EVERYONE’S AN EXPERT
By Vincent Lyn
Americans have become insufferable know-it-alls, locked in constant conflict and debate with others over topics they actually know almost nothing about. How is it that people now not only doubt expert advice, but believe themselves to be as smart, or even smarter than experienced professionals? Parents who refuse to vaccinate a child, for example, aren't really questioning their doctors. They're replacing their doctors. They have decided that attending the university of Google, as one anti-vaccine activist put it, is the same as going to medical school.
People who have no idea how much the United States spends on foreign aid think that they're the peers of experienced diplomats. Experts in almost every field can tell similar stories. There’s a lot of blame to go around for all of this. The smartphones and tablets that we carry around all day that we think can answer anything are only part of the problem. The American educational system, from grade school to graduate school, encourages students to think of themselves and their views as special. An A is now a common grade.
The news media, while trying to tell people what they need to hear, must compete for ears, eyes, and clicks, and so are also forced to ask them what they’d like to hear. And even if we manage to avoid the intellectual saboteurs of the Internet, we’re still all too likely to get our news and views from social media, where a silly meme from your aunt Rose in New Haven competes for your attention with actual information.
For example, the past two and half years so many people became virology and epidemiology experts and now those same Covidiots are all of a sudden experts in geopolitics and eastern European history, all because of the war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s quite laughable yet really sad because we are talking about a global pandemic that new research brings the death toll to 18 million worldwide and by the way it’s far from over. But now with the world focused on Europe and the war raging in Ukraine, how quickly humans seem to forget. I wonder how long it will take before most people will swipe on their news feed from seeing innocent children bombed to the latest cute animal or new Tik Tok influencer?
Yes, I know life must go on no matter how terrible things are on the other side of the globe. Not until the bombs are dropping on your own doorstep will it then resonate. Quoting a friend of mine, “People can only feel their own paper cut than other people’s stab wound.” I look at images of Ukraine and the scorched earth policy that President Putin is unveiling on Ukrainian cities. It’s eerily reminiscent of what I have witnessed in Syria. Cities in Ukraine are starting to look just like Aleppo and Homs. But before we are quick to judge and accuse Putin of war crimes which no doubt he is. Let us roll back the tide, because we then need to accuse every U.S president for the last 50 years of reprehensible war crimes. From Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, the list is endless. It’s a slippery slope and highly doubtful Putin will ever serve one day in jail just like Clinton, Bush 1, Bush 2, Obama, Trump and our present President Biden.
I’m always accused by some that I hate America which is absolutely preposterous. What I hate is the U.S government and it’s policy of policing the world. When I look at the countries they’ve destroyed, like Afghanistan and Iraq for example and just simply walked away after laying waste to the infrastructure and its inhabitants it makes you wonder what kind of hell we are living in.
What I find really lamentable is how the average American is an expert in such a myriad of subjects. So, let’s get down to some basic facts and please feel free to do your own research and fact check beyond google.
The U.S. ranks 14th in the world in the percentage of 25–34 year-olds with higher education (42%) have an upper secondary education are just 29% — one of the lowest levels among OECD countries. There is ample evidence to suggest that American schools perform worse than schools in many other countries. The U.S. ranks toward the bottom of the industrialized nations on international tests of academic achievement in science and mathematics.
The economic stakes are hard to overstate. Thirty countries now out perform the United States in mathematics at the high school level. Many are ahead in science, too. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the millennials in our workforce tied for last on tests of mathematics and problem solving among the millennials in the workforces of all the industrial countries tested. We now have the worst-educated workforce in the industrialized world. Because our workers are among the most highly paid in the world, that makes a lot of Americans uncompetitive in the global economy. And uncompetitive against increasingly smart machines. It is a formula for a grim future.
The idea of significantly boosting the achievement of the average American high school graduate and making American workers once again the best educated in the world, coming from the bottom of the pack, seems like a pipe dream. After all, there has been no improvement in high school math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress after more than 40 years of trying every “proven practice”.
I was also surprised to see that only a third of American adults say they have a valid and unexpired U.S. passport (37%) — about the same percentage as those who have never had a passport at all (38%). Another one in five Americans (20%) have an expired or invalid passport.
The majority, 59% of travelers do not venture outside of the U.S. on a yearly basis. Even the majority of those with higher incomes did not report annually traveling beyond the U.S. Those with post-graduate degrees reported international travel at higher rates than the rest of the population: once or twice a year. Just eight percent said they travel internationally more than three times in a year.
Whether before or during the pandemic, international travel is something a 71% majority of U.S. adults have done at some point in their lives, according to a June Pew Research Center survey. By contrast, around a quarter (27%) have not traveled abroad.
Still, the degree to which Americans have traveled around the globe varies widely: 19% have been to only one foreign country, 12% to two countries, 15% to three or four countries, and 14% to five to nine countries. Only 11% of Americans have been to 10 or more countries.
The 64% of Americans who say they are at least somewhat interested in keeping up to date on foreign affairs or foreign policy are much more likely to have traveled abroad at some point in their lives than those who say they have limited or no interest. They are also more likely to have been to many countries. For example, 32% of those who are interested in foreign affairs or foreign policy have been to at least five foreign countries, compared with 14% who are less focused on keeping up to date on foreign affairs.
We need to find our way back from this ego-driven wilderness. Historically, people return to valuing expert views in times of trouble or distress. We’re all willing to argue with our doctors until our fever is out of control. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But that’s where we’re headed. And unless we start accepting the limitations of our own knowledge, then each of us is failing in our obligation to participate in our democracy as involved, but informed citizens.
Vincent Lyn
CEO/Founder at We Can Save Children
Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization
Economic & Social Council at United Nations
Middle East Correspondent at Wall Street News Agency
Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts