DEAR News of the Area

ON election days all opinions carry equal weight at the ballot box.

That is how it should be in our equal society.

Apart from that situation, clearly not all opinions can be regarded as being of equal value.

I would value my mechanic’s opinion regarding the strange sound coming from my car’s engine but would want my doctor’s opinion regarding a pain in my body.

In each case the opinion would be that of a trained and experienced expert with a reputation to protect.

If I sought a second expert opinion and it agreed with the first, then my confidence in the opinion would grow.

Our world heavily depends on having trust in experts and respect for their professionalism.

Yet increasingly we have non-experts making a very good living out of delivering loud opinions on everything and denigrating experts in the process.

Often this is justified as the right to free speech.

If others are going to form beliefs or act as a result of these opinions, then there is a responsibility that goes with the right.

If, through modern media, opinions are spread to potentially millions then the responsibility becomes enormous.

The irresponsible exercise of the right to express opinions by people who have no particular expertise is eroding trust in our nation’s experts, particularly at present those in health science and climate science, but also those in education and in the public service.

Our society becomes less harmonious and our present and future problems become more difficult to tackle.

John GRAY,

Coffs Harbour.