By Rabi Raj Thapa

Political stupidity can be a doctrine by itself! Take the incident of Tinkune Kathmandu on March 28 where the government committed so many stupid mistakes. Now there is violence going on in Birgung between the Hindu and Muslim communities and the government has again mobilized the Nepal Army. Hence, there seems to be no end to such political stupidity going. Now what can a Nepali expect in the coming year 2082 Bikram Sambat?

All such political decisions and eventualities remind me of the “Theory of Stupidity” propounded by an Anti-Nazi German dissident Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the darkest period of Germany’s Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. 

Bonhoeffers Theory of Stupidity raises pertinent questions on why people ignore self-evident truths even when the fact clearly supports them and why political leaders make such political decisions which they obviously prove they are wrong and the decisions they make are harmful to the country, people and national interests as well.

Bonhoeffer recognized that stupidity is not merely an intellectual issue but above all a moral and social one. When Bonhoeffer got arrested and imprisoned by Hitler’s secret police GESTAPO for being part of the Nazi resistance, he reflected on how could a land of poets, thinkers, philosophers and scientists devolved into a stupid society of cowards and criminals. Then he concluded that the problem basically lay with the emergence of stupid leaders who blatantly reject and push all contradictions shamelessly, without fear or guilt just to remain in power taking other matters of national interest inconsequential and just incidental.  

Look at our towering leaders Prachanda, Oli and Deuba for example. They have been ruling Nepal for the past three decades in rotation with 13 governments in 17 years. Therefore, it is natural for them to feel indispensable, untouchable, and unparalleled even to the ancestral King of Nepal. They feel so confident and self-contained that they get easily irritated when challenged and become power-blind and dangerously aggressive when challenged by anybody except their power shareholders. And their stupidity is not their intellectual defect; they are just moral and situational ones.

Moreover, today’s Theory of Stupidity in Nepal is led by three big powerful partisan leaders who have full control of big media houses once labeled cartel of 12 brothers. In addition, they have allegiance with the money and muscled power-brokers who control national power and purse. They are strong enough to suppress any dissidents through disinformation and propaganda effectively and strategically employed to secure political power, divide the society and suppress elite masses and their critical thinking processes. They have mastered to garner towering national power structures similar to that of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini of Bonhoeffer time.

In his “Theory of Stupidity”, Bonhoeffer explains stupidity can be cultivated within societies. Stupidity does not mean it lacks intelligence or education, but it creates a kind of mental block that prevents people from thinking critically and acting independently. Therefore, it is “only the act of liberation, not instruction that can overcome (human) stupidity. And that actions spring not from thought, but emanates from readiness to take responsibility and act”, Bonhoeffer reiterates. Stupidity also arises when people abandon their capacity for critical reflection and independent thought out of fear, convenience or a desire for belonging.

Therefore, to transform a stupid person is not easy. To change the mind of a stupid leader is far more difficult.  For that reason, greater caution is called when dealing with a stupid person than a malicious one.    

Remembering Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the man who propounded the Theory of Stupidity died due to his involvement in a plot against Adolf Hitler at dawn on 9 April 1945 at Flossenburg Concentration Camp just two weeks before soldiers from the United States liberated the camp.