The Death of Expertise
The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters
About the book
The growing hostility to experts in the United States is the subject Thomas Nichols takes on, expanding an article he wrote for The Federalist. He argues that a quick online search leaves ordinary people feeling equal to doctors and diplomats, and that every voice now demands equal weight. Nichols blames the openness of the internet, a customer satisfaction model in higher education, where tolerance of narcissism feeds grade inflation, and a news industry turned into round-the-clock entertainment. He grants that experts sometimes fail, but holds that other experts correcting them is the best remedy. When citizens believe no one knows more than anyone else, he warns, democracy risks sliding into populism or technocracy. A second edition added material on COVID-19.
Mark Manson put it on his list of five books explaining why the world seems so broken, summarizing Nichols's case that people have carried ideas of freedom and equality into the domain of truth and expect unqualified opinions to be respected.
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Mark Manson (Founder/MarkManson.net)
With our modern obsessions of freedom and equality and happiness, Nichols argues that we’ve taken these rights and applied them to a domain where they don’t belong: truth. People feel “the right” to have their opinions and beliefs respected, even though they are not qualified, have no credentials or offer no expertise. Pundits on TV claim that their beliefs that climate change doesn’t exist, or that vaccinations are harmful, are just as valid — and should be respected just as much — as their scientific counterparts. Nichols’ blame is scattershot. Everything from the usual internet gripes, to cable television, to the grade inflation happening in school, to school bureaucracies treating students as customers rather than, well, students.
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