The Silencing Of The Experts

 According to Kant, the experts maintain the immaturity of the public by instilling in them the fear of independent thinking.

Kant describes how there are individuals, even among the experts, who think independently, but are forced under the yoke of immaturity: "But it should be particularly noted that if a public that was first placed in this yoke by the guardians is suitably aroused by some of those who are altogether incapable of enlightenment, it may force the guardians themselves to remain under the yoke." This is a negative reinforcing loop: The experts attempt to prevent the public from thinking independently; instead, they should obey their guidance.

The result is that the experts have no other recourse but to adhere to dogmatic consensus, as the public now allows them no deviation.

The key to the Enlightenment lies in acknowledging the fundamental distinction between expression in the public domain and in the private domain, and respecting the unhindered freedom of the use of reason in the public domain, Kant says: "By the public use of one's own reason I understand the use that anyone as a scholar makes of reason before the entire literate world I call the private use of reason that which a person may make in a civic post or office that has been entrusted to him."

The priest certainly has to adhere to the doctrines, the "Symbol," of the church in the pulpit: "But as a scholar he has complete freedom, indeed even the calling, to impart to the public all of his carefully considered and well-intentioned thoughts concerning mistaken aspects of that symbol" And to Kant, the experts' full and unrestricted freedom of expression in the public domain is a necessary condition for the Enlightenment; it is the only way to break the reinforcing loop described earlier, break the chains of immaturity that not only restrain them, but the entire population.

When we look at the censorship, cancellations, and hate speech directed against those who, during the past three years, have doubted the absurd dogmas of the Covidians, we clearly see the loop Kant describes; how the experts impose certain views on the public, which accepts them without question.

The experts have certainly betrayed us during the Covid years, not for the first time and surely not for the last, and as Thomas Harrington points out, the treason of the experts has had devastating consequences.

https://brownstone.org/articles/silencing-of-experts/