The Empire of Experts

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Albert Einstein 1901.

Our lives are becoming increasingly subservient to the opinion of experts. It feels as if we are less inclined to trust what our grandmothers told us or to trust our innate common sense. We are told what to think, what to say, what to do, what to eat and how much to drink. Are we all becoming obedient subjects in the Empire of Experts?

There are two types of expert. The first type are people we can all admire; people who quietly go about their jobs but perform them with exceptional expertise. Someone, perhaps, like Chesley Sullenberger, who was the pilot of an airliner which lost all power in both engines shortly after take off over New York City. Unable to return to an airport, he used his skill, experience and calmness of mind to glide his stricken plane safely on to the Hudson River, from where all his passengers and crew escaped unharmed. There are experts like him in many different fields of endeavour and we should all be truly thankful for them.

The other type of expert is quite different. These people live in a state of privileged seclusion or separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world, in other words an ivory tower. They are found in academia, religion, media and politics. They believe they are so intellectually superior to the rest of us, it is their duty to tell us all what to do, say, think and eat and, of course, they do it for our ‘own good’. These people are rampant in the world of political correctness but they have also controlled dietary advice for decades. The same dietary advice that has created the obesity epidemic and the huge increase in rates of type 2 diabetes and dementia.

The American author, Doctor Thomas Sowell, refers to these people as The Anointed, as if they have had divine infallibility conferred upon them. I like to call them the Self-Appointed Custodians of our Lives. They exist to protect us, whether we like it or not. Their typical mode of action is (1) identify a problem and come up with a Big Idea to solve the problem. (2) Insist there is no time to waste and we must act now. (3) When the plan does not work, blame everybody else for not carrying out the Big Idea correctly and insist we do the Big Idea with more commitment.

We live in an age so dominated by expert opinion we are losing the ability to think for ourselves. Unscrupulous people are taking advantage of this situation. I refer to this as The Empire of Experts because the pronouncements of self-appointed experts can affect the lives of millions of people, just like the Emperors of old had power over all their subjects. And, as in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, everyone is scared to point out that the Emperor is naked. 

We can have many priorities in life but our health has to be one of the most important of them all. Over recent decades, our overall health has plummeted while rates of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders have soared. What help have the ‘experts’ been in reversing this tragedy? I suggest they have continued to make it worse. In future posts I intend to explain why they fail and how we can do better without them.

Biography

Charlie Spedding has enjoyed two careers; as an athlete and a Pharmacist. His running career culminated in victory in the London Marathon and a bronze medal in the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon. He wrote a book about his exploits entitled From Last to First. He spent decades as a Community Pharmacist, but became disillusioned with it as more and more people diligently took their medication without ever getting better. The drugs were treating the symptoms of disease but not the root cause. After much research it became clear the root cause of our modern, metabolic dysfunction is lifestyle, and the biggest culprit is diet. It is the very diet recommended by the health authorities which makes us ill. Charlie explains all of this in his book Stop Feeding Us Lies.