Reliance on Experts

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. 

"Specialization is for insects." 

So said the novelist Robert A. Heinlein.

I once shared this quote with a class and asked the students what they thought of it. They liked that idea that we are all more capable than we let on. They felt the overall idea was liberating: We don't have to be (in fact, we probably shouldn't be) so dependent on experts in so many areas of modern life. This sparked a heated and enjoyable discussion.

But the thing which surprised me is how many students found the references to "butchering a hog" and "pitching manure" so very crass and disturbing. They thought the quote would have been much better if had just left out such "degrading" phrases. On the whole, everything else on the list made sense to them.

The conversation left me somehow deeply concerned about our national future. Few things are taboo in our society, but the very idea of what a century ago was daily farm work, the very mention of such things, is disturbing to today's youth. Most of the youth found the thought of butchering their own meat or preparing the land for planting with manure downright revolting. (Ironically, only  a few of the students were vegetarians and these few were, on the whole, less disturbed than the others.)

If we are so specialized that the most basic acts of food preparation revolt our youth, the future is bound to be...interesting. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm pretty clear that this development isn't good for freedom.