Theological Journal – June 4 Bonhoeffer on Stupidity

Stupidity a lá Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a keen observer of human beings and their history. His profound and acute observations about his German contemporaries who fell prey to Hitler and the Nazi phenomenon are striking in their own right. They appear downright prescient as America faces what can only be judged a cognate phenomenon under the Presidency of Donald Trump.

Bonhoeffer describes what he calls “Stupidity” in an essay “On Stupidity” in his Letters and Papers from Prison. The essay describes this kind of person, probes the nature of their “stupidity,” and observes appropriate responses to them (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison: DBW 8 (Kindle Location 1475-1504). Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition).

Description of “Stupid” People

These people are not malicious or evil. They cannot be made or convinced to forswear their stupidity. Their prejudgments are immovable overruling or dismissing contrary evidence. Stupid people are self-satisfied, easily irritated, and dangerous when provoked.

Nature of Stupidity

Theirs is not an intellectual but a human defect. In fact, these people can be quite smart. Under certain circumstances, however, people can made stupid or allow themselves to become this way.

This stupidity arises in groups, a sociological more than psychological phenomenon, usually correlated to a “strong upsurge” of either political or religious power. Though appearing stubborn these folks are not independent or even acting of their own accord. Bonhoeffer declares “one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him” and “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.”

Responding to “Stupid” People

An inner liberation, an act of God, is necessary to free them. Their wills have been captured and they are thus unwilling to obey God. No amount of information or facts will make any difference in speaking with them. Only living a “responsible” life before God and others can make any difference.

A responsible life, according to Bonhoeffer, entails vicarious representative action, accordance with reality, taking on guilt, and freedom. By these he means sacrificial serving others in accord with the reality of a world claimed, redeemed, and ruled by Christ. In accord with that reality we stand with “stupid” people confessing our own complicity in the circumstances giving rise to their plight, and acting in freedom to the command of the living Christ in the moment. This means we (the non-“Stupid” in this situation) can therefore exercise no moral superiority or distance from them and can treat them only as those also claimed, redeemed, and ruled by Christ, standing with them and owning our responsibility in their “stupidity” and loving them in whatever ways the Lord directs us.

Such stupidity knows no partisan boundaries and can be found among “progressive” people as well as more conservative folk. In fact, a case can be made that today in America we have both progressive and conservative “stupidities” facing off with few attempting to live responsibly in Bonhoefferian terms. Bonhoeffer himself found little support for responsible living among his contemporaries in Nazi Germany though there was not there the progressive “Stupid” counterforce we have here.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see that is analysis maps onto our situation with substantial overlap. Enough overlap to justify a claim that even without attempting to identify Trump with Adolf Hitler our situations are comparable through the presence of the “Stupidity” Bonhoeffer has described. If so, his thoughts on responding to this “Stupidity” are of utmost importance for us to take seriously and reflect on deeply.