"One does not allow the plumbers to decide the temperature, depth and timing of a bath"
About this Quote
Gould’s line lands with the dry snap of a newsroom man watching specialists get promoted into lawmakers. Plumbers know pipes; they don’t get to set the ritual. The bath is the user’s experience, and the temperature, depth, and timing are choices that belong to the person stepping in. By swapping in such domestic specifics, Gould makes the power grab feel both absurd and instantly legible: expertise is being smuggled into authority.
The intent is to police boundaries. In policy fights, technical staff and vendors often argue that because they understand the machinery, they should also determine the goals. Gould rejects that bait-and-switch. Competence at maintenance doesn’t translate into democratic legitimacy, ethical judgment, or a mandate to decide trade-offs. His triad - temperature, depth, timing - is doing rhetorical work: it’s not just one setting, it’s the whole experience. Let the plumbers decide any of it and they’ll soon decide all of it.
The subtext is also an indictment of how institutions hide responsibility. “The experts made us do it” is a favorite alibi of bureaucracies and executives. Gould reminds readers that systems are built to serve human ends, not to crown their caretakers as de facto rulers.
Contextually, as a journalist writing amid mid-century anxieties about bureaucracy and mass media’s gatekeepers, Gould is defending the public’s primacy over the technocrats who run the infrastructure of modern life. It’s a neat metaphor with teeth: keep the specialists, fire the fantasy that specialization equals sovereignty.
The intent is to police boundaries. In policy fights, technical staff and vendors often argue that because they understand the machinery, they should also determine the goals. Gould rejects that bait-and-switch. Competence at maintenance doesn’t translate into democratic legitimacy, ethical judgment, or a mandate to decide trade-offs. His triad - temperature, depth, timing - is doing rhetorical work: it’s not just one setting, it’s the whole experience. Let the plumbers decide any of it and they’ll soon decide all of it.
The subtext is also an indictment of how institutions hide responsibility. “The experts made us do it” is a favorite alibi of bureaucracies and executives. Gould reminds readers that systems are built to serve human ends, not to crown their caretakers as de facto rulers.
Contextually, as a journalist writing amid mid-century anxieties about bureaucracy and mass media’s gatekeepers, Gould is defending the public’s primacy over the technocrats who run the infrastructure of modern life. It’s a neat metaphor with teeth: keep the specialists, fire the fantasy that specialization equals sovereignty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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