This post was started a few years ago. Its time has come with the chaos evident in large portions of the world.
Historically, the church and state aligned with art and science. Inquisitive citizens studied and created concepts in attempts to better understand the natural world. Suggesting that the Earth was not the centre of our universe may have gotten Galileo in trouble, but artists and scientists could survive financially and contribute significantly to society and culture. That patronage largely controlled the subject matter, but it was still creative and advanced knowledge. Arts and sciences, which are the quest for more understanding and knowledge, brand society more than politicians. For example, name any of the prime ministers during the life of Tom Thomson. Good luck with that!
Now, ponder where we are now. Populist politicians have prospered. Such dictatorially inclined politicians are threatened by knowledge. Art and science are under attack. Real knowledge is also being threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI). What is real? AI can forge some convincing fakes. Without critical thought, deciphering fact from fiction is a challenge. Confusion abounds, and catchy slogans can win at the polls
How can such divisive, maniacal oligarchs get elected?
Information is readily accessible via the World Wide Web and fantastic tools like Wikipedia. However, an open mind and analytical diagnosis of that vast amount of data is required to accurately sift through the mountains of ideas. The decline of critical thought opens the door for authoritarian autocrats.
Please let me explain using the weather as an illustration.
The weather is the poster child topic for a subject where everyone feels qualified to have an opinion. After all, everyone has experienced the weather! The weather is a major topic of conversation. But the participants possess vastly different levels of understanding. The weather is more complicated than looking out the window or getting rained on.
The Dunning–Kruger Effect studies cognitive bias. Originally, it was described after doing self-assessments on people with skills in an area versus novices. The research surprisingly revealed that novices were more confident in their wrong answers than experts were in their right answers.
Our understanding of meteorology has matured during the last century, but there is still much to learn. Climate is the summation of average weather. The concept that humans could impact the climate was unbelievable to most, even though the science dates back to the early 1800s.
The Dunning–Kruger Effect helps to explain what was observed when meteorologists started to talk about global warming in the 1970s. Resistance to suggestions that humans were altering the weather and thus the climate was blistering, especially from politicians and fossil fuel corporations. Changing the weather was well beyond anyone's experience and thus nonsense according to the novice.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an intergovernmental body of the United Nations started in 1988 to educate the novices. The IPCC had a mandate to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The science of global warming and climate change is beyond refute, but populist politicians and significant percentages of the population refuse to accept the facts. The bridges built to encourage them to become more than novices were unused.
The following simplified graphical version of the Dunning–Kruger Effect illustrates the problem. The public who live in the weather typically has a low understanding of the weather. Meteorologists and climatologists with decades of university and scientific experience possess high levels of competence.
My experiences giving countless presentations and lectures on weather and global warming confirm the above Dunning–Kruger Effect. I hesitate to use the condescending word "stupid". My goal was to build bridges so that the participants could learn and become more knowledgeable, thus facilitating informed opinions. Open and inquiring minds were all that were required, and I was always available to assist. I never give up. Such information was intended to assist when elections rolled around.
"Influencers" with millions of followers have become wealthy celebrities, paid to manipulate the uninformed but decidedly opinionated masses. Efforts to build bridges and spread knowledge remain generally unfunded.
We are witnessing the downfall of art and science, which are the quests for knowledge. These are sad days when real wisdom can be hard to find.
The fabric of society has changed dramatically with populist type governments divorcing themselves from knowledge. Without central support and funding, the essentials of society and knowledge flounder economically. Even libraries are threatened with books being banned...
You might suspect that I am thinking of the current situation in the USA, but Canada has also waged wars against knowledge. "Make America Great Again" and "Axe the Tax" are well-worn political slogans on both sides of the undefended border.
This is how maniacal oligarchs get elected by the easily influenced, programmed and manipulated masses. The impacts of the Dunning–Kruger Effect threatening the pursuit of knowledge (art and science) are becoming increasingly obvious.
- The existential impact of Global Warming as the Earth entered an interglacial period lasting thousands of years. The momentum of the climate systems will propel the Earth into conditions last seen in the Miocene Epoch, 16 million years ago.
- Medical science is also impacted as the monitoring of infectious diseases and the development of vaccines falter.
- The impacts of the Sixth Mass Extinction as we pave over paradise are far-reaching and will eventually include humans.
- The list grows longer every day if you follow the news...
This leads to the motive behind this post. What can we do about it?