Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
A dear reader sent in the following remarks in response to our recent musing, Old Fools, New Fools. Unable to improve upon it, we offer it in lieu of today’s regular Note. Do feel free to share it with friend and foe alike.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Idiots
It is said that debating an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. They’ll knock over the pieces, they’ll crap on the board, and they’ll fly back to their flock and claim victory.
It is funny and insightful, but according to the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it is also deeply worrying. Because for Bonhoeffer, stupidity is far more concerning than evil.
There are evil people in life. There are murderous, cheaters, and liars. But they are not the greatest threat. Because once something is known to be evil, the good of the world can rally to defend and fight against it.
When we know somebody is bad, we know how to take a stand. And so, as Bonhoeffer put it, “evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion.”
Stupidity, though, is a different problem, and we cannot so easily fight it for two reasons.
The first is that we are much more tolerant of it as a society. We do not take stupidity seriously. We do not attack somebody for not knowing a thing.
The second reason is that the stupid person is a slippery one. Like a pigeon playing chess, they are not open to either reason or debate.
And so, for Bonhoeffer, stupidity is far more dangerous because it is a weapon that evil people can often use. Because evil people find it hard to take power themselves, they will need stupid people to do their work for them.
A stupid person can be guided, steered, and manipulated to do any number of things. And history teaches us that stupidity does not mean you cannot be powerful. Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as a useful idiot.
Joel’s Note: In addition to his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was widely known as a staunch opponent of the rise of Nazi authoritarianism in his native Germany.
He was arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943 and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for a year and a half. He was then transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp, originally intended to house German “criminal” and “asocial” prisoners.
Though it is commonly believed Bonhoeffer was arrested in association with a plot to assassinate Hitler, the actual court documents show that he was arrested for his involvement in “Operation 7” – which succeeded in saving the lives of first 7 then 14 Jews.
For his alleged crimes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged on 9 April 1945, during the collapse of the Nazi regime. He was 39 years of age.
Feel free to share Bonhoeffer’s timely message, right here...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the most important thinkers, writers, and critics in WWII Germany. He has more integrity and credibility than most key people, the Vatican included. A true Saint.
Wish he were with us today.
Thanks, Joel for this article.
Wise words. The real danger is not open evil but the ideas that enough people now treat as settled wisdom and protect from scrutiny. A man can have a baby. The IRGC will negotiate in good faith. Anarchy is America’s only answer. When claims like these are treated as sophisticated rather than questioned, we are living inside the condition Bonhoeffer described.