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A philosopher who talks of stupidity is always suspect. Who does he think he is? As if by talking of imbeciles, one can exclude oneself. As if stupidity is the only subject which doesn’t apply to oneself. How could stupidity be the exception to the rule it stems from? Stupidity kills novelty as surely as routine kills love. It is disappointed intelligence which cannot understand life in depth, and so explains it in extenso. Stupidity freezes movement, transforms new ideas into received ideas, aphorisms into proverbs, critical thinking into sentimentality. We see it in those who give lessons but don’t act accordingly, or in fervent hedonists, whose orgasms serve to forget they’re not happy. Stupidity reduces the world to Oneself, difference to identity, like a doctrinaire approach. Stupidity chooses to recognize instead of meet. It is not the enemy of intelligence, but of disquiet. Stupidity immunizes against the suffering of others. Stupidity doesn’t think, but it’s indispensable, in the same way that men without courage shout along with the crowd. Stupidity always has the last word, it’s always right.
-- Gilles Deleuze, Differences et repetitions
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