There is however a newish breed of self styled experts known as 'trichologists.' The most famous of these is Philip Kingsley.
But almost worse than the ignoramus is the self-styled expert.
A self-styled "expert in non-verbal communication", she misunderstands Din's reserve as the "respect of hierarchy that (she had noticed) seems to plague all Asians".
(Sebastian Gorka, a self-styled expert on Islam and terrorism who now works at the White House, was a regular guest on Gaffney's radio show).
What Richard Hofstadter called "the paranoid style in American politics" is encouraged by popular culture, in movies like "Birth of a Nation" and "The Da Vinci Code," and by those whom Professor Goldberg terms the "conspiracy entrepreneurs" — whether Glenn Beck or Jerome Corsi, who went from self-styled expert on John Kerry's military record to self-styled expert on Barack Obama's heritage.
There's a glint of iron teeth as this self-styled expert in black magic – aka Woland – insouciantly predicts that Berlioz will be decapitated, then starts relating how he himself attended Jesus's trial, hovering around Pontius Pilate.
Everyone is now a self-styled expert, with a sense of entitlement to the resources — Scalamandré silks, Grange furniture, Osborne & Little wallpapers — that were once the sole province of the professional designer.
While a senator and self-styled expert on biotechnology issues, Gore praised Algeny, the bizarre diatribe by anti-biotechnology zealot Jeremy Rifkin and is quoted on its cover, calling it "an important book" and an "insightful critique of the changing way in which mankind views nature".
We cannot depend on what some self-styled expert says is the diagnosis and proper treatment.
The topic of discussion for our national dialogue should NOT be responding to a specific plan or proposal: Obama's, McCain's, a think tank's, or some self-styled expert.
You can hear it from the likes of Grover Norquist, Bill O'Reilly, the Koch brothers, your Republican friends and cousins, economists, moralists, and every sort of self-styled expert... this risks to be a long list.
