Experts

Another bane of my life is the profound ignorance of experts! They learn so much in one small field, lose perspective and then say that without their know;edge you cannot comment on the subject or understand such affairs.

I read an opinion yesterday which extends this, as the argument is used by third parties, who side with the "expert", unquestioningly taking on board totally the view that without official training one cannot contribute to that subject. In a discussion on the practice of infant vaccination an ordinary American suggested that those who refuse vaccines for their children and talk with others about their reasons should be
" charged with the criminal behavior of practising medicine without a license and gagged and/or removed from the community."

Now I know that to study and to learn are laudable practices, I do it constantly myself, but the age of the internet emphasises that it's the ability to comprehend and to sift through ideas that is the most crucial ability. Craft skills such as spray painting a car are defined but if a new methodology turns up the old skill in largely useless, except in assesssing the end product. Look at newspaper printsetters in the 80s. Then look at bankers in the last few years - they sold a host of bogus products for years and conned whole countries or anyway persuaded them to overexpand and expend and too fast.

Now medics sell/use the products of "Big Pharma" and because they always have it is not a practice they dare question or even feel the need to. It requires informed and objective observation from outside the expertise to describe the problems and bring forward solutions. You cannot imagine that such a huge industry would voluntarily shut itself down, can you?

[On that latter point, I feel that there would be a lot of work as "Big Health Promoter" for the phrmaceutical industry to move on to and medics could carry out real medicine on any intense cases of infection rather than acting as "fitters" for the pharmacists and trusting in the ideas of a 19th century quack (Jenner)who lifted his ideas from Turkish peasants - who probably did a better job than he did!]