“People on both sides of the ideological fault line may believe that those with the most knowledge should have the most weight in making decisions that impact society, but they have radically different conceptions of just where in society  there is in fact the most knowledge. If knowledge is defined expansively, including such mundane knowledge whose presence or absence is consequential  and often crucial, then individuals with Ph.D.’s are as grossly ignorant of most consequential things as other individuals are, since no one can be truly knowledgeable, at a level required for consequential decision-making for a whole society, except within a narrow band our of the vast spectrum of human concerns.”

“The ignorance, prejudices, and groupthink of an educated elite are still ignorance, prejudice and groupthink- and for those with one percent of the knowledge in a society to be guiding or controlling those with the other 99 percent is as perilous as it is absurd. The difference between special knowledge and mundane knowledge is not simply incidental or semantic. Its social implications are very consequential.  For example, it is far easier to concentrate power than to concentrate knowledge.  That is why so much social engineering backfires and why so many despots have led their countries into disasters.”

From Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

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