October 09, 2024

On "Good" Authority

Daniel Jupp

Probably the most succinct I have ever been in expressing my view on ‘conspiracy theories’ and those who insist on credentialism.

By all means challenge bullshit whatever its source. But do it by your own thinking and logic. NEVER do it just by an appeal to authority:

"The demand that someone should hold a degree before speaking is just about the dumbest idea imaginable. I’d rather have a thousand conspiracy theories that aren’t true than one unthinking jobsworth with the power to silence others and the sheer ignorance to think that only those with a ‘relevant degree’ can hold an opinion. Fuck that servile authority loving totalitarian bullshit.”

Tim adds:

Amen.Science and technology and most such other aspects of human progress have rarely been propelled by "authorities". In fact, Western Civilization was held back for centuries by it's obsession with experts, namely Aristotle and the other classical scholars. It wasn't until people began questioning the "experts" that the West came out of the stupor that had held it backward.

I would also point out that the obsession with formal degrees is fairly new. Many of the great scholars of history lacked a formal degree.

Galileo started working on a degree but never finished it.

Isaac Newton, had only a bachelor's degree and would be completely ignored now.

Copernicus had a doctorate - in Canon Law, not astronomy or physics.

Leonardo Da Vinci had no formal education at all.

And that wasn't just true of then. How many great inventors lacked education? Thomas Edison never even graduated high school. Alexander Graham Bell quit high school at age 15.There are others, many.

And that goes for statesmen as well. Abraham Lincoln had no formal education, for example. Nor did Patrick Henry.

In point of fact "experts" are almost always drawn from universities and are indoctrinated with group think and ossified ideas that do not allow for original thinking.

As writer Arthur C. Clark put it;

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong".

Or as Nicholas Butler put it:

"An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until finally, he knows everything about nothing."

Edwin Meese put it thus:

"An expert is somebody who is more than 50 miles from home, has no responsibility for implementing the advice he gives, and shows slides."

That is not to say expertiese isn't important in some cases. I would far prefer an engineer who is considered an expert to a DEI hire or a home handyman building the airplane I am to fly in, but by and large most "experts" are so styled by their college degrees and their self- asserted claim to expertise.

Sadly, this has become the sole determinant of all of our hiring these days. You can't get a job teaching, say, history even if you don't have a government certificate. I had a friend who had a degree in nursing but his undergraduate degree was business and, after twenty years of being an RN, he had to go back and get a bachelors in nursing! It was that or find another line of work. I have far greater faith in him than some teenie-bopper coming out of a nursing program.

At any rate it takes an expert to really foul things up. They are always reinventing the wheel, and then claiming their are far-sighted and brilliant.

BTW One of the key differences between Left and Right is that Leftists are unwilling or unable to think for themselves so venerate "experts" over the wisdom of crowds. Conservatives believe in theindividual and human reason. it's a fundamental difference and why so many liberals believe as Gospel the craziest things said by shcolars. Naturally, they fund the scholarship being done so they control the pronoouncements made by the "experts". They just ignore experts who disagree or call them sellouts.

Thomas Sowell wrote about this, so I have it on good authority!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:40 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 677 words, total size 4 kb.

1 I would certainly agree here with Butler and Meese. And totally with anything Thomas Sowell says!

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at October 10, 2024 12:16 AM (LsX8Y)

2 I hear that Dana! Sowell is a national treasure and careful thinker.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at October 10, 2024 07:12 AM (M3TdW)

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