"There are two infinite things: the Universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure of the Universe" | Albert Einstein
Bonhoeffer claims that Stupidity is by no means an intellectual flaw; rather, it is a moral flaw. In the famous Dietrich Letters From Prison, Bonhoeffer claims that stupidity is a more dangerous enemy to good than wickedness, for although one may protest evil; it may be exposed and prevented through use of force, we are helpless against stupidity.
This is because although we can protest or struggle with people who are evil, we are defenceless against those who are stupid--reason falls on deaf ears. Neither protesting nor using force achieves anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts contradicting ones own prejudices need not be believed at all -- at these moments, a foolish man becomes critical, too -- and when facts are unassailable, they are just shoved away as irrelevant, as if they were irrelevant.
"No one is free to say stupid things, the bad thing is to say them with emphasis" | Michel de Montaigne
The trouble in the world is that intelligent people are filled with doubt, and stupid ones are filled with certainty. The countries moving upwards benefit from an unusually large share of the intelligent population, which together compensates overly well for the stupid.
Those moving forward in spite of stupidity have high fractions of intelligent people, people who compensate for the losses of stupidity by making gains for themselves and for their intelligently acting co-workers. Stupid people are counterproductive both for their individual self-interests and societys general interests. A Stupid person is one who causes losses for another individual or group when they are not gaining, or can even be hurt.
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" | Martin Luther King
The impression that is created is not so much that stupidity is a congenital flaw, but rather that in some circumstances, people are made to be stupid, or, more accurately, allow it to happen to them. This way of looking at stupidity also overlooks the notion of social-emotional intelligence, which is independent of cognitive abilities as such. This issue is exacerbated by a biased presumption that some people are smart due to superficial factors, like their jobs, education, or other characteristics we think precludes stupidity.
"All those who seem stupid are, and besides, so are half of those who don't" | Francis of Quevedo
Functional stupidity may result in members of the organization experiencing both a sense of confidence and dissonance. Of course, functional stupidity has also had adverse consequences, chief among them being the fact that it has prevented organisations from finding solutions to problems involving topics which were arbitrary decided as being outside of bounds. This may serve to reinforce functional stupidity, as others, seeing a payoff for being stupid, might be also be encouraged to behave similarly.
The actions of stupid people appear to be more of a symptom than the answer to why what produces stupidity. In all this, the foolish man, unlike the malignant, is thoroughly complacent, and, being easily exasperated, becomes dangerous in attacking. The declining state has, in its place, the alarming spread of non-stupid persons, whose behavior inevitably reinforces the destructive force of their consistently foolish compatriots.
"Men are never closer to stupidity than when they think they are wise" | Mary Wortley Montague
