We are addicted to experts. They tell us how to cast our vote, raise our kids, manage our diets and interpret political events. The media keeps us on a steady diet of stats backed up by expert opinion. But do they know better?

In the recent stock meltdown, we discovered that some of our most important experts — our financial gurus — didn’t know much at all. So what about all the other experts out there? Are they just part of a new cult of expertise, an ever-growing “expert industry” that’s become our new religion?