I bring that up because Tom Nichols touched on it when he spoke last Thursday at the New York City Bar. His talk (technically, a conversation with Bard College's Jim Ketterer), sponsored by the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, was in promotion of his new book, The Death of Expertise. He didn't specifically talk about campus protests and their demands, but he did talk about students forgetting their place (my word not his -- he was more diplomatic) vis-à-vis that of the professor. He noted that the student petitioned for admission to the school, and is not being held a prisoner there. Nichols also referenced, albeit briefly, the case of Yale's shrieking girl (video below). Nichols also related his own experience at Georgetown, as a graduate student, assuming himself to be a peer to one of his philosophy professors.
Ketterer opened the conversation by asking why Nichols wrote the book, since it is outside of his field of expertise**. Nichols' areas are national security, international relations and -- especially -- Russia. He is one of our country's leading experts on Russia and the Soviet Union. Nichols pinned his decision to write the book on an exchange he had when Edward Snowden was in the news. Someone turned to him and said "Tom, let me explain Russia to you." He went home and wrote a long angry blogpost. Nichols did acknowledge that it wasn't that comment alone. He has heard similar things before, and he is concerned about the fact that expertise seems to be devalued these days.
Nichols and Ketterer placed blame with a few scapegoats, including academia, the obsession with children's self-esteem, and social media. The topic of President Trump inevitably came up, which led to Nichols' best line of the night: "Donald Trump did not create the war on expertise, but he surfed it magnificently."
The distrust of experts was a theme that Nichols hit on repeatedly. Experts do make mistakes, he noted, but their opinions still have more value than the opinions of nonexperts. But experts could gain more trust if they were more forthcoming about their mistakes.
I tended to agree with most of the points Nichols made, though I am not convinced about social media's role in all this. I suspect that there was the same distrust of experts before, but it was harder for anyone who wasn't accepted as an expert to have a voice. Now, anyone with access to a computer can make Youtube videos, and it can be hard to tell who actually is an expert. Take, for example, 9/11. There are all sorts of Youtube videos providing all sorts of crazy theories about the attack. ANd many of them may look completely legitimate if viewed in a vacuum. Hell, with Sharon's help, I could probably create a convincing-looking video "proving" that 9/11 was the work of space aliens.
I do hope that I didn't offend Professor Nichols. Before the talk, Ethan and I asked him to sign our copy of his new book. In talking to him, I called him Mr. Nichols instead of Dr. or Professor. Oops. Well, Ethan is probably seeing him again this week. Maybe he won't make the same mistake I did.
Nichols and Ketterer placed blame with a few scapegoats, including academia, the obsession with children's self-esteem, and social media. The topic of President Trump inevitably came up, which led to Nichols' best line of the night: "Donald Trump did not create the war on expertise, but he surfed it magnificently."
The distrust of experts was a theme that Nichols hit on repeatedly. Experts do make mistakes, he noted, but their opinions still have more value than the opinions of nonexperts. But experts could gain more trust if they were more forthcoming about their mistakes.
I tended to agree with most of the points Nichols made, though I am not convinced about social media's role in all this. I suspect that there was the same distrust of experts before, but it was harder for anyone who wasn't accepted as an expert to have a voice. Now, anyone with access to a computer can make Youtube videos, and it can be hard to tell who actually is an expert. Take, for example, 9/11. There are all sorts of Youtube videos providing all sorts of crazy theories about the attack. ANd many of them may look completely legitimate if viewed in a vacuum. Hell, with Sharon's help, I could probably create a convincing-looking video "proving" that 9/11 was the work of space aliens.
I do hope that I didn't offend Professor Nichols. Before the talk, Ethan and I asked him to sign our copy of his new book. In talking to him, I called him Mr. Nichols instead of Dr. or Professor. Oops. Well, Ethan is probably seeing him again this week. Maybe he won't make the same mistake I did.
*For examples, see:
**My joke, thank you. I'll be here all week.
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