by Marc E. Fitch
Also available in digital format here.
Product Description
"postmodernism continually bumps up against reality, only to look foolish." - Marc E. Fitch
During the BP oil leak of 2010, while the "experts" were frantically working on a solution to stop the flow, thousands of people offered solutions. One suggestion came from a plumber named Joe Caldart, but because he wasn't a scientist with a Ph.D., BP dismissed his plan outright. Only when a professor of engineering at Berkeley and a former Shell executive recognized the validity of Caldart's idea and passed it on to BP, did BP pay any attention. Six weeks later, a design strikingly similar to Caldart's solution was lowered onto the Macondo well, and the 87-day crisis ended.
In this age of technology, experts, studies and the media, more young people than ever are attending college and more degrees are being conferred every year. However, with all the degrees conferred and the numbers in academia soaring, it is prudent to examine not only what is being taught and how, but also its effect on society and the culture. We are constantly bombarded with studies and so-called expert opinions that are contradictory, controversial and ineffective. Explanations of current events are accepted at face value by the common man of today because they are informed by "experts in the field."
In "Shmexperts: How Ideology and Power Politics are Disguised as Science," Marc E. Fitch examines the modern myth of experts in today's twenty-four hour media cycle and explains why viewers, readers and the average Joe should do their own research too. In understanding the underlying philosophy and motivation of these experts and the media that promote them, the reader will gain greater insight and critical thinking skills by which to determine whether or not an expert as cited in the media is a true expert or an agenda-driven "shmexpert."
In this brilliantly insightful book Fitch warns of the frightening prospect of a society led into intellectual complacency by relying on mass-media manipulation and the bureaucratization of knowledge. "Shmexperts" explores the philosophy inherent in the media's reliance on and use of experts, and its negative influence on society as a whole.
About the Author
Marc E. Fitch is a WND contributor and a graduate of the Western Connecticut State University Master of Fine Arts Program. He has been the recipient of the W.C.S.U. Barbara Winder Award and the Connecticut Review Leslie Leeds Poetry Award. He is the author of "Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs and Bigfoot" as well as the Southern gothic novel "Old Boone Blood." His fiction has appeared in such publications as "ThugLit," "The Big Click," "The Connecticut Review" and "Cezanne's Carrot." He currently lives in Harwinton, Conn., with his wife and four children and works in the field of mental health.
Product Details
- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Dimension: 6 x 9
- Publisher: WND Books (November 10, 2015)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1936488884
- ISBN-13: 978-1936488889
