Expertise Blindness

The Dark Tunnel of Tunnel Knowledge

Thanks again to American Thinker for running this piece. you can visit the website at: https://www.americanthinker.com/

“If cats could write history, their history would be mostly about cats.”

So intoned UCLA Prof. Eugen Weber about midway through his inestimable video lecture series “The Western Tradition.”*

The point this particularly precise polymath was making is that within every person, every organization, every society is – for better or ill – a certain self-centeredness, a way of looking at new things starting from the point of things they already know.

Finding what you are looking for in any given situation can be the result of deep scrutiny, sheer luck, and/or involve what is called “confirmation bias,” which is finding facts and patterns that hew closely to what you were – consciously or not - expecting to find.

When one is not careful, this inherent bias can also lead even the most well-intentioned specialist in any field to a certain “expertise blindness” that can lead to catastrophic consequences, even though the experts in question are actually “experts” in their field.

A rather prosaic illustration of this process would be an effort by different people with different backgrounds trying to solve the same problem.

For example, if you ask various professionals in your company why a product is not selling, you will get a myriad of answers – the marketer will point to advertising and design issues, the engineer will focus on possible technical problems, the materials expert will look at what it’s made of, the finance person will crunch the numbers, etc. 

Each of these experts will look at the issue, at least initially, through the lens of their own specialty and they can, individually, be correct – maybe the marketing person got it right and that naming the great new beverage “Crud” is actually the only real problem.  But if the answer is not that obvious the experts will tend to continue to look at – and try to solve -  the problem primarily through their own training, discounting other possibilities unless they are at least made aware of their personal blinkers or even forced to take a more holistic (in its actual original meaning) approach.

This blindness can be seen operating in the world now, especially as societal actors become even more hyper-focused on their own individual programs and desires and concerns without having to even consider that even if they re right about “A” it may cause significant damage to “B, C, D….”

There are many examples of the problem “expertise blindness” is causing today – from doctors who specialize in “gender issues” consistently finding gender dysphoria in their patients to climate scientists who happen to always find out that everything is terrible and the earth will melt next Tuesday, etc.

But a particularly impactful – for society at large – instance of this phenomenon has been the reaction to the COVID pandemic.  The public health expert community, since the very beginning, has overwhelmingly viewed the issue purely through an epidemiological lens and absolutely discounted any mentions that, maybe, some other impacts should be considered.  By being laser focused on one (albeit important) aspect of the pandemic – actual physical public health – they were blinded to damage being done to society at a very basic level. 

Whether out of the purest of motives, or unquestioning certitude, or because for the first time in their lives the rest of us were actually paying attention to them, or because of the rush of the Godlike powers that were bestowed upon them (or some combination thereof), public health officials simply ignored the knock-on impacts of their decisions:  the academic disaster of the loss of an entire school year, the crippled economy, the long-term societal and psychological impacts of lockdowns, the overt politicization of the scientific process, the devastated trust in our public institutions, and the list goes on.

It is said that in the realm of the blind the one-eyed man is king.  But if that one-eyed man only looks in one direction then he might as well be blind, too, leaving his subjects – the rest of us – no better off than before he took the throne.

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*Weber created the 52-part - nearly 24 hours in total length - series on the history of western civilization in 1989, a few years before he retired.  The series’ sweeping vision manages to combine telling details with overarching themes that makes for fascinating watching for anyone interested in history, no matter their previous knowledge or even political bent (unless you already believe that the West is the root of all evil in the world – then you’re on your own to wallow in your ignorance).  Suffice to say, considering its unblinkered, non-political honesty, it is rather doubtful that PBS – the original airer of the series – would find it suitable to broadcast the following sentiment today:

“(H)ere we are at the end of the 20th century with a lot of people lonely in a Godless world—and now they are denied not only God but the solid substance of judgment and perception… The world has always been disgracefully managed but now you no longer know to whom to complain."

You can watch the entire series – for free starting from the first episode– at the link below:

(And much thanks to The Chronicler’s Tale for posting the series!)

One final note on the series – you may find yourself wondering about his non-accent accent, which seems to be a combination of mid-European, mid-Atlantic, and even a bit of mid-America.  Just remember that for the person you are hearing speak -  in such a precise tone with such perfect diction and such crystalline clarity -  English was a third language.