According to Osho, politicians are indeed stupid—their games keep nations divided when science shows the earth is one, squandering humanity’s creativity on war, waste, and mismanagement. History’s endless conflicts and absurdities—starvation amid surplus—prove their destructiveness. By maintaining division, they block the affluence now possible and delay humanity’s natural turn toward meditation and inner growth; true intelligence would dissolve nations and redirect energy to creation, not conflict.
Osho says politicians act foolishly by keeping people divided and fighting, wasting our energy and food when we could share, create, and grow inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, are the politicians really as stupid as you say they are?
Govind, THEY ARE MORE STUPID THAN I SAY. In fact, unless a person is stupid he cannot be a politician. It is not that the politicians are stupid -- in fact, only stupid people are attracted towards politics. What is politics basically? The desire to dominate others -- and that is the most stupid thing in life. The intelligent person tries to be a master of himself, and the stupid person tries to be master of others. And how can you be a master of others if you are not a master of yourself? If you are not a master of yourself, then trying to be a master of others is just a substitute to befool yourself, to deceive yourself, and that is what the stupidity consists of. Two politicians were sitting on a park bench in New Delhi. "I will tell you the truth," said one. "I am afraid…
Why do you think that the politicians are stupid?
People ask me why Indians are not here. They cannot be here because we are REALLY interested in meditation. They go to Satya Sai Baba because meditation is not the question there -- miracles are happening. They can hope. They are ill: maybe Satya Sai Baba, by his miracle, can take their illness away. Maybe they are unemployed: by his blessing they will be employed. They are poor: by his blessing they will become rich. They go to Satya Sai Baba -- he deals in things which they need. And they are really surprised when Swiss-made watches appear out of nowhere. That is their real object -- they want Swiss-made watches. Stupid people, and stupid are their saints. Now a saint playing games, magic games, ordinary magic games! We have sannyasins -- Avinash can do it, Sarvesh can do it -- just small games, of no value at all, of…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, DO POLITICIANS HAVE BRAINS? He said, "That is my order to all of my offices around the world: anything new, purchase immediately for the palace." Useless models of television sets ... I said to him, "One day I would like to go around your whole palace with you, because if this is the situation of the guest house, I would like to know what the situation of the host is. It must be worse." And it was. This guest house was a small house in the garden; between the garden and the palace there were beautiful fountains and trees and lawns, and then his palace. The first floor was full of horses! I said, "My God! Do you like riding?" He said, "No." I said, "Then what are these horses doing here?" -- and such beautiful horses I have never seen. He said, "Just my orders.
Beloved Osho, why are politicians so mean?
Prem Christo, they are mean because they are stupid. Stupidity has always the shadow of meanness. The more intelligent you are, the less mean you are. The utterly intelligent person cannot have any meanness; it is impossible. He can have only love and compassion. The stupid person has to be mean because that is the only way he thinks he can win. The intelligent person has no desire to win, the intelligent person is already victorious in his intelligence. The intelligent person is already superior in his intelligence, he has not to compete for it. The stupid person has to continuously compete. And because he is stupid, he cannot rely on his intelligence, he has to rely on something else: he becomes mean, cunning, deceptive, a hypocrite. To me, stupidity is the only sin, and everything else is just a by-product of it. And intelligence is the only virtue; everything…
Osho, why do politicians go on misunderstanding you?
People are different, people are unequal. The most fundamental error that Karl Marx committed was that he was not at all aware of the psychological inequality of human beings. Communism lacks something very fundamental, the perspective that people are unequal psychologically. And a fair and free world has to give people full freedom to be unequal, to move into their own talents, to be themselves. Because I say that capitalism is the natural evolution of human society, immediately the politicians become afraid. They think then I must be working for America or the C.l.A. or something. Just a few days before, a well-known communist, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, wrote an article against me, declaring that I am working for the C.l.A. Now, this is surprising because others say that Khwaja Ahmed Abbas is a Russian agent. In America, if you talk about communism, you are a Russian agent. If you talk…