I always took Buckley’s comment as more of a distrust of the academic than a cheer for the average man. Maybe that is just my own life experience talking. I’ve worked in college administration for almost 29 years. While I have close friendship and genuine affection for most of the professors I work with I would not trust them with running anything serious on a day-to-day effort. While they are experts in their fields, I can’t get any of them to turn in their class schedules on time, or their grades, or their textbook adoptions.
The crazy thing is how every yahoo on social media making some seemingly “common sense” point based on their own limited life experience is utterly convinced they know more about a complex topic like climate change than scientists who have spent decades studying the issue based on millions of data points and a vast range of analytical tools from computer models to statistical tests. But sure, ignore all those experts because Joe from Schenectady heard that carbon dioxide is “plant food”.
William F. Buckley once said, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory, than by the Harvard University faculty.” Okay, but if he developed a brain tumor, would he rather be operated on by someone chosen randomly or by a surgeon from the Harvard Medical School?
My comment: True, but on the other hand, if your car broke down on a country road late at night, would you rather have a Good Samaritan who was a good mechanic offer to help or a professor of liberal arts at UT Austin?
Another great editorial by Brands! Some of you (obviously Brands does) may have known (or at least known of) the late Dr. John Silber, the controversial (understatement) former dean of Liberal Arts at UT Austin and then president of Boston University. (Although I never had a class with Silber, I knew him personally.) Someone once told me that the only time Silber was bested in a debate was when he took on Bill Buckley and Buckley took him apart.
Buckley understood the difference between governance, which requires the consideration of values, and technical expertise, which doesn't care about values so much. There's no contradiction between not thinking any group has the right to dictate your decisions and understanding that some jobs require technical understanding. Congress is, in my experience (which involves over a decade on the Hill, both House and Senate) highly representative of the American people (as much as 535 people can be) in terms of preferences, prejudices, hopes, etc. (not always demographically - for example fewer than 4/10 people have college degrees - I don't know a single Member who doesn't have one). And that that's where the "big" decisions that require trade offs between values should occur. The administrative agencies have an important role to play, but shouldn't be deciding the larger questions when different values compete.
I always took Buckley’s comment as more of a distrust of the academic than a cheer for the average man. Maybe that is just my own life experience talking. I’ve worked in college administration for almost 29 years. While I have close friendship and genuine affection for most of the professors I work with I would not trust them with running anything serious on a day-to-day effort. While they are experts in their fields, I can’t get any of them to turn in their class schedules on time, or their grades, or their textbook adoptions.
The crazy thing is how every yahoo on social media making some seemingly “common sense” point based on their own limited life experience is utterly convinced they know more about a complex topic like climate change than scientists who have spent decades studying the issue based on millions of data points and a vast range of analytical tools from computer models to statistical tests. But sure, ignore all those experts because Joe from Schenectady heard that carbon dioxide is “plant food”.
William F. Buckley once said, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory, than by the Harvard University faculty.” Okay, but if he developed a brain tumor, would he rather be operated on by someone chosen randomly or by a surgeon from the Harvard Medical School?
My comment: True, but on the other hand, if your car broke down on a country road late at night, would you rather have a Good Samaritan who was a good mechanic offer to help or a professor of liberal arts at UT Austin?
Another great editorial by Brands! Some of you (obviously Brands does) may have known (or at least known of) the late Dr. John Silber, the controversial (understatement) former dean of Liberal Arts at UT Austin and then president of Boston University. (Although I never had a class with Silber, I knew him personally.) Someone once told me that the only time Silber was bested in a debate was when he took on Bill Buckley and Buckley took him apart.
I miss BB - his calm demeanor during a heated debate. He was a brilliant mind.
God & man at Yale.
skinny ties, top button done.
Taking on the left.
Buckley understood the difference between governance, which requires the consideration of values, and technical expertise, which doesn't care about values so much. There's no contradiction between not thinking any group has the right to dictate your decisions and understanding that some jobs require technical understanding. Congress is, in my experience (which involves over a decade on the Hill, both House and Senate) highly representative of the American people (as much as 535 people can be) in terms of preferences, prejudices, hopes, etc. (not always demographically - for example fewer than 4/10 people have college degrees - I don't know a single Member who doesn't have one). And that that's where the "big" decisions that require trade offs between values should occur. The administrative agencies have an important role to play, but shouldn't be deciding the larger questions when different values compete.