Firesong: Ignoring our Experts - an American Arrogance
I am worried about some children I know. Their mother is convinced that they have one psychological disorder after another. She’s also been branching out to the physical illnesses. This woman has no medical training and no medical background whatsoever - she just picks things up off the telly and the internet.
She has not yet killed a child, but I am more and more convinced of the correctness of pressing charges of child abuse against anyone afflicted with Munchausen by Proxy.
The point I am making is that the average American feels that they know better than the experts. “Thanks” to online tools like WebMD, Google and Wikipedia, more and more bored housewives are self-diagnosing - and worse yet, diagnosing their kids on the fly. The problem is, of course, that they aren’t even remotely qualified to do so. When a situation arises that forces an actual visit to the doctor, the visit is sabotaged by Mom, who presents information that clutters up the professional exam. Doctors are only human after all, and prone to accept the shortcuts.
Years ago, I watched a documentary on television in which a variety of experts & residents in the US, Britain, France, and several other countries gave their opinion on nuclear power plants.
The nuclear engineers explained the measures implemented to keep the public safe, and the efficiency of the plants that lowered the cost of providing electricity. Most of the European countries actually had nuclear power plants that were decades old, as opposed to the one in the US that was only a few years in operation.
The man-on-the-street interviews in all the other countries pretty much all agreed that they felt safe because they had expert assurance that they were safe. The French lady also went so far to say that she was thrilled by her lower utility bills. The only disparate viewpoint came from the man-on-the-street interview from the US - a frumpy housewife who felt the company was out to kill her and her children. When asked why she felt that way, she answered that “everyone” knows nuclear anything was bad. When the expert’s testimony was brought to her attention, along with documentation of his training and educational background, she still refused to believe anything presented, stating that “those people” would say anything to get what they wanted.
I’m not trying to slam on the every-day worker who is desperately trying to make ends meet; I’m right there beside you. What completely astounds me is the fact that we have educational programs and career paths that are essentially available to all. It is an individual choice what line of work we enter. When our fellow citizens enter a scientific, or medical (or law, accounting, banking, etc), field and go through all the years of training and subsequent years of working in their chosen fields, and then we, Arrogant Americans, choose to ignore their expertise and go against their collective advice and directions, who do we really have to blame when things turn sour?
She has not yet killed a child, but I am more and more convinced of the correctness of pressing charges of child abuse against anyone afflicted with Munchausen by Proxy.
The point I am making is that the average American feels that they know better than the experts. “Thanks” to online tools like WebMD, Google and Wikipedia, more and more bored housewives are self-diagnosing - and worse yet, diagnosing their kids on the fly. The problem is, of course, that they aren’t even remotely qualified to do so. When a situation arises that forces an actual visit to the doctor, the visit is sabotaged by Mom, who presents information that clutters up the professional exam. Doctors are only human after all, and prone to accept the shortcuts.
Years ago, I watched a documentary on television in which a variety of experts & residents in the US, Britain, France, and several other countries gave their opinion on nuclear power plants.
The nuclear engineers explained the measures implemented to keep the public safe, and the efficiency of the plants that lowered the cost of providing electricity. Most of the European countries actually had nuclear power plants that were decades old, as opposed to the one in the US that was only a few years in operation.
The man-on-the-street interviews in all the other countries pretty much all agreed that they felt safe because they had expert assurance that they were safe. The French lady also went so far to say that she was thrilled by her lower utility bills. The only disparate viewpoint came from the man-on-the-street interview from the US - a frumpy housewife who felt the company was out to kill her and her children. When asked why she felt that way, she answered that “everyone” knows nuclear anything was bad. When the expert’s testimony was brought to her attention, along with documentation of his training and educational background, she still refused to believe anything presented, stating that “those people” would say anything to get what they wanted.
I’m not trying to slam on the every-day worker who is desperately trying to make ends meet; I’m right there beside you. What completely astounds me is the fact that we have educational programs and career paths that are essentially available to all. It is an individual choice what line of work we enter. When our fellow citizens enter a scientific, or medical (or law, accounting, banking, etc), field and go through all the years of training and subsequent years of working in their chosen fields, and then we, Arrogant Americans, choose to ignore their expertise and go against their collective advice and directions, who do we really have to blame when things turn sour?