Recent example of how I see this in everyday life: The other day was staying with a relative when lightning struck a transformer in the apartments next to ours – within walking distance. He rushes out with his binoculars to stare at the smoke. I don’t join him, and he’s clearly upset. I’m trying to get the info together so I can make a report to the National Weather Service.

Later he confronts me and says, “You would have been perfectly safe. There was no reason to be afraid.” I retorted that while I didn’t have a degree in meteorology yet, I’d been to a LOT of storm spotting classes and done a lot of self-study, enough to know that it was QUITE dangerous to be standing out there right after such a close strike . . .

His response was to go into a TIRADE:

“I’m so sick of all these $@%#$%#$ yuppies with their booklearning trying to tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about!”

And that’s just one example . . . I’ve had much worse experiences with other family members, one of which could have resulted in a serious injury or death, simply because of a know-it-all who thought my knowledge of weather was “useless booklearning”.

It really is sad.

And it really is scary.

“Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.” – Isaac Asimov