Why Stupid People Are Dangerous

I heard recently that stupid people are so dangerous because they make life worse for themselves and those around them. It is the impact that they have on others that makes them worse than bandits.

Stupid people are people who question nothing, and who cannot reason adequately. They believe what they are told and never question the motives of the proposer, or the reasonableness of what is being said. Therefore, it is a lot easier to deceive and mislead stupid people.

Stupid people exist in all levels of society, and all classes of society, and the same is true for people who show wisdom. It is not true that the less wealthy are stupid, and it is not true that the wealthy are not stupid.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that it is easier to fight against evil, but to fight against a stupid person is a lot more difficult. He concluded that stupidity is more dangerous than evil. It is a greater enemy of good.

We cannot reason with stupid people, so facts and reasoning fall on deaf ears. They are self satisfied, and against stupidity we are defenceless. You can protest their stupidity and even use force, but these both accomplish nothing.

Stupid people simply don’t believe facts that contradict their own judgement. Even when the facts are irrefutable, they push them aside and use ‘rescue devices.’ Rescue devices are methods used to rationalize their own stupidity.

Stupid people become easily irritated, and therefore they are so dangerous. They attack the reasonable. That is why we need more caution when dealing with a stupid person than a malevolent person.

Bonhoeffer argues that stupidity is not an intellectual defect but a moral one. He goes further by stating that there are human beings of exceptional intellect that are stupid. And the reverse is true too, that there are people who are not intellectually gifted, but wise.

People are not inherently stupid, but they allow stupidity to permeate their lives. It is as if they allow stupidity to happen to them.

Bonhoeffer found that people who live in solitude are often unaffected by stupidity as much as people in groups, so he concludes it seems to be a social problem, more than a psychological problem.

He also contends that every large surge of power of a political or religious nature can infect much of humankind with stupidity.

He saw it as a law, a sort of socio-psychological law that the power of the one requires the stupidity of the other in order to manifest and grow, like a parasite on a host.

He contends further that humans lose their sense of their independence in the presence of a rise in power, and give up their autonomous positions consciously.

The stupid person is still independent, but when you deal with him, you deal more with slogans and catch phrases rather than reason. Those slogans and catch phrases take possession of the stupid person.

The stupid person is under a spell. Stupid people convince themselves they are correct. Being under that spell, a stupid person is mindless, so the powerful can shape him and use him to their benefit. Not only that, he will be incapable of seeing that what he is doing is evil. Think of the Nazis, and how their minions continued to carry out the evils of the leaders.

Only an act of liberation, not instruction, can defeat stupidity. It is like stupidity has him or her imprisoned within his or her own ‘stupid cell.’

They require an external liberation prior to their internal liberation.

Until that external liberation takes place, it is futile to try to convince the stupid person of anything.

Somehow, the facts and evidence that are contrary to the stupid person’s beliefs need to be highlighted and the stupid person needs to realise that his beliefs are wrong.

Stupid people cannot see that the actions that they take, and the actions for which they are responsible, have dire consequences not only for themselves but for all of those around them.

Some are so stupid that even when confronted with the evils of their own actions, they cannot see that anything that they were doing was wrong. They rationalize it to themselves, even when the devastation surrounds them. A devastation that they caused.

Bonhoeffer said, ‘Action springs not from thought but from a readiness for responsibility. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children’

I agree that stupid people have a more devastating effect on society than bandits, because the bandit affects only the life of his victim, whereas the stupid person not only affects his own life but all those around him too.

I believe the digital age and the age of information overload is the perfect breeding ground for stupid people, who believe slogans, rather than facts. They don’t reason and assess what they are being told. I was always told to keep an open mind, but there is danger in that too, to keep an open mind on everything means you cannot reason to a conclusion.

It’s good in certain respects to keep an open mind, but not that open that your brain falls out.

I read recently that our digital world results in the following people; the informed, the misinformed, the uninformed, the non-caring, and the non - thinking.

The informed are the thinkers and debaters. They evaluate what they are being told and collect information and decide, utilising critical thought.

The misinformed don’t question the source of information they have. The uninformed don’t have the information, but decide based on their lack of information. The non-caring have the information but don’t care to reason. The non- thinking, have the information, but don’t think or question it.

We don’t always have the time to question everything, but we should always do a logic check on anything we are told or read.

Let’s hope many more choose to think and question rather than blindly accept.

Thank you for reading. Remain vigilant. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.