In a world beset by war, corruption, and environmental destruction, many assume that the greatest threat to humanity is evil or malice. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who resisted Nazism and paid with his life, believed otherwise. In one of his most profound observations, Bonhoeffer argued that stupidity, not malice, is humanity’s most dangerous enemy. His theory, developed in the dark shadows of Nazi Germany, resonates deeply with modern societal crises – including Ghana’s ongoing plague of illegal mining, known as galamsey.
This article unpacks Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity and connects it with the tragic irrationality of galamsey – where, in the pursuit of short-term wealth, people destroy the very foundation of their own survival.
Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity
In his 1943 letters from prison, Bonhoeffer reflected deeply on the rise of Nazism and the enabling conditions that made mass atrocities possible. He concluded that: “Stupidity is more dangerous to society than evil.” While evil can be confronted, exposed, and resisted, stupidity, he argued, is impervious to reason. Stupid people believe they are acting rationally and even righteously, but in truth, they are unthinking, reactive, and unable to grasp the consequences of their actions.
Bonhoeffer described this stupidity as a social and moral condition rather than an intellectual failing. It grows most aggressively in groups, especially under authoritarian or irrational influences. The stupid person becomes a tool – easily manipulated, often confident in their ignorance, and resistant to correction. For Bonhoeffer, the truly stupid are not only dangerous – they are unreachable.
Stupidity is not an intellectual defect but a moral one. A person can be very brilliant but deeply stupid. This happened in Nazi Germany where highly intelligent individuals were known antisemitic and supported Hitler’s Final Solution – Ferdinand Porche (Engineer. Doesn’t need further introduction), Gerhard Wagner (Physician), Philip Lenard (Physicist. known for his contribution to Quantum Theory; a Nobel Prize Laureate, 1905) and many others who passionately backed Hitler.
Guess what? Same is happening in Israel where 94% of Israelis support the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“We are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba” – Avi Dichter (Israel Minister of Agric). Nakba means The Catastrophe, the Palestinian term for ethnic cleansing.
“We all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth” – Nissim Vaturi, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset.
I say this with sadness, but given the horrors of the holocaust, one would expect Israelis to be the last people capable of committing genocide. Yet, tragically, stupidity and herd mentality often go hand-in-hand. 94% of Israelis are proud of carrying out genocide. That’s what stupidity can do. Stupidity is immune to logic, blind to reason and deaf to truth. One is not born stupid; one becomes stupid.
Galamsey: A Case Study in Collective and Sponsored Stupidity
Nowhere is Bonhoeffer’s insight more vividly illustrated than in Ghana’s galamsey crisis. In the quest for gold, thousands of illegal miners are destroying rivers, forests, and large swathes of farmland. Toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide are dumped into water bodies that serve entire communities. The soil is scarred, poisoned and rendered useless. Yet the perpetrators of this destruction are not cartoon villains. They are mostly Ghanaians – often poor, sometimes educated, and tragically, many are convinced they are simply “making a living.”
But there is another layer to the tragedy: the real power behind galamsey is not in the forest, but in the cities. The bankrollers of galamsey are often wealthy businessmen and politicians who live far from the destruction. They never touch the mercury or stand in the polluted rivers. Instead, they fund the equipment, bribe local authorities, and deploy desperate young men and women to do the dirty work. For them, galamsey is a lucrative enterprise – detached from its human and environmental cost.
This is where Bonhoeffer’s warning becomes even more chilling. The stupidity is not only at the bottom. The financiers, too, are caught in a web of blind irrationality. For even as they enrich themselves in the short term, they are undermining the long-term health, stability, and habitability of their own country. They are not just exploiting the poor – they are helping destroy the very nation they depend on. Poisoning water sources is classified
as a war crime under the Geneva Convention [Additional Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva
Conventions]. We are committing war crimes on our nation during peacetime.
The IESS report should have shaken the nation to its core – but it didn’t. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the primary custodians of public health, should have raised the alarm to the next decibel or called for an emergency meeting to chart a decisive course of action – but we didn’t. And yet, the report revealed a deeply disturbing reality: food products from galamsey-affected areas of West Atiwa are contaminated with mercury and lead at levels hazardous to human health. Humans sit at the top of the food chain – and that comes at a cost.
