Look for the experts

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When I have a problem with my hot water heater, I text my plumber, Dave.

When I need someone to translate oral arguments at the Supreme Court, I read Adam Liptak, who covers the court for The New York Times.

When I’m trying to better understand opioid addiction and treatment, I seek out my colleagues Deb Becker and Martha Bebinger, who’ve been studying and reporting on the topic for years.

These folks are experts. They know their stuff. I can trust them to give me accurate, fact-based information that helps me make a decision or navigate unfamiliar territory.

But respect for expertise — and for institutions in general, including the federal government and the media — is declining in the United States. According to Pew, Americans’ growing mistrust has been on a slow burn since the 1960s. Mistrust of government continued to decline during the ‘80s and ‘90s, though certain types of expertise (particularly scientific and medical) were generally trusted. The pandemic played a big role in changing that. Scientists and public health officials, who once earned higher levels of trust  from the American public than other experts, don’t anymore. And of course now, like so many other aspects of American life, who we trust and what facts we believe are polarized along partisan lines. Republicans believe one thing; Democrats believe another. It’s another example of divergent realities.

People loathe experts for all sorts of reasons, including that “expertise” can be synonymous with “elite,” and elites can be highfalutin, arrogant, clubby, reclusive, know-it-alls. (Just ask the Democratic Party, which has been saddled with the “liberal elite” label). But I’m trying to get at something bigger than our politics here.

As I was thinking about writing this piece, I read “R.F.K., Jr., Anthony Fauci, and the Revolt Against Expertise,” a New Yorker essay by Daniel Immerwahr published last May. The piece is essentially about the tension between openness and authority. Paraphrasing an argument made by sociologist Gil Eyal, Immerwahr writes:

There’s not much hostility toward experts in unhurried realms of inquiry like numismatics or number theory. It’s when uncertainty collides with urgency that the authorities enter the fray, convene commissions, and issue findings.

Sometimes experts and institutions — because they possess deep knowledge of an issue and need to make an urgent policy decision — end a debate. But ending a debate can engender skepticism among those who believe it ended prematurely.

In his essay, Immerwahr highlights a pattern. He says that skepticism toward experts tends to increase during times of crisis, when officials have to make decisions with incomplete information (e.g., a global pandemic). In these moments, science can become a kind of orthodoxy, pushing dissenters to the fringe and fueling resentment and greater mistrust. There's a tension between asking questions that could lead to better answers and settling an issue. Sound familiar?

We seem to be living in a time when many Americans have the attitude that expertise isn’t valuable. I cannot untangle that phenomenon in this one short essay.

I will say, however, that we turned to our own experts at Cog this week. A retired federal judge gave us her take on ICE’s actions in Minneapolis, two veterans shared their expertise on the Insurrection Act and NATO, respectively, and an international development expert who grew up in Nepal shared his perspective on the hard work of democracy. We believe there are many ways of knowing, and many forms of expertise.

There is a lot of news — a lot of important news –- coming at us these days. I keep thinking about this quote from Fred Rogers, which surely you’ve seen before. It goes, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” These days, I’m looking for the experts — for the people who can help me grasp complicated issues with nuance and humanity.

P.S.— This Tuesday at CitySpace, Cog is hosting (and yours truly is moderating) an event about Taylor Swift. Whether you’re a Swiftie (a Swift expert, per se) or Swift-curious, come learn about what makes a good song and Swift’s similarity to 18th century poet Alexander Pope (really). There will be live music — and lots of sparkles and singalongs, too. This evening is guaranteed to boost your mid-winter oxytocin levels.