Mar 10, 2012 -- 4:18AM, Ebon wrote:

Medicine (especially neurology and psychiatry) is one of those areas where everyone considers themselves an expert. And not simply an expert but the greatest of all experts. Law and education suffer from the same problem, the unjustified assumption that the uneducated opinion one just pulled out of one's behind is superior to the learned opinions of those who have devoted their lives to studying the area. I suspect this is an inherent flaw of democracies: The assumption that because your voice counts (which it does) that it should be given equal weight (which it should not). Yes, the experts in any area are sometimes wrong but they are a great deal more likely to be right than the random man in the street. This doesn't happen to other trained professionals. People don't walk up to engineers and say "you've put that bridge up wrong". Passersby do not accost farmers and tell them that they've put the wrong crop in a field. Only in medicine, education and law do people consider their uninformed and uneducated opinions are clearly correct and all who don't agree are clearly wrong.

One of the things I loathe about American society (and there are many things I like and admire about American society) is this streak of anti-intellectualism and instant expertise. The assumption that one opinion is just as good as another's facts; the discounting of actual evidence and data in favour of the gut feeling, the appeal to the knuckledragging prejudices of the common volk and the assumption that popularity equates to correctness.

I agree Ebon

Mar 10, 2012 -- 6:25AM, fodaoson wrote:

Mar 10, 2012 -- 4:18AM, Ebon wrote:

Medicine (especially neurology and psychiatry) is one of those areas where everyone considers themselves an expert. And not simply an expert but the greatest of all experts. Law and education suffer from the same problem, the unjustified assumption that the uneducated opinion one just pulled out of one's behind is superior to the learned opinions of those who have devoted their lives to studying the area. I suspect this is an inherent flaw of democracies: The assumption that because your voice counts (which it does) that it should be given equal weight (which it should not). Yes, the experts in any area are sometimes wrong but they are a great deal more likely to be right than the random man in the street. This doesn't happen to other trained professionals. People don't walk up to engineers and say "you've put that bridge up wrong". Passersby do not accost farmers and tell them that they've put the wrong crop in a field. Only in medicine, education and law do people consider their uninformed and uneducated opinions are clearly correct and all who don't agree are clearly wrong.

One of the things I loathe about American society (and there are many things I like and admire about American society) is this streak of anti-intellectualism and instant expertise. The assumption that one opinion is just as good as another's facts; the discounting of actual evidence and data in favour of the gut feeling, the appeal to the knuckledragging prejudices of the common volk and the assumption that popularity equates to correctness.

I agree Ebon

I agree as well.  My husband called it "a great op-ed piece."

IOW, "Just shut up and take these Pills ... "

Mar 10, 2012 -- 9:49AM, REteach wrote:

Mar 10, 2012 -- 6:25AM, fodaoson wrote:

Mar 10, 2012 -- 4:18AM, Ebon wrote:

Medicine (especially neurology and psychiatry) is one of those areas where everyone considers themselves an expert. And not simply an expert but the greatest of all experts. Law and education suffer from the same problem, the unjustified assumption that the uneducated opinion one just pulled out of one's behind is superior to the learned opinions of those who have devoted their lives to studying the area. I suspect this is an inherent flaw of democracies: The assumption that because your voice counts (which it does) that it should be given equal weight (which it should not). Yes, the experts in any area are sometimes wrong but they are a great deal more likely to be right than the random man in the street. This doesn't happen to other trained professionals. People don't walk up to engineers and say "you've put that bridge up wrong". Passersby do not accost farmers and tell them that they've put the wrong crop in a field. Only in medicine, education and law do people consider their uninformed and uneducated opinions are clearly correct and all who don't agree are clearly wrong.

One of the things I loathe about American society (and there are many things I like and admire about American society) is this streak of anti-intellectualism and instant expertise. The assumption that one opinion is just as good as another's facts; the discounting of actual evidence and data in favour of the gut feeling, the appeal to the knuckledragging prejudices of the common volk and the assumption that popularity equates to correctness.

I agree Ebon

I agree as well.  My husband called it "a great op-ed piece."

Yes ... Even Kids who DO have ADHD entirely APPROPRIATELY diagnosed and medicated are NOT all exactly ALIKE ...

And PROBABLY some of those ADHD-diagnosed-and-medicated Children are in Fact in Reality simply "Kinesthetic" in their Neuro-Linguistic Programming (as per, Bandler and Grinder), i.e., they are by their own Nature inclined to MOVE as they Learn -- in Fact they move in ORDER to Learn (which drives most Teachers and Parents NUTS) ... In my own family my own (adopted) Son was/is one such Kid who was diagnosed and medicated INAPPROPRIATELY ... 

I spent over an hour talking to a dad last week. He even admitted that his son was inattentive and starting to have a hard time at school. Finally he admitted that his biggest problem was that he didn't want to admit anything was wrong with his son.  Who, btw, was a really sweet awesome kid who just couldn't pay attention.  I suspect that is the real problem for a lot of people.