pan-omniscience. why?

About a week ago I bought the first season of House on DVD..I have been a fan and decided I should by the episodes on dvd and watch them in order.

Last night I watched the second episode ever, entitled "Paternity". The main case in this episode is a 16 year old lacrosse player having night terrors as well as a twitch. That's not really important to my point.

During the process of diagnosing the guy, his parents argue with House about if he really knows what he is doing. In his typical fashion House essentially provides a counterargument or underhanded insult of some kind to make them shut up.

My point is this: Why do people assume they always know better than someone else?

You might now be thinking that, "hey Matt! Its just a tv show." I would agree with you, because earlier in that same episode a woman refused to vaccinate her infant because she was informed that vaccinations simply padded pharmaceutical companies' bottom lines. Twice in the same episode is not really a coincidence, in fact its just clever screenwriting.

But I challenge you with this: This happens in real life too. Rush Limbaugh, in the wake of the H1N1 scare, proclaimed he would not get the vaccination nor would he recommend it to anyone. Now I consider myself conservative but Rush really does go too far (on more than just this occasion). To his credit, there were some side effects with the nasal-spray version of the vaccine. But to outright refuse to get it? Thats ridiculous.

I realize that I myself am guilty of assuming my own omniscience at times. I think everyone is. But what is it about humanity (or maybe just part of it) that refuses to take information from an expert on the source and ignore it, but will take information from a source not really qualified to disclose information and trust that like religion? Is it that we cannot identify which is which, or do we simply dismiss the notion that we have to ability to differentiate between the two? I don't know. I have my theories, but I will not pretend to be a Sociological expert.

That would frame me immediately as a hypocrite.

“I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.”-Erma Bombeck