1 Comment

Expertise without self criticism is the issue. The true expert is always looking to prove his knowledge false and therefore can constantly increase the scope and power of the knowledge.

One of the complaints of the non expert is that experts are always changing the advice making them either idiots or liars when the opposite is actually true. If it was left to the masses the earth would still be a flat plate with a cement cupola holding the night sky. Because we can see more as we explore our viewpoint must change and the true expert is all about this change.

The covid crisis has highlighted this problem of false expertise and it’s danger very well. One of the pillars of the anti expertise movement is mask wearing and Dr Fauci and the CDC view early on that masks were not essential for the common public until they turned out to be very essential. Because of the “flip flop” the anti exers have used this to demean and devalue all of the mitigation responses. As an expert in bio weapons and other weapons of mass destruction I can say that many of us experts felt that for the average citizen wearing a mask under the conditions we thought were extant, mask wearing might become a problem that protected little or not at all because of the lack of proper fitting. But because we are experts as soon as data started to show otherwise masks became very important and part of the protective protocols to be used to combat this pandemic. Despite this many still complain that their human rights are being violated despite this being no more problematic for most people as wearing a shirt in a public restaurant (which people do not seem to want to kill over).

Expand full comment