Bounced from Hari
ORIGINAL: "I wasn't talking about the author. But the book is about ol'
Norman, if I
recall. jks"
Reply: Yes of course you are right. I was just suggesting if anyone
wanted to find said book - NB was not the target.
By the way your cataloguing of "Let me count the ways" of being
misunderstood (or whatever label people wish to attach) was rather funny
in my view.
To the anti-experts: A scenario:
You have headaches: You take aspirin;
Fails; You ask your neighbour who says ask the pharmacist - the
pharmacist says go to the doc as you have started having eye aches;
You delay; and you delay; then your eyesight becomes hemianopic (for the
non-expert that is half-vision of your full visual fields);
You see the GP/Primary care physician - AN expert that woudl be
acknowledged by all the discussants. However, the Expert ...........does
not refer you on & says "there there - have a little stress pill" - it
was your trauma at being rejected at play school.
How many of the non-expert camp would accept that?
How many of the non-expert camp would prefer their brain tumour
possibility being ruled out or in, by a combination of a
neurologist/neurosurgeon/CT scanner/?
& how many will prefer the ministrations of the janitor?
What is the point of all that long tale? I agree it was long, but:
i) No one denies that there are differing levels (or even types) of
expertise - but, surely for specific matters you want the most relevant
set of expertises possible?
ii) No one denies that the para-medical staff have crucial insights. But
most people would argue that (Whether one has a communist mentality, or
even a Christian/Hindu/Muslim - respectful humane mentality) -ALL people
have a set of additional crucial insights. But, given a concrete set of
scenarios, not all cannot make the necessary mental connections etc - in
order to make a diagnosis. That this is achieved usually (regretabbly in
my view) with a traingin tha encoruages rote learning - that does not
invlaidate the acieved expertise requisite to make siad diagnosis.
By the way I have participated in ward rounds in the former PSR
Albania- & I can assure you that while nurses and ward clerks were
treated with utter dignity & the drs did sweep the wards - decisions as
to very complex medical decisions were made by those competent to do so.
The complexity of the human emotional response of the patient - was (&
is in most systems) certainly radically differently interpreted by the
nurses. That is why even under capitalism, it is a very foolish dr that
ignores what the whole team tells her/him (Over 50% of docs in my
teaching hospital are women).
Sorry to be so long winded. But this long spiel on how bad expertise is
- was becoming very ridiculous in my view. I view it as not the central
matter anyway, the central matter is the control of power. In a
capitalist system, this is unlikely to favour the masses.
Hari Kumar
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
