This is such an amazing and insightful passage that I want to quote it at length here. I think I would use a term other than stupidity to talk about it. Another term might be more descriptive - like maybe, Mass Formation Psychosis.
Emphasis in bold is mine.
‘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 live 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 people’s 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.
This is tremendously insightful. Charlie, I stumble through previous blogs of yours when I'm feeling open from time to time, and this is one of those times. I've been asking myself the question, and also asking others: "Why are so many of my well-educated friends in such a trance (I owe that language to you) when it comes to propaganda related to covid, the infringement of civil liberties, critical theories, all the manipulative con games that have been rolled out. And also, why are certain friends that I have who are not all that intellectual so spot-on when it comes to these issues, or some of these issues?" I think this blog, sharing Bonhoffer's insights, does provide a key -- that it's a question of trusting one's individual intelligence, inquisitiveness, and openness to evidence rather than being manipulated by propaganda that plays on fear of death, virtue-signalling (including virtue-signalling to oneself, propping up a weak ego by telling oneself over and over "what a good boy am I"). Some people are not intellectual, but their intuitive intelligence and bravery and individual strength that doesn't need to be propped up by consensus opinions points them in the right direction.
The Buddhist psychological understanding is very similar to what you share here. Stupidity is actually very intelligent. It keeps subtle, constant, conscious but mostly unconscious effort to keep these kind of blinders on, alert to any possible fresh air that might question the prevailing narrative fueled by fear and fueled by propping up a poor self-image. Truly, a point you have made elsewhere, the more harm that is propagated by such views, which I believe perpetrators must experience at some subliminal level, the more there is a need to double down on the stupidity-blinders and repressive, aggressive behavior. It's heartbreaking, a cause for tears.
I do appreciate that quote of Bonhoffer's which you put in boldface: "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." Yeah, it's a fantasy to believe that one could purely just think one's way out of stupidity, when the thinking-process itself has been co-opted by fear and egoism. It is the bravery, gentleness, and love of the teachings, which Bonhoffer's Christianity connects to "fear of God", that brings "the internal liberation of human beings." Identifying religious devotion with that kind of individuation, a personal moral compass, is a true way of looking at the spiritual life, but which most religious people get backwards. I think such getting it backwards is a real possibility for practitioners of all spiritual traditions, and atheists as well, so long as they are driven by fear, insecurity, and the blinders that support these.
I'm also reminded of your blog(s) about "meek", humility, and the kind of intelligence and power and possibility of individual liberation related to that. I don't remember if you went there, but it's not a stretch to make that connection. It's a teaching that, I believe, most people from any tradition could benefit from.
And, I'm reminded of Freud's "Mob Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego", but don't know how that work would stand up now. I haven't looked at it for years, and am too lazy to go back there. (:
I think it comes to mind because, human beings being what they are, it's always possible, out of fear, insecurity, and hunger for power, to twist any religious tradition, any authentic teaching, into the opposite of what was originally transmitted and intended. It's so easy to get such things wrong. I've been fooled more than I care to admit, along my way, by any number of circumstances, always based on fear and anxiety over self-preservation, any number of things that propped up what I thought was "self." Even though I had an authentic teacher, I had to make a lot of mistakes, basically ignoring what I was presented with in favor of going along with my crowd, my elder-siblings in spirituality, before I developed a better shit protector.
Thanks for posting this, Charlie. It's a penetrating analysis by a courageous, self-sacrificing German pastor and theologian who dedicated his life to fighting the Nazis. They killed him cruelly on April 9. 1945 as the regime was crumbling.