Professional Knowitall Qualifications
Being a sort of seeming knowitall has its drawbacks. . . .
no salary, no tenure, no classroom full of tuition-paying wannabes. . . .
but still. . . . . it's not much different from being an expert on anything specific, like say herbs, remedies, pharmaceuticals, pot, or sports. You pay the entry fee, and you can claim your hat.
In this day of internet pontiffs, we just need some acceptable, society- or government-supported system of accreditation, a degree, maybe a license, so when lesser folks get annoyed they can't just say you know nothing. . . .
and, fundamentally, that's what all sorts of credentials are created for, from sheriff badges to presidential seals, from childcare assistants to rocket scientists.
and that's why we have fantasy fields of study like bookkeeping and biological science. You're not a real bookkeeper until you've made up your first doubled set of books for a corporation, and you're not a biological scientist until you've created another proof of God.
uhhhhmmmmmm. . . . . uuuhhmmmmm. . . . .
Well times keep a-changin' on me, and no matter how old I get there seem to be some more years to go. . . . and I expect things to go on a-changin' still. . . . even without me. Back in the day. . . say the medieval years, you weren't a scientist unless you did prove God, and everything else the clerics insisted. Galileo was hauled up to confess they were right, of course. Well, as we have moved along to build new institutions founded on other set notions, like maybe Marxism in some places, or fascism in others, to be a scientist you have got to be flexible. You don't get jobs as teachers, professors, or researchers unless you smile and warm up to the powers that be in certain ways.
I remember some stories about the Biology dept. at the Univ. of Utah. Visiting applicants for a position in that dept were escorted around cordially from the office of one prof to another, hospitably offered a cup of coffee and pleasantly entertained. . ..
coffee was a sort of shibboleth for detecting acceptable candidates. In that dept. if you politely refused the coffee, you were diagnosed as a Mormon, and you did not get the job.
Down the road fifty miles south, it was the other way. Candidates were politely entertained and evaluated for belief in "evolution" with some test comment or another. If you acted like a professional scientist and discussed evidence pro and con in good humor, you would not get the job. You had to call it nonsense to get the job.
My problem throughout life has been a character defect. . . . listening. . . . to others, whatever their belief sets, and making some allowance for other opinions in the universe.
There's a further problem that develops over time. . . . a consequence of the disease of listening. . . . learning.
Actually knowing stuff is a huge problem in a crowd of partytime funsters. . . . . first of all they feel a little disturbed if you say anything that requires thought, but it gets worse when they realize you're sorta calling them out as ignoramuses. . . . .
and then the party is over.
