Thursday, November 19, 2020

Gurri: Claims of Competence of the Elites



The financial crash of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020 have been moments of great clarity, when the claims of competence of the elites and the experts have been exposed as hollow. The rhetorical style of the industrial age was utopian: if only we mix the right amount of data with great enough power, we can fix the human condition. That illusion should have vanished when the Soviet Union went out of business but, perversely, it has clung to political debates in democratic societies. We should know by now that human knowledge is frail and limited. A little humility in elite rhetoric would go a long way towards restoring trust.

- Martin Gurri in an interview with Jeff Yates.

2 comments:

Steve Layman said...

Martin Gurri is one smart fellow. If you have not read the book, I recommend it to you. Steve

Michael Wade said...

Steve,

You are correct about him. He is bright and I have indeed read his book.

I first heard about it on a site called A Layman's Blog.

Thanks!

Michael