COURAGE, TRUTH & BOOTY:

The Insidious Power of Stupidity In the spring of 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, sat in a prison cell in Nazi Germany, awaiting execution for his role in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. As the world outside crumbled under the weight of war and ideology, Bonhoeffer penned a haunting observation: “Against stupidity we are defenseless.” These words, written in the shadow of the gallows, were not about low intelligence or lack of education. They described something far more dangerous—a willful, systemic surrender of critical thinking that Bonhoeffer believed was the true engine of societal collapse. Bonhoeffer’s insight, born in the crucible of one of history’s darkest periods, feels eerily prescient today. In an era defined by information overload, algorithmic echo chambers, and the relentless pace of modern life, his warning about “functional stupidity” resonates with unsettling clarity. This is not the stupidity of ignorance but the stupidity of ...