The mercury and lead released into our environment through galamsey don’t just vanish; they accumulate as they move up the food chain/web. By the time they reach our plates, the toxins are more concentrated – and we become the ultimate victims of our own destruction.
Why Stupidity is More Dangerous Than Evil
If galamsey were the product of a few wicked men, we could expose them, prosecute them, and be done with it. But it is a movement fed by widespread complicity – from financiers in air conditioned offices to chiefs, local officials, and even community members who have grown dependent on the crumbs of the trade. The system is sustained not by deep conspiracy, but by a collective failure to think – by what Bonhoeffer would call “spiritually and morally dumbed down people” across all social classes.
As Bonhoeffer warned, you cannot argue with stupidity. The galamseyer often believes he is smart, entrepreneurial, and even patriotic. He scoffs at warnings about poisoned rivers and soil, dismisses scientific facts, and ridicules environmentalists as enemies of progress. The financier sees profits and ignores the poisoned water table flowing beneath his future real estate investments. Meanwhile, the nation is witnessing the Ghana Water Company’s
desperate efforts to purify galamsey-polluted sludge in their quest to provide safe drinking
water to the population. They are fully aware of the severe health risks posed by mercury, lead, and other toxins – and yet, they continue to dig and fund the digging. This is not malice. This is national-scale stupidity – wilful blindness in service of greed. A greedy or evil person is not necessarily stupid but a stupid person can be evil and greedy without realizing it.
Breaking the Cycle: Thinking as Resistance
Bonhoeffer concluded that the only way to defeat stupidity is through liberation of the mind. That means fostering environments where people are empowered to think critically, connect cause and effect, and develop moral imagination.
In Ghana, the fight against galamsey must go beyond enforcement, though hard-handed
enforcement will stop the rapid degradation. For a long-term goal, it must be a battle for
awareness, education, and cultural transformation. We must dismantle the social and political conditions that allow stupidity to thrive – silence, fear, selfishness, and blind allegiance to short term gain. We must replace the question “How much can I get now?” with “What kind of country will my grandchildren inherit?”
I have a few friends from the Chinese Communist Party, and their stories are intriguing. Their deep sense of devotion to their country is truly inspiring. That level of national
consciousness didn’t come easy – it was forged through the painful fires of the Cultural
Revolution, led by Mao Zedong. “Firstly do not fear hardship; secondly, do not fear death” –
Mao Zedong. Their mindset reflects a powerful truth: Your greatness lies not in what you have achieved individually, but in what your country has become through your collective
sacrifice.
China’s experience – whether admired or criticized shows how a shared national purpose, even born through hardship, can unify citizens and drive transformative change. Ghana, and many African nations, could benefit from fostering a similar spirit, crafted our own
way – one where individual ambition aligns with national development, and where pride is
rooted in what we build together, not just in personal titles or wealth.
Conclusion
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words ring prophetic in the face of today’s environmental and societal
self-destruction. Galamsey is not just an economic issue or a legal problem. It is a manifestation of a deeper crisis: the surrender of thought, wisdom, and foresight. It is proof that, indeed, the gravest danger is not evil but stupidity. Unless we learn to think again, as individuals, as communities, and as a nation, we may find that in our foolish pursuit of gold, we have buried not just our rivers and lands but our very future.
History has shown that when large groups of people stop thinking and abandon moral courage disaster inevitably follows. The Holocaust, the Srebrenica massacre, the Rwandan genocide, and now the ongoing genocide in Gaza – a modern-day holocaust unfolding before our eyes – are just a few haunting examples. One thing is clear; when people stop thinking, or worse, outsource their conscience to authority, the result is always inhumanity.
The Ghana Medical Association, the Trade Union Congress, the Ghana Registered Nurses
Association, other organized labour bodies, and the general public remain disturbingly silent in the face of what can only be described as a generational genocide. It is as though we are 35 million viruses, living within a cell called Ghana, devouring the country from within. The essential organelles of this cell – our rivers and forest reserves are being destroyed, leaving a breached cell wall. We are waltzing into an existential crisis.
This was never meant to happen.
This should never happen.
And yet, this is happening…
The writer is a steward of the environment, driven by a deep commitment to protect and preserve nature for generations to come. He prefers to remain anonymous.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
