Meerkat Prompts: Armchair ‘Experts’
In life, you might have encountered people who claim to know better. They believe their brief, limited exploration of any given field renders them more qualified to understand it than someone who has devoted their life to it. There are various ways this peculiar and frustrating phenomenon manifests itself, and in every case, it is a demonstration of ignorance and arrogance, wrapped up in the same package.
One of the most obvious demonstrations of this behaviour can be seen with sports, and sports fans. A lot of fans, as passionate as they are, would not be remotely capable of managing a football, rugby or cricket club. The intricacies of directing a group of players, moulding them into a strong team, of knowing when to make changes, and when not to, would be beyond many fans. I for one love Formula 1, but would I be able to take control of a team, even a top team, and make the right decisions at the right moment? Absolutely not.
This unusual behaviour is also present in more serious areas, such as education, healthcare, and beyond. There are people who preach of reforming education, the police, immigration laws, financial rules, the medical sector, and beyond. A lot of these people are not even remotely capable of understanding these fields, much less offering advice and guidance that would be of a tangible benefit (though to be fair, a lot of politicians aren’t especially skilled at this either).
It is very easy to sit on the side-lines, removed from the details, and make snappy judgements. I have recently read posts where people have suggested what they would like to see become of the education system, but do they speak from a place of experience and understanding, or do they merely speak of what they imagine would be best?
I cannot and will not pretend to be something I am not. I will not pompously pretend to know better than people who have spent a lifetime in teaching, or in healthcare, or policing, or for that matter, in any other field, be it archaeology, chemistry, economics, and so on. It would be enormously arrogant on my part to assume my limited understanding of those fields somehow equates to the wisdom that comes with truly learning and studying them. It is aggravating to see so many people take up the mantle of the armchair expert, based on what they’ve read on social media. It is also potentially quite dangerous, as these armchair experts can dupe others into believing simplistic non-solutions to issues that have no quick, easy fix.
I’m not saying we should automatically trust everything to come out of official documentation, but by the same token, trusting someone with no actual demonstrative knowledge or skill, ahead of those who have studied and learned, is a recipe for disaster.
