On Stupidity as a Pedagogical Commitment

A Constructive Engagement with Derek R. Ford

Abstract

This paper undertakes a sustained engagement with Marxism, Pedagogy, and the General Intellect by Derek R. Ford (2021). The pedagogical form of stupidity, as developed by Ford, is given particular attention as one that is actually not pedagogical, but should rather be understood as a tactical force utilized by capital and the state in making subjects legible to it. I propose that stupidity is a potentially violent and dangerous suspension of thought that leaves a subject bare to the forces of capital self-valorization and state power. My analysis braves stupidity in order to bear the pedagogical form of intuition as one that can sustain life, that can provide relief, and alternate tactics for confronting both capital and state power. Stupidity is a fundamental technique used in the making of corpses. Intuition cultivates life in our children and does so with the aid of Karl Marx’s articulation of a ‘social brain’. My hope is that my engagement be a call to begin a consensual contract with the general social forces that produce and sustain all of our lives in common.