I agree - but surely self-selection and specialisation are incompatible? Otherwise we are all specialists - the idea of specialisation surely involves a group of people deciding that one person is a specialist and another isn't? - hence it's not self-selection, but other-selection
A specialist is merely someone who has specialised in a particular area. Other-selection is in no way implied in this. I do actually think that we are all specialists to a degree, and in a free society I suspect this would be even more the case. If you give people more time and space in which to learn then they are likely to specialise in things that interest them, rather than learning an equal amount of everything.
I am a mathematician, I have specialised in maths and this was my choice, not the choice of others. In an anarchist society I would still be a mathematician and most other people would still have have neither the desire nor the aptitude to spend years and years of their life studying maths to develop a deeper understanding of the connections between the homology and homotopy forms of Cauchy's theorem. Specialisation is not necessarily an evil.
We need to move away from a system where we go to other people to be sorted out when we get ill, to one where we all have responsibility for amintaining good health.
I don't think anyone is disagreeing with that but that still doesn't mean we don't need specialist doctors. If I've got a problem with my joints then I want to see a specialist in bones, not someone who anatomical knowledge is limited to knowing that leg bone is connected to the foot bone.
If we were allowed to flourish we would only need a few days intensive training (or even basic medical skills would be common knowledge for everyone).
What utter bollocks.
If I ever want an appendix removing then I'm keeping a long way away from you...
Fair enough, but if i did need surgery I'd want a specialist!