“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty,” William Buckley famously said.
It looks as if his worst fear is being realized. Or by Congress or by many of our State legislators and Governors—especially in Blue States and inner cities. Is Idaho a “Blue State” yet?
When will the American people stop listening to the so-called experts and start using their own common sense like we used to do? So many smart people seem to think that because they have spent a lifetime learning how to be an expert in one field of endeavor, they know everything about everything. In my experience having met many great scientists, the great ones know what they don’t know. They know the limitations of their disciplines.
In today’s Wall Street Journal there is a list of 17 Nobel Prize winning economists who last November endorsed Joe Biden’s BUILD BACK BETTER PLAN. https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-progressives-fail-inflation-edition-janet-yellen-economics-white-house-biden-rising-prices-11654121580?mod=opinion_lead_pos1 Mr. Biden referred to the list many times. In the body of the endorsement, we read: “the agenda invests in long term economic capacity and will enhance the ability of more Americans to participate productively….it will ease longer-term inflationary pressures”. I can tell you that if Milton Freidman were alive, he would not have been on that list. Nor were great economists living today like Art Laffer, Thomas Sowell, or Andrew Mulligan.
Before the last Presidential election, a list of 780 retired generals and former national security leaders spoke out against Mr. Trump and endorsed Mr. Biden. https://news.yahoo.com/why-780-retired-generals-and-former-national-security-leaders-spoke-out-against-trump-204428356.html On that list were many who planed our campaign in Afghanistan. I am sure more than a few supported the subsequent chaotic retreat from Afghanistan. Many are responsible for our current state of military unpreparedness. Many have supported “woke” indoctrination programs throughout our military including our service academies jeopardizing training and deployment schedules
A list of 17,000 scientists signed a petition supporting “Science” and Dr. Fauci. Apparently, the science was “settled”.
A list of 930,000 doctors, nurses’ public health specialists signed The Barrington Declaration in 2020 offering mitigation and lockdown strategies very different than those recommended by The World Health Organization (WHO), The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Dr. Fauci. Settled science? Just maybe each individual and each family needs to assess the data and see how it pertains to their unique situation. Maybe the average person understands that data and risk are very different. Isn’t the point of education supposed to be that because of our training, we develop our own processes for making informed decisions about ourselves? Experts know nothing about individual risk. When they apply their own aversion to risk to other people they are extrapolating —estimating beyond the observation. Scientists try to stick to interpolating—estimating between two known points.
JR Simplot made an observation during one of his last speeches at a graduation ceremony at The College of Idaho. After being introduced by the President of the college he looked out over the crowd of graduates, students and their families and said: “Either you guys are a lot smarter than we used to be or there are just too many “G. D.” Cum Laude’s here today.” Spoken by a billionaire who left school in Burley Idaho to support his family after the eighth grade. The students, graduates, and families gave him a standing ovation. The faculty and administration remained in their seats. Everybody knew what J. R. was talking about. Just because you are an expert doesn’t mean you have learned from your experiences and acquired wisdom and discernment. JR knew “what he knew, and he knew what he didn’t know and part of what he knew was what he didn’t know”. Experience and wisdom are more likely to be found and valued in the workplace, on the farm or in the home and family, than in the halls of academia.
We need more leaders in business, education and government who have the common sense of JR Simplot. And maybe along with that the discipline to keep your eye on the ball and never forget what is important and what your goals are.
Too many “GD” Cum Loude’s (experts) in our schools, businesses, government, and military. Time for some everyday common sense.
5 replies on “Time for Some Common Sense”
Remember, experts are people from out of town with a Powerpoint presentation.
John:
You don’t display much common sense. You claimed that: “A list of 17,000 scientists signed a petition supporting ‘Science’ and Dr. Fauci.” But the linked IDSA press release instead says 12,000.
And you also claimed that: “A list of 930,000 doctors, nurses’ public health specialists signed The Barrington Declaration in 2020 offering mitigation and lockdown strategies very different from those recommended by The World Health Organization (WHO), The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Dr. Fauci.”
But the current Signatures web page for The Great Barrington Declaration has very different information. Total Signatures were 930,528, Concerned Citizens were 867,612, Medical Practitioners were 47,037, and Medical & Public Health Scientists were 15,883. So, the sum for Medical Practitioners and Medical & Public Health Scientists really was 62,920 – or 5.24 times larger than the 12,000 for the ISDA. That honest number would have made your point, but instead you dishonestly used the total (14.8 times larger).
Great Barrington Declaration
As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.
Focused Protection is not common sense. Go look up an article by Mark Burkard on November 20, 2020 at Science-Based Medicine which is titled JAMA Promotes the False Equivalence of ‘Focused Protection,’ particularly the section titled Dr Bhattacharya fails to provide viable approach for ‘focused protection’
“Focused Protection”—technically known as REVERSE ISOLATION has been used for 15,000 years. It is used when cancer patients are isolated after chemotherapy with extremely low white blood cell counts
This is precisely what me and my family did when my daughter-in-law was treated with chemotherapy and a splenectomy for diffuse histiocytic lymphoma in the middle of the “pandemic”. It was used to protect people at risk in pandemics and plagues throughout the ages. In the 15,000-year history of modern man we have only once been able to eliminate a virus with vaccination—smallpox. We have been able to mitigate others. My family and I are all “vaxed.” In the 15,000-year history of modern man we have never been able to destroy an airborne upper respiratory tract virus with mass isolation techniques. The “experts” not recognizing the limitations of their “science” and the unintended consequences of their actions will be felt by citizens and patients for many years to come.