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The Fascism of Knowing Stuff
Apr. 17th, 2013 10:13 amVia ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daveon comes this wonderful article entitled The Fascism of Knowing Stuff. Basically, the article points out that modern society really is complex enough that we have to rely on the judgments of experts.
For example, my dad is a very smart individual, yet he asks me to fix his PC. I think I'm a smart individual, but if I need something mechanical repaired or built, I ask him. We both ask accountants, doctors and lawyers for advice in their fields of expertise, because we don't have sufficient knowledge in those fields.
The best line from the article: The price of technology, comfort and hopefully greater understanding of the universe and our place in it is an acceptance that we may not know best in all events and common sense, a hammer and a bag of leeches may not get you through it all.
I've had unfortunate dealings with a number of libertarians, and this "fascism of knowing stuff" really gets under their skin. They (as a group) don't seem to understand why we should defer to climate scientists or FDA regulators. The answer "because they've forgotten more than you'll ever know" is accurate but apparently unacceptable.
Now, this does not mean all experts get an automatic pass. For example, a pair of experts released a study in 2010 that purported to show that countries with high debt-to-GDP ratios always had low economic growth. Now we learn that the study is flawed, including errors in Excel spreadsheets. Peer review matters, but in the end, we will end up relying on experts.
daveon comes this wonderful article entitled The Fascism of Knowing Stuff. Basically, the article points out that modern society really is complex enough that we have to rely on the judgments of experts.For example, my dad is a very smart individual, yet he asks me to fix his PC. I think I'm a smart individual, but if I need something mechanical repaired or built, I ask him. We both ask accountants, doctors and lawyers for advice in their fields of expertise, because we don't have sufficient knowledge in those fields.
The best line from the article: The price of technology, comfort and hopefully greater understanding of the universe and our place in it is an acceptance that we may not know best in all events and common sense, a hammer and a bag of leeches may not get you through it all.
I've had unfortunate dealings with a number of libertarians, and this "fascism of knowing stuff" really gets under their skin. They (as a group) don't seem to understand why we should defer to climate scientists or FDA regulators. The answer "because they've forgotten more than you'll ever know" is accurate but apparently unacceptable.
Now, this does not mean all experts get an automatic pass. For example, a pair of experts released a study in 2010 that purported to show that countries with high debt-to-GDP ratios always had low economic growth. Now we learn that the study is flawed, including errors in Excel spreadsheets. Peer review matters, but in the end, we will end up relying on experts.