Cross-posted from And The Horse You Rode In On
It’s a mystifying – and dangerous – combination: ignorance and arrogance.
The Bush Leaguers with all of their Straussian neocons and Liberty U. matchbook-cover lawyers are setting an example for the ages. PhD candidates for a thousand years will wrack their brains to understand how, in the creepy-crawly opening decade of the 21st century, pond scum rose to the top of the food chain.
It could become a new scholarly discipline – Incompetence Theory. If so, a couple of recent studies figure to be among the foundation documents.
In his book, How Doctors Think, Dr. Jerome Groopman cites research showing that, among radiologists, the worse their performance, the more certain they are that they’re right.
And in an extensive study reported last year, Dr. David Dunning found that people who do things poorly are most often blissfully confident about their abilities – much more so than people who actually do the work well.
On reflection, it shouldn’t be surprising that ignorant imbeciles are ignorant of their own imbecility. It takes competence to recognize incompetence.
When next God speaks to George Bush, she probably should tell him that. But maybe she has. What good would it do?