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  %SPECIALIST NARROW EXCLUSIVE KNOW SKILL INTEGRITY 921012

     Because  we  are all finite we cannot  do  everything
which we might want or desire to do. We cannot acquire all
knowledge and skills.  We can acquire only limited amounts
of  knowledge  and  skills.   As  the  totality  of  human
knowledge  and  skills  increases each  human  acquires  a
smaller   and  smaller  fraction  of  all  possible  human
knowledge and skills. The increase in the total collection
of  human  knowledge and skills leads  inevitably  to  the
increase  of human specialization;  the focusing  of human
attention on decreasing fractions of all that humans  know
and can do.

     As specialization becomes more and more pervasive  we
need   to   guard  against  thinking  and   feeling   that
specialists  are in some sense special,  more valuable and
more worthy of respect. Such attitudes are misleading, for
if  we  focus our attention too narrowly  and  exclusively
upon some tiny fraction of all knowledge and skills we may
exclude  from consideration knowledge and skills which are
essential    to    personal   and   communal    integrity.
Specialization  is  not  worthy of respect if  it  entails
excluding  from  consideration knowledge and skills  which
are essential to personal and communal integrity.

     Most  forms  of  specialization  have   traditionally
entailed narrowing  their  foci of consideration  to  some
subset of all possibilities in such a way that connections
to  other  forms  of  knowledge  and  skills  are  greatly
reduced.   When  specialists specialize in this way,  they
cease   to  be  able  to  communicate  with   each   other
meaningfully,  and  cease  to be able to  communicate with
members  of  the  general public;  they  lose  touch  with
reality.   Such  exclusive specialization does  not  merit
respect.

     We  need  a  greater  emphasis upon  a  new  kind  of
specialization;  a kind where connections to various other
specializations   and   specialists   are   nurtured   and
encouraged,   to  maximize communication through open  and
honest dialogue. This new kind of specialization will need
to be nurtured with a clear conception of what integrative
purposes  it  will  serve.  It cannot  be  nurtured  as  a
competitor  for respect and attention through playing  the
same   old  games  for  attention  and  support  as   have
traditionally been played by  other specialists.  The true
specialists  in inter-connecting other specialists will be
different   kinds  of  specialists  than  have   been  the
specialists  in  isolated exclusive specialties which have
shown  little  interest  in  promoting  open  and   honest
dialogue, personal integrity and communal integrity.

     A  proliferation of exclusive and narrow  specialists
in the absence of a growth  in new integrative specialists
in inter-connection,  is a proliferation which will act as
a  cancer in the body politic.  Such a proliferation  will
sap energy,  funds,   creativity,   and  imagination while
generating forgetfulness, confusion, garbage, and chaos.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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