The Cult of the ‘Amateur’

Actually, Amanda, the election is about issues. Out here in the non-amateur real world, we are rejecting the advice of, oh, say, snarky ill-informed consultants paid by the donor class and snarky ill-informed food writers paid by an elite media that pounds its feet about income inequality while peddling pricey toys for the super-rich. Issues. Repeat this to yourself until it sinks in. The optics are just optics. We happen to know that. You see, we're not as ignorant as you hope us to be. And you should have a nice cup of tea and think about your presumptions a bit.

The appropriate question for Dr. Carson is: would he let an "amateur" neursurgeon operate on his brain? If not, he seems to be a hypocrit and if so, he's truly absurd.

Outside the world of politics. social media also abet this phenomenon. Think off all those tiresome Yelpers offering opinions on restaurants whose cuisines they know nothing about or alarmist mommy bloggers without scientific backgrounds spouting off about GMOs or vaccines or food products that contain ingredients with long names (ooh, scary!).

Let's assume, arguendo, that everyone is entitled to an opinion. That doesn't make every opinion (in other words, every amateur opinion) equally worthwhile. Experience, expertise and credentials are to be celebrated, not scorned. Ignorance is not bliss (nor a qualification).

Cyn in "Working Girl" put it best: "Sometimes, I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna."

Huh?

Americans have imbibed the Kool aid of Amateur.
Trump and Carson are Amateurs.
Ergo, Americans have imbibed Trump and Carson.

What rot! This is a bit like saying: All men are mortals. John is a man. Ergo, all men are John.

I will vigorously defend the cult of amateurs; the analogy with Trump's and Carson's success demonstrably limps.

We Amateurs have standards.

Amateurs are not "belief" junkies; Amateurs are not feeling crazy anxiety about the imminent end of their way of life, Amateurs are not watching Fox News, Amateurs don't go to book burning events sponsored by Bachmann and Palin. Amateurs don't want a wall, Amateurs don't think of any nationality as "rapists." Amateurs don't think men rode on dinosaurs, and don't think of Israel as our launchpad for rapture.

40% of Americans are and do. Maybe more.

We Amateurs just harbor suspicion of self-appointed, effete, corrupt, insignificant, megalomaniac, self-important, egotistical, pea-brained class of "professionals" holding the rest of us hostage with "do as I say, not as I do."

The Kool Aid of Amateurs happens to be very good Kool Aid. Why malign this cult with a convenient and wholly invalid argument? Or did you mean to say the 'Cult of 'St_p_d'.' I am thinking of a word that rhymes with 'stupid.'

Kalidan.

The cult of the pristine amateur politician is closely linked to reliance on so-called "common sense" (vs. facts and analysis), making decisions based on gut feelings (George Bush is a prime example; he wasn't really an amateur but he looked and acted like one), and possessing received knowledge, directly from God (George Bush had a touch of this, but the spaced out good Dr. Carson is a great example).

I am mystified by the enthusiasm so many people have for the amateurs running for the Presidency of the United States. Yes, everyone has to start a new profession somewhere and many people who feel the calling to serve decide to run for public office then climb up the ladder one rung at a time to at least, well, learn the ropes. But the cynicism some of the current batch of candidates with no 'political' experience whatsoever yammering on about how sick and tired America is of 'professional' politicians is peculiarly snarky and frankly frightening.

Are we all equally tired of professional neurosurgeons? Were each of us in need of brain surgery, would we seek out someone who had never done it before because we are fed up with surgeons who have gone to medical school? If we decided to build a home, would we commission architects and engineers and general contractors without a lick of experience because we're disgusted by construction workers who have been doing it for decades professionally? Do we buy our cars from someone who makes them in a shed out back? If we need a root canal, do we hope the auto shop down the street has the right drill bits for the job?

We are a nation of armchair quarterbacks. We watch the Tube, screaming that we could play a better game of tennis, write a better sitcom, ask a better question at a debate and give a better answer, write a better tax code, fix global warming, save the economy and, Oh yeah, prevent yesterday's nightmare in Paris.

It's only a matter of time before the Paris attacks are attempted in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago or Manhattan. A Trump, Fiorina, Carson, or any other amateur in the White House could make the response and aftermath even more grotesquely horrific than the attacks themselves.

"Ted Cruz wrapped bacon around a machine-gun barrel and pumped out bullets until the strip sizzled."

The left wants gun control but doesn't even understand what is what. Ted Cruz didn't have a machine gun, it was a semi-automatic AR-15.

I thought his video was hilarious.

First, Noah's Ark is fiction. The Titanic is not. It's that simple. Any person who does not understand the difference, should really stay out of politics and do something else like... become a manager for circus clowns.

General Andrew Jackson, the most widely highly esteemed USA military leader between the death of George Washington until at least the American Civil War, commanded huge numbers of regular American Army troops in battle, esp. at New Orleans, and "bushwhacked" no one. The term, before the Civil War, referenced a slogger through rough country. but came to and continues to mean mean a irregular terrorist/guerrilla/criminal killing men, women, and children w/o distinction, Jesse James in Missouri being the most famous example. How can the NY Times, of all publications, begin a serious political with an historical blunder that would not be tolerated in a Junior High history class?

It isn't that hard to understand that building the Ark is largely a fictional and mythical metaphor for setting sail in a manner similar to Aeneas and Odysseus and that building the Titanic was a man-made undertaking replete with engineering studies and an understanding of the weather. The mythical Ark, being mythical, can withstand even the forces of nature, but the Titanic must deal with the realities of the high seas.

And therein, both amateurism and the absence of understanding of how the real world operates collide to make Carson out to be the con man that he is. His statement comparing the Ark to the Titanic ask a gullible person to accept the lie that somehow the mythical will exceed the realistic, which is precisely what Carson's supporters have done. They have substituted faith for the hard realities of life which require deliberation, study, and evaluations far from the mythologies found in the story of the Ark.

To me, this statement by Carson--comparing the construction of the Ark to that of the Titanic--was the mot significant he has made to date. It tells us all we need to know--not about amateurism which is honorable but about how con men operate.

The actual title to this article displayed in the New York Times Magazine dated November 15, 2015 is "Unprofessionals". The author may have had an interesting point to make, but she lost me by taking sides. This article is not about the 'cult of amateur', it is an attack on Republican candidates for president and nothing more. I'm open to hearing an intelligent point of view so that I can make an informed decision when voting for the elected offices of this country, but this is disappointing because of the agenda wrapped in a spoonful of sugar.

Having spent many years abroad (with frequent visits home) in countries that value hard work and expertise, I find the trend nowadays in America of discounting experience in screening candidates (i.e., to "an amateur" can do it better than experienced politicians) disturbing and a sign of the country's decline. The inability to appreciate nuance and go to extremes (experienced to amateur) is a serious deficit of thinking. While it is still a minority of people who think this way, the media, right and left, fans nonsense by covering every idiotic statement made by Trump and Carson. Realistically a Trump or Carson would waste so much time trying to figure out how the "system" works chaos would reign - and they would make bad decisions not through lack of trying but because such people simplify how hard the job of the presidency is. The American penchant of looking for the one person to fix it all is nonsense: accept it. The disrespect for experience and specialization, a result of hard work that I see (note how people want to do it themselves rather than pay for an expert for a variety of services) has not worked its way up to choosing candidates for the highest office in the land. I would like to see articles about the rest of us who find non politician candidates to be woefully unfit for the job. The media only focuses on the gullible voters looking for easy answers.

‘‘People are sick of politicians.’’ Fine but let's not get carried away because we are STILL dealing with the Tea Party-identifying wing of the Republican party that is older, whiter, more rural, less educated, and more religious than the average American voter. Carson, Trump, Fiorina, Cruz, Santorum, Huckabee, Jindal and maybe another one or two are fighting over a relatively small sliver of the electorate, most of whom reside in states that Obama lost - twice! Not to appear too dismissive, but it doesn't really matter what most of those people think because the reality is that their votes are not going to determine who becomes president, regardless of who they vote for in the primaries.

