A Youtube video came up in my feeds synchronistically after posting a comment to Gavin Mounsey’s Substack, in response to his comment about the high number of unsubs to his stack after he posted the article: Banking on War: Organized Mass Murder Is Still Very Profitable and War is Still a Racket.
Considering I complain about the algos and how AI is managing to make folks even more stupid, sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised by the perfect accuracy of even a click-baity link on Youtube.
This video suggestion underscored my comment with a theory by Deitrich Bonhoeffer, which was completely new to me. Here was my comment after Gavin’s article:
“Divergent points of view are remarkably expensive, in fiat currency. The overlords of the material world enjoy the suffering of those who find them despicable, I suppose that is to be expected. They crave undue worship and obedience. We who are cornered by their greed and entitlement adapt to our detriment. To refuse to adapt to their hell is the greatest power there is and one they will never understand.”
The video’s click bait, which worked perfectly on me: “Stupidity is not what you think.”
“Why do intelligent people become stupid? German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer discovered the answer in 1942 while imprisoned by the Nazis — and it’s more terrifying than you think.”
From the video, which I highly recommend.
“Stupidity is not a lack of brain power. It’s a surrender of independence. In certain circumstances, people are made stupid, or they allow this to happen to them.”
How? Why?
“When a powerful force rises, political, social, it offers people something irresistible–certainty, identity, belonging, purpose. Under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and more or less consciously give up on establishing an autonomous position. They stop asking questions. They stop weighing evidence. They stop being individuals.”
“And here’s the scariest part. In conversation with him, one virtually feels he is not at all dealing with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like, which have taken possession of him. You’re not talking to them anymore, you’re talking to the ideology which has colonized their brain. They’ve become a vessel, a repeater, a tool.”
“And the worst part, having become a mindless tool, the stupid person will become capable of any evil and at the same time be incapable of seeing it as evil. They can commit atrocities and feel righteous doing it, because they’re no longer thinking, they’re obeying.”
Bonhoeffer was hanged before the hoped-for liberation he wrote about, but his words remain more true today than ever.
“Because we’re living in an age of manufactured stupidity. Algorithms that reward certainty over curiousity. Echochambers that punish doubt. Ideologies, left, right, religious, secular, that demand total loyalty in exchange for belonging. And millions of people, smart people, educated people, are making the same trade Bonhoeffer warned about. They are surrendering their independence, becoming vessels for slogans, repeating ideas they never questioned and attacking anyone who dares to think clearly.”
How can the independent-minded protect ourselves from the Mob of Stupidity?
“To refuse to adapt to their hell is the greatest power there is,” I wrote, and it would seem from the video presentation that Bonhoeffer agreed.
“You’re not broken. You’re just refusing to make the trade. You’re keeping your independence. And in a world addicted to certainty, that makes you dangerous. But it also makes you free.”
Of course, in Bonhoeffer’s case, it also got him hanged.
Perhaps I need a bit of correction in my comment. Divergent points of view are indeed remarkably expensive, but not just in fiat currency.
But, you know, they were . . . Just following orders!
