Tom Nichols is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and an adjunct professor in the Harvard Extension School. He mourns “the death of expertise.” A few excerpts;

“But democracy denotes a system of government, not an actual state of equality. It means that we enjoy equal rights versus the government, and in relation to each other. Having equal rights does not mean having equal talents, equal abilities, or equal knowledge.  It assuredly does not mean that “everyone’s opinion about anything is as good as anyone else’s.”

“What I fear has died is any acknowledgement of expertise as anything that should alter our thoughts or change the way we live. […] The perverse effect of the death of expertise is that without real experts, everyone is an expert on everything. […] Having a strong opinion about something isn’t the same as knowing something.”

And my favorite…

“The University of Google doesn’t count.”