## Metadata - Author: [[Bonhoeffer]] - Full Title:: Theory of Stupidity - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://www.onthewing.org/user/Bonhoeffer%20-%20Theory%20of%20Stupidity.pdf - Read date:: [[2026-09-24]] ## Highlights > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3abv6wpdwwan7zxs9bdv3z1)) > There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acfm5ax2kk79btyd2gr0qw)) > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acggsen9hxtgcqb7fwf19v)) > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acpcvwm5y8hq9j33ktwh23)) > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acpzk4paxvdms7hy6a2a2r)) > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acs47f8c8pahp2k5q9bjrq)) > A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person, or to a group of persons, while deriving no gain for himself, and possibly incurring losses. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3actfr0jtwwp4z6d30f021k)) > Because the stupid person's actions do not conform to the rules of rationality, it follows that we are generally caught by surprise by the attack. We cannot mount a rational defense, because the attack itself lacks any rational structure. Non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, dealing with or associating with stupid people *always* turns out to be a costly mistake. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3acwq2m295ajhm06s43rgj8)) > 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3abtexdqg5fhzm3mt8zt5dj))