Universities are where the smartest people are to be found? I don’t think so. William F. Buckley suggested we would be better off being governed by the first thousand people listed in the white pages of the Boston phone book. For me, that goes for college graduates as well. It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect perfectly illustrated.
It occurs to me that the Dunning-Kruger effect is likely much more common today than it was years ago, because universities and grade schools are telling everyone that they're all exceptional, even brilliant, when in reality, the vast majority are utterly ignorant morons.
No grades (or grades inflated to the point of being meaningless), everyone gets a trophy, etc. Entire generations of supposedly "educated" people who know almost nothing of any practical worth, and who possess zero critical thinking ability. It is dangerous to give any power/authority to such people, which is why the world is the way it is today.
There was a reason why we were taught not to trust the government - they screwed things up royally, never knowing or caring why or how they failed.
Does no one in these hallowed halls (especially at MIT) remember a short story written by Arthur C Clarke, Superiority?
The next time someone posits that our CDC knows all, I will utter the word "Thaliomide", and see if they have enough sense to shut up.