利世民聲音專欄

以下是 Dietrich Bonhoeffer 的 On Stupidity 中譯版

愚昧的群眾比邪惡的政治領袖更具威脅，也是善良的一個更大的敵人。邪惡的政治領袖雖然可怕，但可以通過揭露其問題，甚至使用武力來制止。事實上，邪惡的政治領袖往往會自我瓦解，因為邪惡的政治領袖多少都會在人心中留下不安的感覺。然而，群眾的愚昧卻是另一種難以對抗的力量。 面對愚昧的群眾，抗議無用，武力也無法制止。即使將事實擺在他們面前，告訴他們錯誤之處，他們也會選擇視而不見，甚至反過來指責你偏見，或者拒絕接受你所說的事實。他們對自己的錯誤毫無認識，並且往往自信滿滿，容不得他人的反駁。而這種自信的愚昧常常高度攻擊性，容易威脅到他人的安全，使試圖說服或教育他們的人面臨危險。

根治群眾的愚昧，首先要了解其本質？愚昧的本質並非智力的問題，而是人性的問題。有些人的智力非常之高，但依然可能非常愚昧；而有些人即使智商不高，卻並不愚昧。因此，愚昧不是先天的缺陷，而是特定社會環境的產物，是人在某些條件下選擇的結果。在某些環境中，人會集體地變得愚昧，自己使自己變得愚昧。願意獨立地生活的人，往往較少表現出愚昧的思想、行為或傾向；相反，當人們強迫自己融入群體時，就更容易表現出愚昧的各種缺陷。

所以，與其說愚昧是一個心理學的問題，不如說它是一個社會學的問題。愚昧是一種特定的歷史環境之下對人類的影響，是由外在條件造成的心理現象。每當有強權崛起，無論是政治還是宗教，總會感染大量的人，使他們變得愚昧。這是一條社會心理學的定律：強權統治必須要有愚昧的群眾配合。這一現象並不是因為人類理解能力或智力退化，而是因為強權崛起的影響使人們有意識地放棄了獨立思考，甚至不再有自我的存在。 當與這些人對話時，會發現根本不是在和他們對話。他們滿口都是口號和標語，彷彿中了降頭一般。甚至乎在旁人眼中，他們的行為像是不斷地侮辱和貶低自己，最終變成沒有思考能力的工具，執行一些邪惡的行為，卻全然不自知。這正是愚弄大眾最危險的地方，因為它可以完全摧毀人性。

正因為如此，如果我們要克服這種集體的愚昧，首先要面對的現實是：只有當思想上的枷鎖完全被去除，這些群眾才能由內而外地得到解放。在這種自由氛圍重新建立之前，我們應放棄試圖說服或教育這些愚昧的群眾。甚至在這種情況下，試圖了解這些群眾的真實想法，最終也是徒勞無功，毫無意義的。 聖經說：「敬畏上帝是智慧的開端。」這句話提醒我們，克服愚昧的關鍵在於人能否在上帝面前過負責任的生活。這至少給了我一絲安慰，因為它告訴我們，人類在大多數情況下並非必然愚昧。最終，人民是否愚昧，取決於掌權的人需要什麼樣的支持者——愚昧的群眾，還是擁有獨立思考與智慧的人。

原文：

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.

If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other.

The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like, that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity. ‘But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom.