Question the ‘experts’: They don’t know as much as they think

By David McElroy · September 23, 2011

A scientific belief that undergirds most of modern physics might have just been proven wrong. If so, what does this tell us about what we’ve thought we understood about physics for the last hundred years?

In 1905, Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity proposed that nothing in the universe could travel faster than light in a vacuum. For reasons far too geeky to explain — some of which are beyond my understanding — this is a fundamental building block of the standard model of modern physics. But scientists at the CERN physics lab in Switzerland have observed a particle traveling faster than the speed of light. Does this mean we don’t know as much as we think we know?

First, it doesn’t mean that the practical applications of modern physics are all wrong. Laws of science based on Einstein’s theories have given us lasers and CDs and all sorts of amazing modern products that we wouldn’t otherwise have. But it does mean — once again — that we see that scientists can have a firm belief in things they state as fact which turn out to be wrong.

Experts know a lot of things. They’re very useful in a lot of situations. I’m not arguing against knowledge. But I am arguing that a lot of experts get pretty arrogant in their assumptions that they must be right.

Some of the most arrogant “experts” are the people who believe they have everything figured out about concerning how to govern a society. These people aren’t just confident. They’re arrogant in their certainty that you have an obligation to obey them. They believe that the majoritarian systems that we use today — with a majority selecting people to make decisions for everyone else — is moral and practical. The truth is that it’s neither, but it’s what we’ve been doing for so long that the experts are unable to think about anything else.

Listen to experts in some fields, but don’t assume they’re as right as they assume they are. In fact, trust the ones who admit that there are a lot of things they don’t yet know. Run screaming from the arrogant ones who tell you they’re going to make your decisions for you.

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I haven’t posted anything new in my YouTube series about narcissism in the last couple of weeks, so some people have been asking about it. There’s nothing wrong and I’ll be back soon. The issue is simply a technical problem because of a piece of equipment that died. Here’s a brief video I posted on YouTube to explain.

On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

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