A while back, I read about a scientific study showing that, contrary to popular belief, academic literacy does not necessarily lead to agreement about the issues. Put in layman's terms, even if all of us were experts, that doesn't mean we'll agree. Even scientists and researchers dedicated to their respective fields hold different opinions about the evidence, and the interpretation thereof; in many cases, the so-called "scientific consensus" refers not to even to general agreement among scientists, but sufficient agreement to be considered the "official" opinion of the scientific community.
In this sense, academia has changed over time from the rigorous and passionate quest for knowledge, to the democratization of academically acceptable views. Additionally, the scientific community isn't even truly democratic, but meritocratic, and for views to be widely accepted, they generally must appeal to the authority of respected academic figures; such a system suppresses original, organic knowledge, requiring scientists to build their work upon that which is already accepted.
This same kind of problem is present in all the fields of knowledge, from politics to economics, from technology to anthropology.
Economists who hold views different from the mainstream, Keynesian interpretation, particularly Austrian economics, are not taken seriously simply because to the mainstream economic experts, Austrian ideas simply do no make sense. When all of history is interpreted from the Keynesian perspective, as it is by most economists, every depression recession, period of deflation or inflation, crisis, meltdown, or market contraction is seen as being caused by market dysfunction, and could have been prevented by informed, prudent government intervention.
Austrian economists are just as much of experts as Keynesians are, and yet they hold such different views. The academically accepted view is presently Keynesian, with Austrian thought considered an alternative, or "heterodox" view. Even though these academics have about the same level of expertise and knowledge, access to the same statistics and economic studies, and the same history, they cannot agree, because they interpret the knowledge and academic resources differently. Knowledge cannot cause people to agree, because it is principles, values, and perspectives that give knowledge meaning, not academic literacy.
This problem is quite frustrating, as it appears to have no solution; at the very least, there is no solution that is easy or obvious, and almost certainly not one without compromise. No matter how knowledgeable we are about science or economics or political theory, we will disagree at least some of the time, and there will always be a core issue that all of us disagree about. We will disagree because there is no firm relationship between knowledge and agreement. We might agree about issues for which the facts are clear, but most of the time, knowledge is open to interpretation. Even a field of knowledge as rigorous and objective as science is highly dynamic in its interpretation; those who hope that getting rid of ignorance will lead to widespread agreement, are doomed to be disappointed.
This disconnect between knowledge and understanding is sadly taken for granted, or often denied outright. Perhaps because such a truth is too harsh for most to accept, the pervasive belief that conflict exists only because people are ignorant, that people commit crime because they don't know any better, that politicians passing legislation we strongly disagree with are "psychopaths" or "idiots", or that conspiracy theorists are just ignorant lunatics who haven't properly reviewed the evidence and developed rational conclusions. We can be the biggest experts in the world and still disagree, and until we accept that, we won't be able to work towards reconciling our differences of views.
