The Death of Expertise - The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters

Technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise shows how this rejection of experts has occurred: the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine, among other reasons. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. When ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy or, in the worst case, a combination of both. An update to the 2017breakout hit, the paperback edition of The Death of Expertise provides a new foreword to cover the alarming exacerbation of these trends in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election. Judging from events on the ground since it first published, The Death of Expertise issues a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age that is even more important today. A Cult Of Anti-expertise Sentiment Has Coincided With Anti-intellectualism, Resulting In Massively Viral Yet Poorly Informed Debates Ranging From The Anti-vaccination Movement To Attacks On Gmos. As Tom Nichols Shows In The Death Of Expertise, There Are A Number Of Reasons Why This Has Occurred-ranging From Easy Access To Internet Search Engines To A Customer Satisfaction Model Within Higher Education. Thanks To Technological Advances And Increasing Levels Of Education, We Have Access To More Information Than Ever Before. Yet Rather Than Ushering In A New Era Of Enlightenment, The Information Age Has Helped Fuel A Surge In Narcissistic And Misguided Intellectual Egalitananism That Has Crippled Informed Debates On Any Number Of Issues. Today, Everyone Knows Everything: With Only A Quick Trip Through Webmd Or Wikipedia, Average Citizens Believe Themselves To Be On An Equal Intellectual Footing With Doctors And Diplomats. All Voices, Even The Most Ridiculous, Demand To Be Taken With Equal Seriousness, And Any Claim To The Contrary Is Dismissed As Undemocratic Elitism. As Tom Nichols Shows In The Death Of Expertise, This Rejection Of Experts Has Occurred For Many Reasons, Including The Openness Of The Internet, The Emergence Of A Customer Satisfaction Model In Higher Education, And The Transformation Of The News Industry Into A 24-hour Entertainment Machine. Paradoxically, The Increasingly Democratic Dissemination Of Information, Rather Than Producing An Educated Public, Has Instead Created An Army Of Ill-informed And Angry Citizens Who Denounce Intellectual Achievement And Distrust Experts. Nichols Has Deeper Concerns Than The Current Rejection Of Expertise And Learning, Noting That When Ordinary Citizens Believe That No One Knows More Than Anyone Else, Democratic Institutions Themselves Are In Danger Of Falling Either To Populism Or To Technocracy---or In The Worst Case, A Combination Of Both. The Death Of Expertise Is Not Only An Exploration Of A Dangerous Phenomenon But Also A Warning About The Stability And Survival Of Modern Democracy In The Information Age.--jacket. Introduction: The Death Of Expertise -- Experts And Citizens -- How Conversation Became Exhausting -- Higher Education : The Customer Is Always Right -- Let Me Google That For You : How Unlimited Information Is Making Us Dumber -- The New New Journalism, And Lots Of It -- When The Experts Are Wrong -- Conclusion: Experts And Democracy. Tom Nichols. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The rise of the internet and other technology has made information more easily-accessible than ever before. While this has had the positive effect of equalizing access to knowledge, it also has lowered the bar on what depth of knowledge is required to consider oneself an "expert." A cult of anti-expertise sentiment has coincided with anti-intellectualism, resulting in massively viral yet poorly informed debates ranging from the anti-vaccination movement to attacks on GMOs. This surge in intellectual egalitarianism has altered the landscape of debates-all voices are equal, and "fact" is a subjective term. Browsing WebMD puts one on equal footing with doctors, and Wikipedia allows all to be foreign policy experts, scientists, and more. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, there are a number of reasons why this has occurred-ranging from easy access to Internet search engines to a customer satisfaction model within higher education. The product of these interrelated trends, Nichols argues, is a pervasive distrust of expertise among the public coinciding with an unfounded belief among non-experts that their opinions should have equal standing with those of the experts. The experts are not always right, of course, and Nichols discusses expert failure. The crucial point is that bad decisions by experts can and have been effectively challenged by other well-informed experts. The issue now is that the democratization of information dissemination has created an army of ill-informed citizens who denounce expertise. When challenged, non-experts resort to the false argument that the experts are often wrong. Though it may be true, but the solution is not to jettison expertise as an ideal; it is to improve our expertise. Nichols is certainly not opposed to information democratization, but rather the enlightenment people believe they achieve after superficial internet