Thursday, February 10, 2011

Trusting the experts

Susan Sontag once said an astomishingly true thing:
Imagine the preposterous case of somebody who read only the Reader's Digest between 1950 and 1970, and somebody else who read only The Nation between 1950 and 1970. Who would be getting more truth about the nature of Communism? There's no doubt it would have been the Reader's Digest reader.
That upset a lot of people but it's true.

Looking back, I often think about sex experts. If I imagine the preposterous case of a guy who read only those awful got-game seduction manuals for the last twenty years, and another guy who read only the responsible advice from experts, I have a horrible sinking feeling about who would do better at actually relating to women. Because as Neanderthal as those guys are, and they are, stuff like this does keep turning up to vindicate them.

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