Rule by Experts?

The populist sentiment behind the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump, increasing skepticism of the mainstream media, distrust of higher education institutions, and similar phenomena has given rise to a worry among experts that society no longer values expertise.
Tom Nichols, author of the recent book The Death of Expertise, thinks the increasingly skeptical attitude among the general public poses grave harm to society. Writing in Politico, he worries that
the implicit social contract between educated elites and laypeople – in which professionals were rewarded for their expertise and, in turn, were expected to spread the benefits of their knowledge – is fraying. . . . [O]rdinary citizens seem increasingly confident in their views, but no more competent than they were 30 or 40 years ago. A significant number of laypeople now believe, for no reason but self-affirmation, that they know better than experts in almost every field. They have come to this conclusion after being coddled in classrooms from kindergarten through college, continually assured by infotainment personalities in increasingly segmented media that popular views, no matter how nutty, are virtuous and right, and mesmerized by an internet that tells them exactly what they want to hear, no matter how ridiculous the question.
Nichols does not explain exactly why this skepticism is harmful, assuming that multiple references to Trump and people who do not vaccinate their children on the CDC schedule are sufficient to validate the rule of experts. (In fairness, I haven’t read his book, only this one article.)

This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on Sept. 11, 2017.