[PEN-L:28654] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Drudgery

["Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> How about nuclear engineers? Hospital surgeons and administrators? College
> professors? You think any
> of those groups currently want democratization of their expertise and
> accountability if it means a
> diminution of the scale and scope of their power? Just how much difference
> would there be in their
> responses to encroachment on their realm of expertise from the responses of
> the small business
> person who says don't tell me how to run my shop?

Why would be a such a great idea to have the demos tell college professors
how to run their shop? In most of this country, that would result in the
shut-down of biological departments, except for ag depts, the conversion of
most philosophy depts into bastions of conservative Christian
fundamentalism, etc. All the remaining socialists would be fired at once.
For that matter, what does the demos know about surgery? Would you want to
be operated on by medical professionals who were accountable, in doing their
job, to anything but their expertise? Likewise, if I may say so, with us
legal professionals. Would you want my considered legal judgment, given as
best as I can give it, or my judgment as informed and limited by what a
bunch of people who know no law nor how the legal system works nor anything
much except that they don't like lawyers because we are all greeedy rich
crooks?

In my typical, class-blinkered, petty bourgeois manner, I am a real fan of
expertise. Democracy has its place, but not in micro-managing the use of
real expertise by real experts. There are skills that require long study and
constant application to master, and where the opinion of the populace has no
damn role, except indirectly in setting general ethical standards and rules
and regulations embodied in law. Don't tell me how to manage my shop.

jks (proud advocate of a  nation of shopkeepers)


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