This is such an amazing and insightful passage that I want to quote it at length here. I think I would use a term other than stupidity to talk about it. Another term might be more descriptive - like maybe, Mass Formation Psychosis. Emphasis in bold is mine.
This is tremendously insightful. Charlie, I stumble through previous blogs of yours when I'm feeling open from time to time, and this is one of those times. I've been asking myself the question, and also asking others: "Why are so many of my well-educated friends in such a trance (I owe that language to you) when it comes to propaganda related to covid, the infringement of civil liberties, critical theories, all the manipulative con games that have been rolled out. And also, why are certain friends that I have who are not all that intellectual so spot-on when it comes to these issues, or some of these issues?" I think this blog, sharing Bonhoffer's insights, does provide a key -- that it's a question of trusting one's individual intelligence, inquisitiveness, and openness to evidence rather than being manipulated by propaganda that plays on fear of death, virtue-signalling (including virtue-signalling to oneself, propping up a weak ego by telling oneself over and over "what a good boy am I"). Some people are not intellectual, but their intuitive intelligence and bravery and individual strength that doesn't need to be propped up by consensus opinions points them in the right direction.
The Buddhist psychological understanding is very similar to what you share here. Stupidity is actually very intelligent. It keeps subtle, constant, conscious but mostly unconscious effort to keep these kind of blinders on, alert to any possible fresh air that might question the prevailing narrative fueled by fear and fueled by propping up a poor self-image. Truly, a point you have made elsewhere, the more harm that is propagated by such views, which I believe perpetrators must experience at some subliminal level, the more there is a need to double down on the stupidity-blinders and repressive, aggressive behavior. It's heartbreaking, a cause for tears.
I do appreciate that quote of Bonhoffer's which you put in boldface: "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." Yeah, it's a fantasy to believe that one could purely just think one's way out of stupidity, when the thinking-process itself has been co-opted by fear and egoism. It is the bravery, gentleness, and love of the teachings, which Bonhoffer's Christianity connects to "fear of God", that brings "the internal liberation of human beings." Identifying religious devotion with that kind of individuation, a personal moral compass, is a true way of looking at the spiritual life, but which most religious people get backwards. I think such getting it backwards is a real possibility for practitioners of all spiritual traditions, and atheists as well, so long as they are driven by fear, insecurity, and the blinders that support these.
I'm also reminded of your blog(s) about "meek", humility, and the kind of intelligence and power and possibility of individual liberation related to that. I don't remember if you went there, but it's not a stretch to make that connection. It's a teaching that, I believe, most people from any tradition could benefit from.
And, I'm reminded of Freud's "Mob Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego", but don't know how that work would stand up now. I haven't looked at it for years, and am too lazy to go back there. (:
I think it comes to mind because, human beings being what they are, it's always possible, out of fear, insecurity, and hunger for power, to twist any religious tradition, any authentic teaching, into the opposite of what was originally transmitted and intended. It's so easy to get such things wrong. I've been fooled more than I care to admit, along my way, by any number of circumstances, always based on fear and anxiety over self-preservation, any number of things that propped up what I thought was "self." Even though I had an authentic teacher, I had to make a lot of mistakes, basically ignoring what I was presented with in favor of going along with my crowd, my elder-siblings in spirituality, before I developed a better shit protector.
Thanks for posting this, Charlie. It's a penetrating analysis by a courageous, self-sacrificing German pastor and theologian who dedicated his life to fighting the Nazis. They killed him cruelly on April 9. 1945 as the regime was crumbling.
This is tremendously insightful. Charlie, I stumble through previous blogs of yours when I'm feeling open from time to time, and this is one of those times. I've been asking myself the question, and also asking others: "Why are so many of my well-educated friends in such a trance (I owe that language to you) when it comes to propaganda related to covid, the infringement of civil liberties, critical theories, all the manipulative con games that have been rolled out. And also, why are certain friends that I have who are not all that intellectual so spot-on when it comes to these issues, or some of these issues?" I think this blog, sharing Bonhoffer's insights, does provide a key -- that it's a question of trusting one's individual intelligence, inquisitiveness, and openness to evidence rather than being manipulated by propaganda that plays on fear of death, virtue-signalling (including virtue-signalling to oneself, propping up a weak ego by telling oneself over and over "what a good boy am I"). Some people are not intellectual, but their intuitive intelligence and bravery and individual strength that doesn't need to be propped up by consensus opinions points them in the right direction.
The Buddhist psychological understanding is very similar to what you share here. Stupidity is actually very intelligent. It keeps subtle, constant, conscious but mostly unconscious effort to keep these kind of blinders on, alert to any possible fresh air that might question the prevailing narrative fueled by fear and fueled by propping up a poor self-image. Truly, a point you have made elsewhere, the more harm that is propagated by such views, which I believe perpetrators must experience at some subliminal level, the more there is a need to double down on the stupidity-blinders and repressive, aggressive behavior. It's heartbreaking, a cause for tears.
I do appreciate that quote of Bonhoffer's which you put in boldface: "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." Yeah, it's a fantasy to believe that one could purely just think one's way out of stupidity, when the thinking-process itself has been co-opted by fear and egoism. It is the bravery, gentleness, and love of the teachings, which Bonhoffer's Christianity connects to "fear of God", that brings "the internal liberation of human beings." Identifying religious devotion with that kind of individuation, a personal moral compass, is a true way of looking at the spiritual life, but which most religious people get backwards. I think such getting it backwards is a real possibility for practitioners of all spiritual traditions, and atheists as well, so long as they are driven by fear, insecurity, and the blinders that support these.
I'm also reminded of your blog(s) about "meek", humility, and the kind of intelligence and power and possibility of individual liberation related to that. I don't remember if you went there, but it's not a stretch to make that connection. It's a teaching that, I believe, most people from any tradition could benefit from.
And, I'm reminded of Freud's "Mob Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego", but don't know how that work would stand up now. I haven't looked at it for years, and am too lazy to go back there. (:
I think it comes to mind because, human beings being what they are, it's always possible, out of fear, insecurity, and hunger for power, to twist any religious tradition, any authentic teaching, into the opposite of what was originally transmitted and intended. It's so easy to get such things wrong. I've been fooled more than I care to admit, along my way, by any number of circumstances, always based on fear and anxiety over self-preservation, any number of things that propped up what I thought was "self." Even though I had an authentic teacher, I had to make a lot of mistakes, basically ignoring what I was presented with in favor of going along with my crowd, my elder-siblings in spirituality, before I developed a better shit protector.
Thanks for posting this, Charlie. It's a penetrating analysis by a courageous, self-sacrificing German pastor and theologian who dedicated his life to fighting the Nazis. They killed him cruelly on April 9. 1945 as the regime was crumbling.