Self Diagnosed Omniscience

In our age there are many who are adamantly convinced that they know best. This without recourse to any data or research. Anyone who does not share their ideology is prone to the contents of the “shoot the messenger” quiver, wherein poisoned barbed arrows are sent coated with emotional bile and vehement anger.

So-called experts ply their trade on all sides waiting for soap box air time and their 15 minutes of fame. Never before have there been so many “experts” offering opinion for a fee. If you don’t like the message you get given you can always pay for another one. I don’t know from where this gob-on-a-stick mentality first came, but it is getting pandemic. People have agendas and they can buy “experts” to help them propagate said agendas.

I myself am unsure as to what confers “expert” status. It seems the criteria are mutable. For maybe  a week or so, back in 1989, I knew more about one subject that anyone else in the world. That is my sole justifiable claim to expertise. I am non-expert and unqualified. Although I used to practice chemistry and physics I am no longer able to get a professional qualification from the appropriate UK learned societies. I am unqualified and cannot get the certificates to put in a picture frame on the office wall.

It is safe to say that I cannot be considered a recognised expert in anything, whatsoever.

It seems that the so-called “experts” have cornered the market in “expertise” and being authorities on diverse subjects.

There is a weird thing, unless you charge top dollar for your expertise, it is undervalued. If it is not expensive in a pecuniary sense, it has no value. The more you charge for your advice the more likely is that advice to be heeded.

The thing is that many “experts” are self-diagnosed omniscient. They may not be aware of where their knowledge and/or expertise starts to fail. It is not financially sensible to admit a limited omniscience. It is bad for PR.

Any expert who does not question the fallibility of their own expertise is probably blinkered and simply “on the make”.

In reality certainty is an illusion one which many pay good money to hear. The bubble of “certainty” inevitably pops.

Here is a self-development question:

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Is your omniscience omniscient or limited?

Are you an expert?

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