Expert: noun a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area : experts in child development | a financial expert.
I am skeptical of experts. Seems like many of them have a following, but any time I see someone who has such an energetic almost cult like fan base (either real or imagined), I tend to turn my head slightly, start hearing an emergency broadcast system amber alert, and study the situation as someone might study a virus colony under a microscope. It’s like those people that seem to worship spam that somehow has the face of the Virgin Mary imprinted in it.
That might seem a little ironic since I am a fan of Apple and Macs because Steve Jobs is in many ways seen as one of these almost cult-like figures. But unlike “experts, gurus, coaches, specialists, and others with an “elevated status” Jobs built his reputation on insanely great products that outshine some of the mediocre, less than great products that Apple has put out throughout the years. See also the cube, the hockey puck mouse, and the mighty mouse.
Not all “experts” make me skeptical, but certain breeds of experts will give me pause, make me take stock, dig deep, do some research. Or, there are others that do not require any research at all. Give them a couple minutes and they do a good job of disproving their status on their own. Chances are you have seen them because they go through great pains to be “visible.” They believe in their expertise the way some people believe that toads give you warts, and that bread crust makes you grow hair on your chest.
They speak with confidence because beyond their vision of the truth or their expertise, there is only the wrong-mindedness of the multitudes diseased with bad habits and tainted natures. They were bestowed with the gift of their specialization. they are set apart, on a higher plane, members of a different class of humanity that is above the “common” or “the people.” Apparently without their perpetual ability to blowhard, we would not realize things like “If you want to get thinner, stop eating so much” and “If you don’t want a divorce, you gotta work on your marriage.” Thanks Dr. Phil.
To say these venerated beings of perpetual wisdom are overly helpful is putting it mildly. These people find that sharing, and steering others in the right direction is a moral imperative. It is their calling, their mission in life. If they do not share, why, they are not living. Without their throng of believers, there is no sense of purpose to their lives.
I was part of a online writing group at one time that had been taken over by one of these “experts.” Groups like this (especially unmoderated ones) are a target for these people and in this case, the person cast himself as either a messiah or a god-like being that pontificated from on high. In this case, the name of the God on high was Claude. I know, kind of anti-climactic.
On any given day, Claude would post at least twice. Great, Claude is prolific from his polyethylene lined throne he has situated on a random mountain in Ontario. Instead of writing tips, though, those of us who subjected ourselves to this group would get this.
Do anything you want to do, but in so doing, bring no harm to another.
No matter how you undertake your personal journey, do not harm another.
For there is true treasure in all of humanity and has been there since the dawn of time.
You can be uplifted by uplifting others. There is no greater healing received than that which is offered…
These are not Claude’s actual quotes, I paraphrased them, but they went on for pages. And there is no mistake in the formatting, he would often have these quotes in the size above. Definitely some form of overcompensation.
Sometimes they were posted two, maybe three times a day. Can you not hear the condescension in just these four “pearls of wisdom?” The problem with these “pearls” is that they are retreads of biblical teachings, quotes from other sources, and common sense, and occasionally (I speculate) words scratched out on bathroom walls across the northern continent.
Even that would be alright if it had not been posts in a writer’s group. Even posting them to a writer’s group would have been appropriate if it was some sort of fortune cookie think tank. But this was a writer’s group focussing on the mechanics of creative writing. It would be like giving a commencement speech at a BBQ. Or akin to doing a Shakespearean soliloquy at a Monster Truck rally.
Like “The Dude” in “The Big Lebowski” I felt that “this aggression will not stand, man” and after awhile I began to add commentary to “Claude’s” words. The internet after all is interactive. First he would post, I would copy. and then I would paste and add responses. And it would look a little something like this:
Applied Sciences and the industrial complex have failed to allow humanity their ability to express themselves.
This explains your inappropriate expression on the internet, Claude.
Genius and Creatives cannot be given the assurance that ingenuity has a constructive purpose.
Assurances of genius are not enough, proof is needed to determine the constructive role of genius. The “creative” people have a tendency to call into question traditions and rules. they question artificial institutions and certain conventions. Just as structure is needed, so is the constant questioning of its need to determine its functionality.
It is no longer the physical, but the moral aspect of humanity that is being charted in recognition of metaphysical resources.
Unless you live in Fresno.
You take the demonstration of inner awareness and extend it from a limited unique entity to the scope of the multitudes.
Or as we like to say as we drive our earth tone colored Volvos around the valley, act locally, think globally dude.
Apparently he was not used to others responding critically to his words. I got emails from him, usually of a threatening nature, and sometimes quite vile. In the end, Claude wanted to go after me with litigation, apparently his way of dealing with criticism was attempting to silence it. I, on the other hand, came to realize the futility of it all. This guy was a few metaphysical cards short of a full deck.
Claude’s grasp on the group was so completely parasitic with these “prolific kernels of wisdom” he transformed the group into his writings along with the 1st Church of the Tragically Spammed. And, sadly, the group still lives to this day. It’s like ground zero at a nuclear test site.