Insights on Stupidity and Evil

In 1943, awaiting

execution for plotting to kill Hitler,

Bonhoeffer wrote something very insightful.

He said, against stupidity, we are defenseless.

Neither protest nor force accomplishes anything.

Reason falls on deaf ears.

He observed that evil can be deconstructed through tension, through resistance,

it can break down.

But stupidity is

so dangerous because it believes that it's righteous and it cannot be corrected.

Stupidity serves power better than evil ever could.

Because malicious people, they understand what they're doing is wrong,

and this sort of internal conflict eventually destroys them.

But stupid people think they're doing good, and because of this,

they become immune to reason.

The scariest enemy isn't the one that

believes they're wrong, it's the one who's certain they're right.