The Wearisomeness of "Experts"

The complexity of contemporary life makes reliance on the possessors of specialized knowledge unavoidable. I say "unavoidable" because, frankly, few would think it truly desirable--whether in the way that individuals in making their careers are forced to squeeze their development into Max Weber's "iron cage," or the way that the situation leaves the rest of us dependent on said "experts," unable even to judge their work for ourselves save by getting a "second opinion" whose value we, again, cannot judge for ourselves. That we also do so in an age in which experts are so quick to organize themselves into priesthoods ("professions") that speak of public service but in the political arena never fail to show that they mainly serve themselves within a context where market values prevail and the watchword is "Buyer beware" (for it is in a marketplace as buyers that we procure the services of experts) does not make going about approaching experts any more comfortable a thing.

Of course, what the prevailing cultural Authority when anyone mentions such facts of life is pooh-pooh them, dismissing mistrust of experts as a failing in the ignorant--with Authority in the process showing itself to be as obtuse as it is unsympathetic in light of the failings of the experts which they so refuse to recognize. There is the way that they display a self-importance that comes from believing theirs is the only important activity in the world, and that none but their priesthood are fit to say a word about it. There is the way in which these narrowly trained individuals so often pass off their priesthood's dogma as science to the credulous, while offering "expert opinions" that very frequently are their lazy substitute for an examination of the facts and their analysis and the time and effort that this would take on their part, the more in as few are in a position to call them on it. There is the way that they, in line with what Lord Salisbury had to say about the doctors, the theologians, the soldiers (nothing ever wholesome, innocent or safe), they make you feel worse about everything, yourself included, because they are always sure that "YOU'RE DOING EVERYTHING WRONG!" no matter what it is you happen to be doing and they tell you so in the most disrespectful, alarming, discouraging, humiliating, depressing and frankly bullying way. There is the way that, showing complete indifference to the plenitude of other concerns in the world, and the constraints on other people's actions, and what may be practical or impractical for them, they invariably advise courses which are inconvenient and expensive, not incidentally because they require paying a significant fee to a member of their profession or one allied to it to perform services likely to be highly invasive of their homes, finances, family life, and even their minds and bodies, and likely to lead to still more fees as one's hard-won money falls down their money pit--and regard their "recommendations" as orders that only pure idiot scum would ever question. And there is the way that they show more concern for maintaining their own air of Authority than addressing the needs of those who come to them--or owning to the limits of their ability to do so, "I" and "don't" and "know" three little words that, however commonplace they may be individually in the speaking of the English language, the expert is unlikely to say in succession together as the three little words "I don't know" when the client in front of them presses them for a straight answer. All of which is, of course, the less bearable the poorer one is--especially as the expert will look on them as an inferior, and let them know it; especially as their coming to such a figure is that much more likely to be the kind of emergency in which they not only want a straight answer (Who doesn't?) but they need a straight answer because of the desperation of the situation that had them embarking on this expedient; and especially as the bill they know they are going to get regardless of whether the problem is resolved or not is likely to represent a hardship, even when it is relatively small (as it rarely is).

But then those wearing the mantle of Authority have rarely shown much concern for those who have least. No, it is more natural for them to malign those unhappy with how the expert treats them and make the expert the victim--to snivel about a war on experts. So much so that when those in Authority do show a dangerous disregard for expertise on those occasions when the state of the art does not align with the policies elites prefer, even as the experts (for once in the right!) conscientiously and bravely stand their ground, it is that much easier for said elites to get away with it. The more in as there is never a scarcity of members of any priesthood ready to throw in their lot with the powerful, because in the end it is much more likely to be the thought of doing well than doing good that enabled them to endure the iron cage of the specialist.