Birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1906.

[Mitch86]

Today, February 4, 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born. He helped organize the plot to kill Adolf Hitler. The plot failed and he was hanged. He was a German Lutheran pastor. He was one of the founders of the Confessing Church.

Here is a link to his story: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Wikipedia

 

[RambleTamble]

I read one of the biographies about Bonhoeffer a while back. It's quite a story.

 

[jhummel73]

He was active in the resistance movement. I am not sure he actually helped organize the plot, but it has been a great while since I read a bio on him.

 

[Been There]

I remember him from my college days. I think Mitch 86 summarized him pretty good. I would only add that he was hanged while being in a concentration camp. He was honored by the Polish people by placing a statue of him in Wroclaw, (not sure of spelling) which was his place of birth.

 

[Sunkist]

I have this in my TBR books collection

 

[RambleTamble]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity posits that stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of good than malice, as it is a social, moral, and intellectual failure rather than just a lack of intelligence. Developed in prison, it argues that stupidity is a voluntary surrender of independent thought, often driven by power or propaganda, making people impervious to logic, facts, and reason.

Key aspects of Bonhoeffer's theory include:

• Defenselessness against Stupidity: Unlike evil, which can be exposed or resisted, stupidity is impervious to reason, making it harder to fight.
• The Power of Conformity:Stupidity is a social phenomenon, where individuals in a group, or under pressure, stop thinking for themselves and become susceptible to propaganda
  .
• • A Moral Issue, Not Intellectual: Bonhoeffer argued that even intelligent people can become stupid if they surrender their autonomy to an ideology, becoming "political zombies".
  • Slogans Over Thought: The stupid person acts like a puppet, with slogans and catchwords taking possession of them.
  • The Cure is Liberation: Overcoming stupidity requires an internal act of liberation rather than simply offering facts, often requiring the downfall of the external power structure.

Bonhoeffer observed that as a society succumbs to a "sudden, overwhelming surge of power," stupidity spreads rapidly. It is "essentially a sociological rather than a psychological problem".