timeless. It is the one that reminds that ignorant people, with their passivity and poor judgment, leave the door open to doom.
"Stupidity is the most dangerous enemy of goodness," he writes in a text published in the Journal of Church and State, which collected much of his thoughts. He was a brave man who bequeathed ideas applicable at any time in history.
Stupidity has a dark side:
Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity reveals that minds without criteria, lacking logic and the capacity for self-reflection, can be more dangerous than those endowed with evil. It was during those days in the concentration camps that this Lutheran theologian delved into that dark reality that dominated in Germany and tried to describe it in his letters.
Now, by stupidity he does not mean that figure with a limited cognitive potential. Stupid is the one who does not question what he is told, who follows orders without thinking and who, lacking judgment, does not attend to other ideas.
Somehow, Bonhoeffer's ideas have a certain similarity to what the philosopher Edmund Burke said in the seventeenth century: "For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing." In the case of what happened in the Second World War and in many other major social and humanitarian crises, there is one fact that is most disturbing.
The moment stupidity acts in a group - "herd behavior" - the great threat arrives. The entrance to evil is given through the big door. In essence, in order to impose itself, evil needs herd minds ruled by ignorance as a passkey.
"The power of evil needs the stupidity of others to succeed." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer-
The problem:
We tolerate stupidity more than evil.
According to Bonhoeffer's theory, one does not tend to combat stupidity in the same way one does with evil. Their natures are very different. So much so that, usually, we smile at naive behavior, simplistic reasoning and thoughtless comment that does not even deserve to be discussed.
This phenomenon is often noticed on social networks. Stupid tweets are everywhere and we try not to give them importance; they are tolerated. Until, suddenly, a fake news story goes viral, a conspiracy theory is given impetus and ideas without scientific or logical basis spread uncontrollably. It happened during the COVID-19 plandemia and the misnamed m-RNA (Biological Weapon) vaccine.
So, what happened to self-reflection, logic, critical thinking???, what happened, that the majority of the world's population fell into this slump???,
However, even today, five years after those atrocities, there are people who continue to drive these calamities.
Also, there is another similar fact being analyzed for years in the field of organizations, it is what is known as functional stupidity. The University of Uppsala, Sweden, highlights in a paper how in many companies employees no longer question the prevailing procedures and rules. They just get carried away.
This dynamic is also a problem, because whoever becomes a passive agent without reacting or reformulating what conditions and surrounds him, gives free way to totalitarianism and coercion. Normalizing and allowing stupid behavior to flow affects everyone, because it acts as an enabler of evil.
Society's zombies and Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity:
In the social environment there are also real "zombies", that is, people dragged by slogans and banners that they do not question. And the more flashy, extreme and illogical, the better. This is often evident in movements dominated by extreme ideologies.
Suddenly, leaders emerge who give simplistic solutions to complex problems, threatening and populist characters who, in a short time, achieve a large number of followers who give them power. Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity warns us of the very same thing; of how naive minds gobble up such meaningless narratives and follow them to their feet. As souls devoid of rational brain.
"Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time unable to see that he has become evil himself." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer-
When stupidity wins over reason, we all lose:
Stupidity is a fluke, it is the greatest disease of society, because it acts as the best instrument for the evil mind to climb positions and achieve power. There is no greater danger than not reasoning or applying a critical look to the events that surround us.
Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity is gaining relevance today, because more and more ideas are assumed to be true automatically, without any self-reflection, without any critical thinking that questions them, without any logic.
In this reality dominated by scrolling and clickbait, there is barely time left to doubt what is seen and analyze what is said. It is easier to accept what comes and obey, imitate or do the same as others do. It happened with Brexit and similar phenomena during the coronavirus lockdown and with the fake m-RNA vaccines.
Alex Asharabed Trucido
+54911 5665 6060
Buenos Aires, 28 de febrero de 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment