Why Do Politicians Never say "I Don't Know"?

Who do they think they're fooling?

Why Do Politicians Never Say, “I Don’t Know”

Over the last few centuries, knowledge and understanding has increased at an exponential rate.

Doctors used to be reasonably expert at delivering babies and setting broken legs.  That was about it.  Now, there are more medical specialties than any of us can even name.  Add to that the enormous knowledge of DNA and genetics that are now so important to ourselves and our health.

How about building and building materials?  There are constantly new materials and methods. Imagine if you had to design a bridge across a one-thousand-foot span?  What is today’s best way to do it?  What factors must be considered?

How about cars?  We all know about cars, sort of.  That is to say, we all know that they should be electric, in order to save the planet.  But how many of us can say how that is all supposed to work in real life?  IS it working in real life?

How about communications?  The internet?  AI?  How many of us can dig deep into that?

Climate change?  It gets talked about a lot.  How many people have the physical science chops to delve into the math, chemistry and physics involved in making any determinations?

I’ve speculated previously that perhaps only a few hundred years ago it was possible for a person to know nearly everything that was known about our physical reality.  That’s not much of a stretch, considering how little was known.  Today, the smartest of the smart can only know just so much of the vast wealth of knowledge.  The smartest of the smart, when they need to know more, consult other really smart people and try to combine areas of knowledge to make necessary determinations.

And then there’s politicians.  Apparently, they know everything. We’ve all heard any number of politicians asked any number of questions.  How often do they say, “I don’t know”?  Or, “Let me refer you to a really smart guy I know who might be able to answer that.”  Frankly, I have heard those answers, but it’s rare.  And it’s only some politicians who will do that.  For the rest, it is the usual practice of bluffing.  Act like you know what things cost.  Or act like you know how to save the planet. Act like you have even the slightest clue about energy infrastructure and how it all works.

Sure, politicians are great at having opinions about cultural issues.  They can state categorically how they feel about abortion and gay marriage.  Well, they can state the party line categorically, and then pretend it was their idea. These are important issues, and they need discussing and sorting out.  Ironically, no matter how much they get discussed, it mostly comes down to how people feel about things.  And politics is about convincing people that they should feel however they are told to feel.  That’s been the way of politics since approximately forever.

But recheck my list at the top.  Science and engineering shouldn’t come down to how people feel.  Or at least I hope to hell it doesn’t come down to how people feel.  Science and engineering aren’t about feelings.  They aren’t about belief.  Real science, the scientific method, is not a belief system; it is a DOUBT system.  In science, you are wrong until you have proved that you are right. And even then, it’s all subject to review, all the time.

And I guess that’s why most politicians just don’t get science.  Politics is about convincing people you’re right about things that are neither right nor wrong, but come down, rather, to points of view. It does neither party any good to have politicians saying, “I really don’t have an answer to your question, and besides, your question is best answered by searching your own soul and determining your own best answer.”  You will NEVER hear a politician say that.  And I mean, NEVER.

That’s bad enough.  But when politicians try to fake their way thru science and engineering, that’s far, far worse.  I have a bit of a theory that there are many people who don’t live well on the fence.  They want to be on one side or the other.  Having chosen their side, it becomes territory that they will defend by any means, while also attacking the other side.  That’s no way to run a government.  And it’s anathema to science. Science doesn’t have sides.  In its pure form, science doesn’t take sides, although disagreement is commonplace.

Why can’t politicians simply state their case, and respect the right of others to do the same?  Why can’t they acknowledge that they know only just so much about only some of the questions?  I don’t know.