Carson's comments on amateurs can be easily demolished with but one question. Would he prefer a lay person operate on his heart; or would he prefer a well educated highly trained practitioner in the "art" of heart surgery do so? All logic flows from his answer. Politics at the Federal level is social policy heart surgery.

This isn't to say I don't understand the undercurrent of angst flowing through the American citizenry over current pulse of ineptitude and sometimes sheer buffoonery by our Elected. In recent years some of it has been breathtakingly stupid. It's more to say that, as with said heart surgery question, I want in my Elected at least a fair amount of political experience......especially in one seeking to occupy the Power Oval. It is not a position for which I, the Voter, should choose as an "employee" one who is not adept at the arcane arts of Politics. The position is too powerful, and too fraught with perils, both domestic and foreign, to allow someone whose resume reflects not one iota of experience to occupy. It's akin to electing the mail-room person to CEO, and I'll not be voting for any of it.

John~
American Net'Zen

It might be mentioned that the only true amateur to run for the presidency on a major party ticket, who had never run for office, served in cabinet nor held high military rank, was a Republican who left the Democratic Party: Wendell Willkie. A man who ran to the left of FDR and probably would have beaten him but for the war.

Yes, experience is better, other things being equal. But they're not equal.

Citizens consider electing less experienced candidates in order to break the logjam of "big government" tax, spend & regulate grafters as a worthwhile risk. If the less-experienced electees don't work out, we'll just throw them out of office.

But in the meantime, we'll be rid of the entrenched cabals that have brought out country to its knees.

And just yesterday the extremely profession killers in ISIL wrecked Paris. Watching ridiculous candidates say asinine things seems no longer irritating but utterly obscene and terribly frightening.

This is America now:

If someone says something that makes you feel good, then they have common sense. Even if it makes no sense upon the most cursory of examinations.

If that person keeps saying it in front of cameras, or on the internet, then it must be fact.

Validity of what that person says then becomes directly proportional to how many people now believe it.

After enough people believe it, the depth to which they adhere to these facts becomes their "truth", which is now unassailable by any amount of logic, contrary evidence, or, even if their "truth" is shown to be a physical or scientific impossibility.

This is our country now.

To anyone who thinks electing an amateur to political office is a good idea, please remember Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger. What a rude awakening his term was for all of us, including him!

Several years ago, author Andrew Keen warned about another twist on the "Cult of the Amateur" in his book of that title: That user-generated content, so popular online, was diminishing the demand for professionally created content. Why hire a photographer when you can get the pictures on Flickr for free? Ditto writing/the blogosphere, video/YouTube, etc. etc. Let's place some value on experts - including in politics.

Politics and college sports could be the last bastions of amateurism. Even now, year after year the myth of 19th century amateurism in university athletics continues to indoctrinate tens of millions into this century with the false belief that it's possible to be successful while not putting in the hard work and time commitment essential to succeed in sports and just about everything.

Of course we know this isn't true: in fact, teenagers and even pre teens today are far more professional in their approach, time devoted and effort to their sports training than even professional paid athletes were just a couple of generations ago. Another aspect is the faith-based idea that if you just believe, if you just wish, you will be rewarded. As a result, too many have no belief that hard work and devotion is the starting point for even the possibility of success in most professions and callings today. But even preachers devote countless hours to perfecting their craft in professing to the faithful. Brain surgeons, developers: ditto. Amateurs are gone quickly in those fields.

Say what you want but politics is a true professional calling in which experience and lessons learned the hard way lead one to become a master. There doesn't appear to be any masterful politicians in the Republican field. Hopefully, Hillary will show the eventual GOP nominee that wishful thinking and amateurism is obsolete in politics. After all, politics isn't brain surgery, it's much more complex than that.

As McLuhan pointed out many years ago, we no longer have jobs; we now assume different roles in our lives.

