Why Stupidity Is More Dangerous Than Evil

Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew more than you or I are likely to ever know about about the line between stupidity and outright evil. The Lutheran pastor and theologian had a front row seat as he watched the Nazis—history’s evilest stupid people (or stupidest evil people)—ascend to power and come to rule through terror during the 1930s and ‘40s.
In a letter to his friends, family, and followers written while he awaited execution at Flossenbürg concentration camp for his role in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler, Bonhoeffer detailed his thoughts on the root cause of the moral and intellectual infection that resulted in the Third Reich. His conclusion: It’s the stupidity, stupid.

Why Stupidity Is More Dangerous Than Evil