A Christmas Message from Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The defiant anti-Nazi pastor's letter reminds us that it's better to be coalition deficient than surrounded by idiots
“Only a fool fears change.” —Marcus Aurelius
“Only dead fish go with the flow.” —Sarah Palin
I have been writing and thinking a lot today about how lonely this Christmas is for those of us who quite unexpectedly find themselves outside looking in: unlikely dissidents in our own country and even within our own friend groups and families. I know I am not the only one who feels like meaningful conversation with people who were once close friends seems all but impossible at this point. No one can be convinced of anything, it seems, so why bother? I am past the point of wanting to debate specifics, or argue about “misinformation,” or fire preprints back and forth. I’ve been doing that for two years. I shouldn’t have to defend myself, because I am not the one making a potentially catastrophic set of moral errors. Because this isn’t about Covid. At least, not anymore. It’s about basic human rights. It’s about the essence of your value system. I want to see evidence of your fundamental humanity, your curiosity, your sensitivity to and wariness of evil.
As we discussed on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, the idea of “mass psychosis” has been making the rounds and has resonated with many of us who are trying to make sense of our place in the new world. This new world of incredible intrusion and coercion of our bodies and our social lives by the state, flanked by relentless, mind-numbing propaganda and enthusiastically supported by an astonishingly incurious populace. It demands explanation and understanding. But the framework of mass psychosis is, I think, more accurately replaced by a much more parsimonious concept: in times of great change, each individual will assess which way the wind is predominantly blowing, and most will adjust their sails to it favorably. This process can make people, in Doug’s helpful phrase, “effectively stupid.” Long standing, admirable faculties of rational analysis and intellectual honesty fall away as individual actors adjust their position to better suit their new normal.
I’ve been ruminating on this all day, walking a fine line between disgust and despair, and just rather serendipitously came across the following letter, which I am compelled to share far and wide. This remarkable letter was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and vocal Nazi critic. He penned it in 1943 as a contribution to a plot to assassinate Hitler, an act that secured his arrest and eventual execution in the spring of 1945.
Perhaps not the most uplifting holiday message. But such are these times in which we live. It is truth, and as Thoreau put it—any truth is better than make-believe.
Merry Christmas.
……..
“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 within itself the germ 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; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
“If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it 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. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It 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. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. 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. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. 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. 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. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.
“Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear 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. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity.
“But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8)
Jen Howk should just spend all day writing. And then a billion people should read whatever she writes. The world would then be a much better place.
Thanks for publishing, Jen. When I first went vegan and was naively trying to change everyone around me, I finally realized that if you’re one person, standing in the center of 99 other people who believe the opposite, you’re likely to have your head bashed in. And I’m anti-martyrdom. No more proselytizing to anyone about any thing. Hoping the young, brilliant warriors (like you!) will right this ship…eventually.