"...the outsider path to the presidency has been trod by an Ohio newspaper publisher, a Georgia peanut farmer, a California movie star and a Texas oilman."

Not exactly a selling point for electing the amateur.

A great article. I can identify as someone who road the wave of high tech in the 90's. The difference is that I had the good luck of having a high school that taught me 3 years of AC-DC electrical theory in the 1970's so I actually understood what was going on under the skin of all the computer stuff.

Absolutely, not an thin understanding amateur.

Today I use a Western Electric telephone, drive a 1940's automobile, and spend my free time thinking about radial engines. Oh, my cell phone stays off and I only look at it twice a day!

I believe the misguided faith in amateurism is also linked to anti-intellectualism, as historian Richard Hofstadter presciently discussed in his 1963 book "Anti-intellectualism in American Life." Since the days of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, some political groups have promoted a deep distrust of expertise, a distrust now bordering on paranoia. There is the pervasive fantasy that amateurs are somehow purer of heart than professionals and will magically do a better job because they supposedly have no direct stake in the issues at hand. This leads to illogical advice, such as "don't ask a plumber if you need new pipes," or "don't ask a doctor if you need medical treatment." Or, worse, when politicians are asked to make decisions about climate change, the some say, "Well, I am not a scientist..." and then proceed to trumpet their unsupported beliefs, as though not knowing anything makes their opinion more valid. Of course, these same politicians who are also not economists, military experts, or agronomists feel free to make critical decisions on public policy, without prefacing their comments with "Well, I am not a...." A professional politician should be expected to balance the many forces of a diverse constituency. It's a truism that no one person can do as much harm to as many people in as short a time as a politician. Politics, like the cockpit of an airliner, is the last place for an amateur to be.

Steve Austin of Hopkinsville Kentucky wrote: "Oh, do you even get to say the word 'Thanksgiving' anymore, since it infers that you have Someone to thank?"

Perhaps that's your inference, and that may be the inference of many others as well.

However, there are also a fair amount of us who give thanks to the unimaginably vast, often unknowable universe. And that unknowable quality means that even the concept of God or gods is too limiting and much too known to be the "Someone to thank."

Instead, we give thanks for our brief time here not to the unknowable and inconceivably endless universe, but instead to our fellow beings on this small blue-green ball circling our neighbor star, the Sun.

Demagoguery on the right has moved past boring and become tragic. They applaud themselves for being a party of know-nothings; and in fact, they are.

@otherminds

Although Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, he left at age 17. It was in Philadephia that he made his fortune and fame, and is generally recognized as a Philadelphian.

Hess nails it. Seems just about every "amateur" on the Republican stage is trying to outdo "macho". Posturing that's gotten beyond tiresome; it's also reckless and dangerous. Enough already. Enough.

The ark is fiction.
The Titanic is history.
Amateurs who don't recognize themselves as such are idiots.

Thoughtful, insightful writing. Like.

What seems to frighten Amanda Hess is that the liberal plan makes a kind of sense and why wouldn't anyone prefer the lockstep uniformity of the big government lovers? Sure, no one ever has enough when elites plan you life from a central government but the politics sounds so flying-unicorn-y!

But you get this from people who mistake our White House ideologue for a leader. See, Amanda, nobody gave Certificates of Approval to George Washington, James Madison, or Tom Paine before they threw off the big-government types in the late 1700's.

The amateurs you instinctively fear are acting from ''amat'' - from their love of country, not a lifetime of anger at the system of described America to angry Barack Hussein Obama, whether he was stoned at the time or not.

Even more frightening to the dedicated, devout Leftists, these American amateurs recognize the place of God in our lives in a clear, shocking violation of all tenets of liberal statism. Don't feel bad, though - we never expected anyone working where you work to understand.

Protip: People don't think MORE of you when you have the nicknames of porno movie people memorized. This might be a skill to leave out of those conversations around the Thanksgiving feast.

Oh, do you even get to say the word ''Thanksgiving'' anymore, since it infers that you have Someone to thank?