“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 with it the germs 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.”

Two days after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address to the people of his country, warning them of falling prey to the “Cult of the ‘Misleader’ (verfuhrer).” His broadcast was cut short, likely by the new government. He spent years in Germany before the war, trying to prevent the Nazi’s from taking over the church – to no avail. He even tried using the church to try and connect the local German resistance against the Nazi’s to the Allies, to help bring about a swifter end of the war. Britain ignored him, and then he was thrown into prison.

It was during his imprisonment that his sympathetic guards aided in smuggling out his letters, such as the aforementioned quotation. Bonhoeffer’s notation on stupidity was not just built from his prestigious education, but from the time he spent in the United States in the 1930s witnessing the horrible treatment of the African Americans; and then later when he returned home to Germany and watched doctors, lawyers, theologians and people who had given themselves to a life-long pursuit of knowledge and study fall into repeating slogans in arguments without chasing the true root of their belief to its core.

 “This much is certain, that (stupidity) 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.” Bonhoeffer goes on to speak about how those who live in isolation and solitude are less likely to manifest stupidity, and thus “stupidity" is a social disease. And then, hitting a little close to home in the modern day, he wrote from his Nazi prison cell:

“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere…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.”

“...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.”

It was so strange to read those words from a man who was so outspoken against Hitler from the onset – back in the 1940s – to now, as just a decade ago, when I began working with children myself as a summer-camp counselor here in Nebraska. Back then, it was 2014, and though the trees and nature were a good break from civilization, an army had followed me there, which was so irreverently juxtaposed to the “free" setting that Camp was set in:

The children whom I had been hired to lead on hikes over roots and under the heavy boughs of dappled light, some as young as eight years old, wore hats that said “Obama" or "Romney.” They would chirp slogans at each other like some damn commercial, and what was worse was they sounded just like the adults whom I would have, up until that point, engaged in debate with.

It felt then like the children were just tape recorders in which they either parroted the same things that their parents had said while scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram newsfeed, or were lectured by mom or dad to say such things. But then, because the children sounded exactly the same as the adults by saying the same slogans and catchphrases to prompt, or retort against an argument, how stupid does that make the average person?

But lo, what a horrid and soul-crushing sin — to leverage the perceived wisdom and granted authority that being an adult gives a parent or a teacher, to then feed those slogans to wide-eyed and innocent children? Liberal or conservative championed the same irreverent hate for critical thinking, allowing their own children to wear hats for Obama, Romney, and later Trump and Biden, and to continue the arguments they hear at home with other children that their kids meet at summer camp. 

Bonhoeffer continued in his letter: “Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will become capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.”

I suppose the “Hitler Youth” program for the politically extreme right (which he would have witnessed first hand) or the “Communist Union of Youth" for the politically extreme left would both serve to demonstrate programming stupidity into children. For an argument’s sake, those -yes- are at the state level… but how much more efficient is it to have parents do it for the politicians and political parties?

In regard to children being afflicted by stupidity, insert “parents and teachers” as the people with "overwhelming power” in a child’s life in the following statement by Bonhoeffer:

“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.”

For adults and the current political climate in not just the United States, but all over the world, as nationalism is climbing in rampancy, it is quite clear from the above statement by Bonhoeffer, what has happened to humans around the globe. If this statement sounds to you, Dear Reader, as “like what’s happened to them over there, THAT political party," then this essay on this social condition is wasted. It is not an essay for the person who will not read, or hear, nor should it serve as a pat on anyone’s back; it should be entirely uncomfortable. 

Perhaps in the end, it is just either a dirge before the waterfall and the subsequent crash, or a call for change.

(A special thanks to the YouTube channel: “Philosophy Coded" for bringing Bonhoeffer to my attention)

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

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