research. He shows in vivid detail the ways in which this impulse is coursing through our culture and body politic, but the larger goal is to explain the benefits that expertise and rigorous learning regimes bestow upon all societies. Technology And Increasing Levels Of Education Have Exposed People To More Information Than Ever Before. These Societal Gains, However, Have Also Helped Fuel A Surge In Narcissistic And Misguided Intellectual Egalitarianism That Has Crippled Informed Debates On Any Number Of Issues. Today, Everyone Knows Everything: With Only A Quick Trip Through Webmd Or Wikipedia, Average Citizens Believe Themselves To Be On An Equal Intellectual Footing With Doctors And Diplomats. All Voices, Even The Most Ridiculous, Demand To Be Taken With Equal Seriousness, And Any Claim To The Contrary Is Dismissed As Undemocratic Elitism. Tom Nichols' The Death Of Expertise Shows How This Rejection Of Experts Has Occurred: The Openness Of The Internet, The Emergence Of A Customer Satisfaction Model In Higher Education, And The Transformation Of The News Industry Into A 24-hour Entertainment Machine, Among Other Reasons. Paradoxically, The Increasingly Democratic Dissemination Of Information, Rather Than Producing An Educated Public, Has Instead Created An Army Of Ill-informed And Angry Citizens Who Denounce Intellectual Achievement. When Ordinary Citizens Believe That No One Knows More Than Anyone Else, Democratic Institutions Themselves Are In Danger Of Falling Either To Populism Or To Technocracy Or, In The Worst Case, A Combination Of Both. An Update To The 2017breakout Hit, The Paperback Edition Of The Death Of Expertise Provides A New Foreword To Cover The Alarming Exacerbation Of These Trends In The Aftermath Of Donald Trump's Election. Judging From Events On The Ground Since It First Published, The Death Of Expertise Issues A Warning About The Stability And Survival Of Modern Democracy In The Information Age That Is Even More Important Today. "Thanks to technological advances and increasing levels of education, we have access to more information than ever before. Yet rather than ushering in a new era of enlightenment, the information age has helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the Internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement and distrust experts. Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy -- or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age" -- From dust jacket People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and by increasing access to every level of education. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise , this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy-or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age. The rise of the internet and other technology has made information more easily-accessible than ever before. While this has had the positive effect of equalizing access to knowledge, it also has lowered the bar on what depth of knowledge is required to consider oneself an "expert." A cult ofanti-expertise sentiment has coincided with anti-intellectualism, resulting in massively viral yet poorly informed debates ranging from the anti-vaccination movement to attacks on GMOs. This surge in intellectual egalitarianism has altered the landscape of debates - all voices are equal, and "fact"is a subjective term. Browsing WebMD puts one on equal footing with doctors, and Wikipedia allows all to be foreign policy experts, scientists, and more.As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, there are a number of reasons why this has occurred - ranging from easy access to Internet search engines to a customer satisfaction model within higher education. The product of these interrelated trends, Nichols argues, is a pervasive distrust ofexpertise among the public coinciding with an unfounded belief among non-experts that their opinions should have equal standing with those of the experts. The experts are not always right, of course, and Nichols discusses expert failure "Technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism. The Death of Expertise shows how this rejection of experts has occurred: the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, greater dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. Now updated with a new forward that explains how all these related issues came to a head in the wake of Donald Trump's election."--Back cover "Technology and increasing levels of education expose people to more information than ever before. These gains, however, also fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that derails debates on numerous issues. With only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be as informed as doctors and diplomats. All voices demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as elitism. The Death of Expertise shows how this rejection of experts developed: the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, greater democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed, angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. Now updated with a new forward that explains how all these related issues came to a head in the wake of Donald Trump's election."--Page 4 of cover