How Stupid are We?

With all these ‘question mark’ headlines in recent articles, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I had taken up a job writing for the Independent. (I haven’t in case anyone was worrying).

Anyway, we all know that the state is taking more and more freedom from us and telling us what we can and can’t do. But it appears that things are getting silly now. The amount of signs all over the place telling us what we can and can’t do is just ridiculous. Indeed, most of the time it is useless advice as it states the obvious. Guido pointed out the new hand washing procedure posters that now litter toilets in Parliament and Tom Harris points out a simply ridiculous sign on a train.

However, Tim Mongomery has found the best yet. Apparently, you can’t take bombs into the US embassy. Well who’d thought it eh?

This nonsense has to stop. Before long we’ll have people falling off ladders and then claiming compensation on grounds that there was not firstly a warning that falling from such apparatus may cause injury to one or more parts of the human body and secondly, that the gravity was not turned off.

How long will have to wait?

I mean just how stupid are we? It’s simply pathetic. It’s time people started growing up and taking responsibility for themselves rather than being expected to be spoon fed by the state. Mind you, some people can’t read anyway(see image on left), so such signs wont make a difference.

The other problem we have is road signs. I have noticed over the last little while or so just how many unnecessary signs there are on our roads. The are cluttering up our roads and frankly I have no idea how drivers can be concentrating on the road whilst processing all the information being given to them by these signs. Also, in some places, there are just so many signs that many of them are either partially or even completely obscured. Why can’t we just have a few signs every now and then to give us helpful advice such as a speed limit or a simple sign so as we know which way to turn at a junction. None of this mess that we have at present. Most of it comes down to common sense. There are some out there who will say, “yes, but if you remove the signs then people will not know what to do”. Or, as I heard the other day, “you can’t take signs down because it will result in people going the wrong way and then using too much petrol and that is bad for the environment which all contributes to global warming which means we’re all going to die!” That was said by a lady who had just parked her Ranger Rover on a double yellow line, left the engine on and gone into the shop to stock up for dinner. Hypocrite – yes, stupid and ignorant as well.

Maybe, we are stupid and do need someone to tell us what to do every minute of our lives, or perhaps as in the case of our Range Rover friend, there are just many hypocrites out there. The simple conclusion to draw here is that firstly there are too many signs, not only on the roads, but everywhere. If you are too stupid to use common sense in many situations, then you probably shouldn’t be a free subject of Her Majesty.

P.s. I do apologise for the number of images in this post. Partly it needed to be done to show the nonsense of many signs, but also it makes it all cluttered and proves my point, slightly.

P.p.s. Further apologies for the lack of solid political argument in recent days. I have been working as if my life depends on it and consequently am not fully clued up at the moment.