It Only Takes Two or Three

“We live in a time of stunning and contagious collective stupidity[i]. Anti-Nazi German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Letters and Papers from Prison:

‘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…’

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., similarly observed, ‘Nothing is more dangerous than sincere stupidity and conscientious ignorance.’ When you begin paying attention to our current predicament, you get a daily baptism in stupidity, especially among the cynical media personalities and ideologues who are part of the climate denial community. They have the power to make mountains of scientific evidence disappear in a magician’s poof.” (pgs 187-188)

The arguments against the existence of climate change, its cause and likely effects can be appealing because they contain a small amount of truth, just enough to make them seem reasonable:

1.     You’re scaring the children.

2.     The media are exaggerating everything

3.     Climate activists are motivated by money.

4.     Past scenarios and predictions were wrong.

5.     Environmentalism has become a religion.

6.     You’ll destroy the economy.

7.     You can’t exclude the poor from the fossil-fuel bonanza.

8.     Innovation has saved us in the past.

9.     We can adapt.

Writer and philosopher Roy Scranton observed: “Alerting people to the problem and educating broad audiences has proven ineffective against deliberately sown confusion, deep scientific ignorance, widespread apathy, and outright hostility…Warning people of the danger we face only seems to sow anxiety and fear…and to provoke not restraint, but scapegoating and aggression…What can mere words do for a doomed civilization?” (pg 194)

So how do we respond to the danger we face from climate change as well as the danger we face from the stunning and contagious “stupidity”? Do we panic, or do we look for a way to maintain a modicum of calm and non-anxious presence?

McLaren suggests that we have control over “our own individual behavior and how we support one another through the crisis.” (pg 195)

“During times of doom, people become what they never before imagined. Many are sucked into a black hole of shared, mutually confirming stupidity. Some become blamers, shamers, thieves, thugs, criminals, vigilantes, terrorists, traitors, escapists hoarders, panic-stricken crybabies, cultic conspiracy theorists, scammers or craven cowards. Others become heroes, saint, resisters, martyrs, organizers, problem solvers, protectors, community builders, non-anxious presences, leaders, healers, and old-fashioned good neighbors.” (pg 196)

We can choose how we will respond to crisis.

But to choose the course that can help maintain some stability we will need each other, even if is only a group of two or three, to create “a little island of composure in a climate of chaos.” (pg 196)

“We need people reaching out and building huddles of sanity and mutual kindness, preparing to share and support each other when turbulence comes and we’re all tempted to be sucked into collective stupidity.” (pg 198)

It only takes two or three. Who are your “two or three”?

[i] I would not choose the word “stupidity”. People I know who are climate deniers, or (to reflect on current events in March of 2025) support Donald Trump and his efforts to remake our democracy, are not stupid people. Many of them are smart, morally upright, wanting to do the right thing. They believe they have chosen Trump from the best possible motives, making the best of bad choices. I believe these choices have been made due to many decades of flawed theology (Trump’s election was dependent on white evangelical Christians, so theology played a role), right-wing media misinformation and fear-mongering. Demographically, white Americans are losing their position of power. White Christians are losing their ability to influence society as demographics change and America becomes more secular and pluralistic. This has produced the fear of losing position and power. Right-wing (Christian) media has fed this fear and promoted the idea that white Christians are “hated” and “persecuted”, and they need to “re-program” America (I actually heard a conservative white evangelical leader use this phrase).  Bad theology, fear and misinformation has caused good, intelligent people to make flawed choices. And now we are at the point where “facts that contradict one’s prejudgment (are not) believed.”

(For all posts in this series on Life After Doom, click here or on the Life After Doom box below)