Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity & The Five Laws of Stupidity

Man, this explains a lot!

I don't think that I've seen a more apropos presentation in ages.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian under the Nazi regime. During time he spent in prison for speaking against the Nazi regime he had time to think about what was happening in Germany. He came to the conclusion that "the root of the problem was not malice, but stupidity."

Evil can be exposed and fought against. Against stupidity we are defenseless.

I compare this to wild hogs. Wild hogs are terribly dangerous, but it's really not because they are vicious, but because they have poor eyesight and are easily spooked; they're just stupid and they become dangerous in their stupidity.

Stupidity is not an intellectual defect, says Bonhoeffer, but a moral one. There are educated stupid people and wise uneducated people.

We live in a world of stupid people. Have a look at the video and you'll understand a bit more what's going on. I have intuitively long ago given up trying to convince the zombies of the world about what's going on around them, and now I understand why.


:

Here's an interesting follow-up.

The matrix is interesting.

People who cause losses to themselves and to others are the stupid people who are propping up and supporting the regime. This includes LEOs who enforce illegal mandates and politicians and medical professionals who think that following the narrative will get them ahead.

I'd say that the people who benefit themselves and cause losses to others are upper echelon politicos and big pharma execs, but ultimately I think they will prove to have harmed themselves as well.

The conclusion is that stupid people are more dangerous than bandits. Bandits have a goal and are following incentives and you might be able to figure out what they are doing and why and work against it. Stupid people have not incentive, no pattern that you can follow. You cannot figure out where they are going so cannot counter them.

Ignorant people can be educated. Stupid people cannot learn.

The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. ~Proverbs 22:3 (ESV)

:

These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

Bonhoeffer,

About to come under attack from the woke mob in 3,2,1 as his theory explains their disgusting mindset aptly

“TeLL Me wHaT tO tHiNk, cNn”

a reply to: Breakthestreak

Which is exactly what you'd expect from stupid people ...

there are two additional rules:

stupid people will always present themselves as experts and deride the non stupid with name calling.

stupid people will be carefully selected to educate children

This fits so well in today's world...wow. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Nailed it.

a reply to: incoserv

Wondering if everyone reading and watching, considers themselves 'better' than ' the Stupid™ ' ?

Me included ?

In other words : would it not be stupid, of the supposedly non-stupid, to fall to the well-known divisory tactics of Divide-and-Conquer™ ?

originally posted by: sraven
there are two additional rules:

stupid people will always present themselves as experts and deride the non stupid with name calling.

stupid people will be carefully selected to educate children

You forgot a third one:

Stupid people will be elected to political offices.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: incoserv

Wondering if everyone reading and watching, considers themselves 'better' than ' the Stupid™ ' ?

Me included ?

In other words : would it not be stupid, of the supposedly non-stupid, to fall to the well-known divisory tactics of Divide-and-Conquer™ ?

For the answer to that question, you need to look into the Dunning-Kruger effect.

a reply to: incoserv

Yes : that seems to fit rather well with your OP.

Of course : we're all lounging at the wise and enlightened end of the graph, pointing at the crazy fools scrambling for position, and recognition.

You know : those whacky Know-It-All-Know-Nothings™ ! ( KIAKN™ )

Conversely : myself am a World-Wide-Unknown-Expert-On-Nothin™ !! ( WWUEON™ )



( The above terms, while seemingly highly official : are just sequences of letters, molded into weak-ass concepts, and put forward by an uneducated dummy, whose opinion is not guaranteed to last any longer than 2 minutes.
( That would be me, and not the OP. ) )

a reply to: incoserv

The five laws of Stupidity, and the matrix defined in that theory, is an excellent & worthy proposition, something that we should educate our children regarding as an absolute - it brings to mind the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius for me, some of his comments regarding the impact that selfish, foolish people will have upon your life & the life of the world around you, on a daily basis, as something to be warded against, are highly congruent with the five laws.

Incoserv, thanks for thsi thread, please forgive my slight mirroring of its content, I was inspired to push this out even further into the ATS thread environment, hopefully helping to boost the uptake of conclusions from these concepts being discussed.

Best wishes,


FITO.

a reply to: Nothin

In other words : would it not be stupid, of the supposedly non-stupid, to fall to the well-known divisory tactics of Divide-and-Conquer™ ?

Sometimes the only way to overcome a problem is to divide it and conquer it. Even Jesus knew that stupid people with free will couldn't be reasoned with.

Matthew 10:34

34 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

a reply to: Nothin

I think it depends.

How much do you feel the need to fit in? I think that's where the greater pressure to become stupid lies. If you are in a group and the greatest part of them do a thing and you feel like you would face censure from them not to follow suit, how likely are you to do as you would do rather than blindly going along?

It's through such impulses that I think you make yourself stupid.

a reply to: Deetermined

Perhaps you are right.

Do you figure that any human, or organization, or demi-God, or Jesus, has the 'right' to put themselves above others, and divide and conquer them ?

If so : why ?

a reply to: ketsuko

Good points Ketz.

My memories of being a young person trying to fit-in, have faded in the 4 decades since then, as have the memories of the angst that accompanies it.

But it seems now, that it was almost totally unconscious, and was not aware of the approuval-seeking behavior.

Which makes me wonder about what am unconscious about now ? LoL !!

Perhaps a part of it is unconscious 'herd-behavior' : like an antelope afraid to be isolated from the herd, or a schooling fish being out-of sight of their school ?

a reply to: Nothin

With most of us, it's a critical mass thing. It's one thing when you feel like there are a number of others who are also not doing a thing - think about any of the school kid fads, but when it seems that almost everyone around you is doing a thing (think about the picture of the lone man not doing the Nazi salute), it gets much, much harder to not go along especially if you know that there would be serious censure for not complying and that you would seem to be mostly suffering alone.

Misery loves company.

There is also that niggling little doubt that creeps in that if so many are doing it, can they really be wrong? What if it's you?

a reply to: ketsuko

Your last point seemed to be something that we really do feel, maybe all of us ?

Your first paragraph had me thinking about all of those behavioral-studies vids, that we have seen over the years.
You know : where folks not knowing that they are in an experiment, will change their behavior to go-along with the group ?

So : perhaps more normalish for a young person ; why would older folks still be stuck in that 'gotta fit-in' mindset ?

Sorry : but for me : labeling groups of people 'stupid', is a little too convenient.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: Deetermined

Perhaps you are right.

Do you figure that any human, or organization, or demi-God, or Jesus, has the 'right' to put themselves above others, and divide and conquer them ?

If so : why ?

Jesus is separate from everyone else because he was given all authority over creation, since he was responsible for creation to begin with. (But that's for another thread.)

As for everyone else on earth, we all live under governance and laws for a reason. No one has the right to "put themselves" above others, but we place people in positions above us to TRY and prevent the crazy and stupid from taking over. Unfortunately, we are currently allowing the people who, in my opinion, PLACED THEMSELVES above us to call the shots. The only way to solve this problem will most likely be to divide and conquer it. The current people above us will never go down without a serious fight. They've become too brazen and could not care less about laws or even the people they govern over.