2021/11/16

Adrian Glamorgan stupidity is not a deficiency of intellect, but of morality.

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According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theory, stupidity is not a deficiency of intellect, but of morality. It has been taboo and would be arrogant to call anyone stupid, and perhaps there is a better term for it. But in practice stupidity has led to all sorts of wrongs wrought on us all. It can be found in the wilfully ignorant person's hard refusal to deal with hard facts, but to instead hold bizarre or inconsistent beliefs and keep them unaccountable to reason. This stupidity has led to great evils in our time - child refugees exposed to mental harm; Aboriginal heritage being desecrated; plastics filling the ocean; the very climate systems kicked into greater destruction; the theft of the commons; the drive to reduce services in order to drive down taxes; illegal invasions of countries to "impose" democracy. But Covid-19 has meant that countries have been forced to make a choice - to shrug off these strange immoral or amoral (but certainly irresponsible) positions and cope with the hard edge of a pandemic. Some countries acted in a morally responsible way. Others have not.
But this theory of Bonhoeffer's, dragged out of the despair of fascism, reminds us that we cannot persuade a stupid person with reason, but only strive to do so with morality. This has been the lost challenge of our times.
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