Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

If you find yourself among a great mass marching for a righteous cause, that's called "safety in numbers."    What if you find a bunch of smart  people who turn out to be just as stupid as you?   Therefrom can spring a weird feeling of comfort that is almost as good as if being smart again. 

What happened: my car fob quits;  to open the car door, I take the logical step to reach in (over the window glass, which is, luckily or unluckily, down at the moment), to pull up the door latch manually.   I drive the next eternity of anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes through residential neighborhoods, over highways, pushing every button the dashboard has to offer, the car screaming murders-- neighbors, police, US Marines,  please stop me,  all to absolutely no avail. (So, in Space no one hears you, but in American cities, no one seems to  pay attention!)

Finally at a major dealership garage.   Three uniformed mechanics appraise, energetically push buttons, only to back away to assume attitudes of philosophical  bafflement.  (But to their credits, no one suspects  oil or windshield wipers).  Finally and finally, a forth man produces himself out of the deep shaded inner sanctum.  

Thus was settled for me, in real life ,  the question: How many mechanics does it take to turn off a car alarm?

But, what is the point of this post?  (Or , more like it,  excuse?)  Only that maybe there is a phrase kin to "safety in numbers"  that describes my feeling of comfort when finding myself among men of superior credentials who turn out to be, because they are superior to start with, superiorly inept.

And if you are reading this and having to wonder  about the solution to the car alarm problem,  you might well take it for the bright side, that there are people, among whom trained professionals, in the same boat with you.  But what is the solution? It is a  most simple and logical one indeed; go ahead and try it at home.