Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Success and Stupidity

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who is famous for having been imprisoned and ultimately executed for his participation in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Third Reich. As an anti-fascist theologian, Bonhoeffer is instructive for our time. I was re-reading Bonhoeffer on inauguration day and found some deeply insightful sections I want to share with you.

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The first is titled “On Success.” In it, Bonhoeffer talks about “the ethical significance of success” which stems from the fact that “historical success creates the ground on which alone life can go on.” The victors shape history. They create the conditions that shape life in the world. Their success, Bonhoeffer says, carries ethical significance. “The question remains as to whether it is ethically more responsible to go to war like Don Quixote against a new age or, conceding one’s defeat and freely consenting to it, finally to serve the new age.” Bonhoeffer suggests the latter approach. He resists escapism and opportunism, saying when evil comes to power it is irresponsible to refuse “to enter into the arena of facts,” just as it is irresponsible to capitulate to the powers that be. “Talk of going down heroically in the face of unavoidable defeat is basically quite nonheroic because it does not dare look into the future. The ultimately responsible question is not how I extricate myself heroically from a situation but [how] a coming generation is to go on living.” In whatever outcome, Bonhoeffer says we should understand ourselves as “coresponsible for the shaping of history.”1

In this time, we must commit ourselves to serving this new age. We must not look for easy outs or opportunities to get ahead. Our responsibility is to the future, of humanity, of the earth, of life itself. We must create history alongside the oppressive powers that now ensnare us. We must act boldly and responsibly, with concern for “the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled.”2 We must pursue in every facet of our lives - liberation.

The most dangerous enemy of liberation, Bonhoeffer says, is stupidity. Following the section entitled “On Success” is one entitled “On Stupidity.” It is worth quoting at length:

“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. … [E]very strong upsurge of power in the public sphere … infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. … [U]nder 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 him as 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.”

He continues, “only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity.” The internal liberation of the stupid person “becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it.”3

Our responsibility toward this age is a responsibility to pursue the liberation of all human beings from oppressive powers. These oppressive powers can be seen in the billionaires that rule this country—and, indeed, this world. Only by overcoming them and creating a world wholly different from theirs will we be free of the bondage which produces stupidity.

Last time Donald Trump was president, I observed that evil is stupidity on purpose. Trump’s policies and actions were not just the antithesis of good, they were absurd and ridiculous. Solve the climate crisis by selling off public land to oil drillers. Solve the Covid pandemic by doing nothing and hoping it will magically go away. Solve poverty by giving the rich more money.

In the face of such stupidity, we cannot check out. We must be resolved toward liberation. We must cultivate our “inner independence” and maintain “an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.” This requires behaving as free human beings, defying the billionaires who oppress us. It requires understanding ourselves as agents of history, using whatever modicum of power we have to shape our destiny. It requires taking responsibility for the future, orienting ourselves toward the coming generations and acting in their best interests.

Liberation is the world’s only hope. Think and act accordingly.

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For more on Bonheoffer, see Theologian of Resistance: The Life and Thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Christiane Tietz. Do not read the opportunistic biography of Bonhoeffer authored by the exceedingly stupid Trump-supporter Eric Metaxas.