I can see two sides to this.
A) It is good to have a cadre of trained, educated, and experienced people to perform certain tasks - that example of the South Korea news phenominon is rather shocking and depressing. I can see that happening here in America, to our detriment. Of course, I am a professional communicator (although not a newscaster), so I suspect my feelings on that matter would be stronger than the average person's opinion.
B) I think that over the years, too much credit and glory, if you will, has been *automatically* accorded to those who have simply earned a degree, even an advanced degree. On the surface this may contradict my first point, but what I mean is that likely we all know people who have been given Ph.Ds (I say given, rather than earned on purpose) who are frankly idiots, never mind being subject matter experts.
Also, it's gotten to the point where it's very difficult to get a good job if you do not have a degree, no matter how good you are, or how much experience you have.
Overall, I think this direction is a backlash on elitism, which paints with the same brush those who are specially trained and experienced in their fields. Plus, I think that people do not like to accept that, for example, someone with a trained palate may have a more "valuable" (subjective term, valuable) contribution to evaluating the merits of a resturant then they do. But it's true that someone who is happy eating mainly fast-food burgers is not going to have the same opinion of a meal prepared by a master chef in a dedicated quality kitchen.
It's an image problem, and a degradation of the "I don't know (art, food, news, rhetorical criticism), but I know what I like (cartoons, fast food, sound bites, Steven Segal)."
Let them eat cake!
Right?
__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -
Matt Groening
My goal? To fulfill my potential.
Last edited by Sultana; 12-20-2006 at 09:44 AM..
Reason: spelling, of course!
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