摘自《监狱信件和文章》中的“十年后”，迪特里希·朋霍费尔（Dietrich Bonhoeffer）作品/英语，第 8 卷），明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯：堡垒出版社（2010 ）。朋霍费尔于 1945 年被希特勒绞死。
愚蠢是比恶意更危险的善的敌人。一个人可以抗议邪恶；它可以暴露出来，如果需要，可以使用武力加以阻止。邪恶总是在其自身内部携带着它自己颠覆的萌芽，因为它至少在人类身上留下了一种不安感。面对愚蠢，我们毫无防备。在这里，抗议和使用武力都无济于事；理由被充耳不闻；与自己的偏见相矛盾的事实根本不需要被相信——在这样的时刻，愚蠢的人甚至变得挑剔——而当事实无可辩驳时，它们只是被推到一边，认为无关紧要，是附带的。在这一切中，愚蠢的人，与恶意的人相比，完全是自我满足的，并且由于容易被激怒，通过攻击变得危险。出于这个原因，我们需要比对恶意的人更加谨慎。我们再也不要试图用理由来说服愚蠢的人，因为这是毫无意义和危险的。
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.
如果我们想知道如何克服愚蠢，我们必须设法了解它的本质。可以肯定的是，它本质上不是智力缺陷，而是人性缺陷。有些人的智力非常敏捷但愚蠢，有些人的智力相当迟钝但一点也不愚蠢。在特定情况下，我们会惊讶地发现这一点。人们所获得的印象与其说愚蠢是一种先天缺陷，不如说是在某些情况下，人们变得愚蠢，或者他们允许这种事情发生在他们身上。我们进一步注意到，那些将自己与他人隔离开来或生活在孤独中的人，比那些倾向于或被谴责为社会人的个人或群体更少表现出这种缺陷。因此，愚蠢似乎与其说是一个心理问题，不如说是一个社会问题。它是历史环境对人类影响的一种特殊形式，是某些外部条件的心理伴随物。经过仔细观察，很明显，公共领域的每一次强大的权力高涨，无论是政治性质的还是宗教性质的，都会以愚蠢感染大部分人。甚至看起来这实际上是一个社会学——心理学定律：一方的力量需要另一方的愚蠢。这里起作用的过程不是那种特定的人类能力，例如智力，突然萎缩或失败。相反，似乎在上升的权力的压倒性影响下，人类被剥夺了内在的独立性，并或多或少有意识地放弃建立对新出现的环境的自主立场。愚蠢的人往往很顽固，但这一事实决不能使我们忽视他不独立的事实。在与他交谈时，人们几乎感觉到自己根本不是在与一个人打交道，而是在与那些占据了他的口号、套话之类的东西打交道。他被下了咒语，被蒙蔽，被误用，被虐待，在他的本体中。在成为一个无意识的工具之后，这个愚蠢的人也会有能力去做任何邪恶的事情，同时也没有能力看到它是邪恶的。这就是邪恶的滥用所潜伏的危险，因为正是这种滥用可以一劳永逸地摧毁人类。
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.
然而就在这一点上，很清楚只有解放的行为，而不是教导，才能克服愚蠢。在这里，我们必须接受这样一个事实：在大多数情况下，只有外部解放在先，真正的内部解放才有可能。在那之前，我们必须放弃说服愚蠢的人的所有尝试。这种状况解释了为什么在这种情况下，我们试图了解 “人们 “真正的想法是徒劳的，以及为什么在这种情况下，这个问题对于负责任地思考和行动的人来说是如此无关。圣经中敬畏神是智慧的开端的话，宣告了人类内心的解放，在神面前过负责任的生活，是战胜愚蠢的唯一真正途径。
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.
但这些关于愚蠢的想法也提供了安慰，因为它们完全禁止我们认为大多数人在任何情况下都是愚蠢的。这真的取决于那些当权者是否对人们的愚蠢比对他们内在的独立和智慧有更多的期待。
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.
