“The new oligarchy must increasingly rely on the advice of scientists, till in the end, the politicians become merely the scientists’ puppets.” – C. S. Lewis
The Modern Day Expert
How are we defining an expert?
noun – A person knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area. (“an expert in healthcare”)
My take on current ‘expertism’ – Know a lot about a narrow field. There is the consumption of more and more information about less and less until they know everything about nothing. PhD – pile higher and deeper.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Walter Russell, Buckminster Fuller, to name just a few. Men of sublime wisdom. Their knowledge was not limited to a niche field of research and study but a non-linear recognition of the interconnectedness of life.
To what degree can we compare what society calls ‘an expert’ to the geniuses of the past? And what is it that separates them?
Systems
Nature is the ultimate system. She wastes nothing and leaves nothing waiting. There is a continual adaptation that science calls evolutions, and religion calls creation.
All systems which reduce, restrict, or eliminate freedom are the antithesis of nature. Reductive systems work against life itself. Today, this is where we are with materialist science and related ‘experts’. These so-called ‘experts’ reduce their science down to a minuscule area of life without considering the expansive nature of reality.
Limiting life in this way may give us some incredible discoveries, but it also leaves us unable to comprehend and expand increasing complexity.
After all, the smaller we reduce reality, the more we realise nothing is there.
Holistic Thinking
By studying mental models like Spiral Dynamics and Susan Cook-Greuter ego-developmental model, we see that the more evolved a human, the more universally the mind comprehends reality.
Masters, philosophers, and geniuses of the past did not think linearly. They did not have one line of expertise disregard correlated subject matter. They understood that life and its divine expression of nature are incomprehensibly complex systems. And studying one field with disregard for the others is futile.
Take the human body, for example. We have ‘experts’ on the psychological ‘disorders’ who have zero comprehension of the digestive system. The gut has 500 million neurons that are connected to the brain. This means that psychologists/psychiatrists (using the term lightly) should study food, diet, and the microbiome. The majority do not; you only have to visit a clinic to see that the majority have little embodiment of wellbeing. From food, we are led to organic vs synthetic farming, which leads to soil quality…. and on and on.
Rudolf Steiner is an example of a holistic thinker.
Sense-Making
Sense-making is the conceptual process in which a learner engages with the natural or designed world, wonders about it, and then develops, tests, and refines ideas. Authentic sense-making requires a healthy degree of ego development. If one hasn’t done enough internal work, they’ll have poor sense-making capability, naturally.
Sense-making is becoming more difficult because of information warfare. How is it possible to make sense of the world around you when the information you’re being fed is misaligned?
Many so-called ‘experts’ provide inadequate information which does not allow authentic sense-making. Often due to lobbying, corruption, and similar actions, these types are not only doing the bidding for certain organisations, but they’re in a battle for your attention. Our biases, which we all have, are manipulated by organisations to influence behaviour.
Quality sense-making requires authenticity. He knows himself and is less likely to be manipulated. The inauthentic man is neurotic and can be swayed by words. The more authentic one becomes, the more capable of making sense of reality.
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World.
‘Trust The Experts’ – Why Do We Fall For Radical Expertism?
Innocent Ignorance
There is inherent incapability with the human to discern between truth and falsehood. This is why Power vs Force by Dr David Hawkins will be known as one of the most important books of the 20th century – showing how we can use muscle testing (kinesiology) to see the level of consciousness (truthfulness) of a ‘thing’.
Without the capability to discern, the mind is at the mercy of influence. Whether positive or negative. Social media companies are in the business of attention. They do this by feeding your biases and polarising dualities.
If only we could do a simple test to determine what is true and false…
You can find an ‘expert’ in any field and generally do so to fit your biases. It takes an evolved man to consider contrary information and indulge one’s intention into something which could radically shift opinion.
Peter Pan Syndrome
“No one is willing to believe that adults too, like children, wander about this earth in a daze and, like children, do not know where they come from or where they are going, act as rarely as they do according to genuine motives, and are as thoroughly governed as they are by biscuits and cake and the rod.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
How can one think as an adult if they’re psychologically infantile?
Peter Pan never grew up. The Latin term is ‘Puer Aeternus’, meaning the eternal boy. In Jungian terms, the puer typically leads a “provisional life” due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape.
Peter Pan Syndrome is the idea that psychologically and physically, people (men in particular) are not growing up due to social influence. There is no longer authentic masculine role models and initiations into adulthood. As a basic example, we see middle-aged men partying 2 or 3 nights per week, being stuck in the adolescent phase of maturity.
I’d suggest reading “The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up” for more comprehensive information on the topic.
Mind Control
Yes, this is a reality. At this point, if you don’t think your attention is being directed in specific directions, then you’re in a state of hypnosis.
Question: Are your thoughts your own? Are your likes and dislikes due to active contemplation and intuition? Or from the television and social media?
Also, question why you buy and consume what you do. Is it rational? Probably not.
Some organisations are paid millions, if not billions of pounds/dollars, to influence and persuade the masses to think, and therefore act, in specific ways. This is how we end up with manufactured crises such as today’s one we find ourselves in.
Read the work of Edward Bernays and other propaganda authors to begin grasping the depth of media manipulation. This Covid1984 situation is a good example.