Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, Lutheran priest and involved in the resistance against Hitler, which landed him in prison (April 1943) and eventually on the gallows (April 1945, just weeks before Hitler's suicide).
Shortly before his imprisonment, he had written a letter to friends and co-conspirators, in which he mused about the nature of Stupidity, seeing that so many people in Germany, the "Land of Poets and Thinkers". had so obviously become stupid, following, allowing, even encouraging the nazi propaganda and war machine:
http://southsidemessenger.com/bonhoe...-entire-quote/
(If you prefer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc )
The key take-away is the observation that stupidity is not the result of a lack of intellectual capacity, but of sociological circumstances affecting one's psychology (bolding mine):
And:
He goes on to conclude...
The other day, a slightly different choice of quotes from this letter was sent to me via WhatsApp by a good friend, herself a Lutheran theologian (a PhD even) and priest, in the context of commenting on the current Covid situation. It reminded me immediately of my dealings with Conspiracy Theorists, and my spontaneous response was:
What I was thinking was that the typical CTist imagines a huge, omnipotent meta-conspiracy - a global government, or a secret group with the super-power to influence many or all governments, regardless of ideology and system. Or more precisely, that some CT leaders imagine this, and their followers by it and all the slogans and memes.
Of course this goes quite the opposite direction from what Bonhoeffer wrote:
According to Bonhoeffer, the stupid people join, follow and support the faction that's exerting actual and overwhelming power.
CTists however pretend they resist that overwhelming power.
Their imagination of course does not stop at imagining the Vast Omnipotent Conspiracy (VOT) - no, they furthermore imagine that their "Truth" will "set them free" and give them the ultimate power in the end - when they bring down the VOT, when there will be lots of executions of traitors.
So while Bonhoeffer realized that the Stupid must first be liberated, the Stupid are easily led to believe that they are already free. In fact, from their vantage point, they could just as easily quote Bonhoeffer and apply his ideas to us debunkers: We must be the ones who collaborate with the VOC, take its money and shill for it, or believe in magic bullets and resistance-free skyscrapers just so, just because "Teh gubernmint" tells us to.
It's certainly true: Many people give up their intellectual independence and responsibility in the face of actual overwhelming power.
But just as easily, people give up their intellectual independence and responsibility in the face of merely imagined overwhelming power.
The latter has, for the stupid, an advantage the former do not enjoy: The stupid can resist the merely imagined power at little cost, for they face no actual oppression!
In both cases, Stupidity is a method to cope with feeling powerless in the face of an unassailable power wielder. The benefit to the individual is to relieve the negative feeling by joining the side that will end up "winning":
The open question is now: Why does the CTist feel so powerless, when there is no actual evil force in power?
What act of liberation could disabuse the CTist from the notion that they lack power?
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[1] "under the overwhelming impact of rising power" - the German original is "unter dem überwältigenden Eindruck der Machtentfaltung", which I would translate differently: "Entfaltung" of power is not so much it's "rise" (which implies it increases from zero or low level) and more it's "manifestation". Also, "Eindruck" is not so much "impact" (objective effect) as it is the psychological "impression".
Shortly before his imprisonment, he had written a letter to friends and co-conspirators, in which he mused about the nature of Stupidity, seeing that so many people in Germany, the "Land of Poets and Thinkers". had so obviously become stupid, following, allowing, even encouraging the nazi propaganda and war machine:
http://southsidemessenger.com/bonhoe...-entire-quote/
(If you prefer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc )
The key take-away is the observation that stupidity is not the result of a lack of intellectual capacity, but of sociological circumstances affecting one's psychology (bolding mine):
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[Stupidity] 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.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power[1], 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.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
...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.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by me
Hmmm! Viel Wahres dran! Mir scheint, dass es zum mit Dummheit geschlagen werden ausreicht, wenn man sich die überwältigende Machtentfaltung nur einbildet. Dann ist man aber vermutlich vorher schon dumm! Oder ist für Dummheit empfänglich
[Hmmm! Lot's of Truth to it! It seems to me , that, to be afflicted with stupidity, it suffices if one merely imagines the overwhelming manifestation of power [1]. But presumably one would have been stupid already before. Or is is susceptible to stupidity.] |
Of course this goes quite the opposite direction from what Bonhoeffer wrote:
According to Bonhoeffer, the stupid people join, follow and support the faction that's exerting actual and overwhelming power.
CTists however pretend they resist that overwhelming power.
Their imagination of course does not stop at imagining the Vast Omnipotent Conspiracy (VOT) - no, they furthermore imagine that their "Truth" will "set them free" and give them the ultimate power in the end - when they bring down the VOT, when there will be lots of executions of traitors.
So while Bonhoeffer realized that the Stupid must first be liberated, the Stupid are easily led to believe that they are already free. In fact, from their vantage point, they could just as easily quote Bonhoeffer and apply his ideas to us debunkers: We must be the ones who collaborate with the VOC, take its money and shill for it, or believe in magic bullets and resistance-free skyscrapers just so, just because "Teh gubernmint" tells us to.
It's certainly true: Many people give up their intellectual independence and responsibility in the face of actual overwhelming power.
But just as easily, people give up their intellectual independence and responsibility in the face of merely imagined overwhelming power.
The latter has, for the stupid, an advantage the former do not enjoy: The stupid can resist the merely imagined power at little cost, for they face no actual oppression!
In both cases, Stupidity is a method to cope with feeling powerless in the face of an unassailable power wielder. The benefit to the individual is to relieve the negative feeling by joining the side that will end up "winning":
- The collaborator of an actual, evil power stupidly accepts that the evil power is not actually evil but good
- The person who merely imagines the evil power can pretend to have a clear path to eventually bringing down that imaginary power before themselves getting brought down
The open question is now: Why does the CTist feel so powerless, when there is no actual evil force in power?
What act of liberation could disabuse the CTist from the notion that they lack power?
---
[1] "under the overwhelming impact of rising power" - the German original is "unter dem überwältigenden Eindruck der Machtentfaltung", which I would translate differently: "Entfaltung" of power is not so much it's "rise" (which implies it increases from zero or low level) and more it's "manifestation". Also, "Eindruck" is not so much "impact" (objective effect) as it is the psychological "impression".
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3l1mu4b
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