The expert’s mandate is to defend the public against its own wishes.

Evidence

Walter Benjamin’s thought on critics whose task it is to uphold the interest of the public against the public itself can be applied to cultural policy as well. To serve this purpose is the duty of the expert. The longing for individuals who might work beyond the realm of expertise usually characterizes only regression or the desire for technicians of communication, with whom - simply because they are lacking any real understanding of matters - one can get along better and who dwell all the more comformingly within their own policy. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 175

Categorization

• SEED: Fertile angle: testing this ‘expert defends public against itself’ thesis on streaming recommendation engines or algorithmic curation, which claim to serve user preferences but actually entrench them.
• DEFINE: Defines the cultural policy expert’s adversarial role and distinguishes it from the ‘technician of communication’ who merely conforms.
• XREF: connects to: Defending experts does not entail granting them authority over political decisions — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 270