John Robson on "Who's the imbecile?"

... Finally, the government thinks I’m too dumb to know that drawing the blinds on a hot day helps keep the house cool. OK, it’s worse in Dundee, Scotland, where a National Health Service trust just issued a pamphlet complete with diagrams telling citizens how to poop. Back straight, feet up, mouth open. (I am sorry to say that I am not making any of this up.) But the underlying mentality, that ordinary people can’t perform even simple tasks without little arrows and tips, is precisely the apotheosis of technique against which philosopher Michael Oakeshott and others warned. “Plant trees to provide shade,” the pamphlet says. Really? Is that darkness on the other side from the sun cooler? I never knew. Though I always did get this sort of heat-abatement sensation when I stood in it. ...