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LONDON TIMES OBITUARY OF THE LATE MR COMMON SENSE
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he
was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red
tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable
lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early
bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not
children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old
boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens
suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher
fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their
unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or an Elastoplast to a student; but
could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to
have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became
contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better
treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you
couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the
burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed
to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a
little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust;
his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son,
Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;I Know My Rights, I Want
It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Comments
which assumes
there ever was such a thing, and 'common sense' isn't just nostalgia for a time when you weren't really paying attention.
yadda yadda yadda
While there is some truth,
and a few chuckles in this little
screed (the general sense that we've become
a selfish, self-pitying and blame-shifting lot...)
some of the examples used here seem fairly agenda'd;
having less to do with actual common sense or the lack of it
than using this as an opportunity to bash the liberal worldview.
First patriotism...
Then spirituality...
And now conservatives are trying to claim common sense as their exclusive domain.
I don't know about Common Sense, but Hubris seems alive and well...
~~~laika
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU
Flourishing, In Fact!
Hubris has a long and storied history, with many singularly spectacular accomplishments over the ages. Is there any doubt that it should continue to flourish? Or, that in this age of Wealth, Power and Glory that it should positively blossom at all levels?
Speaking of which, hasn't Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp recently purchased The Times of London?
Hardly recent ...
... unless you think 1981 is recent compared with the paper's birth in 1785 :)
Murdoch bought Times newspapers in 1981 and was instrumental in the flight of the London newspapers from their historic base in Fleet Street. Murdoch and Robert Maxwell (Mirror Group) were the double act of the British newspaper scene until Maxwell 'disappeared from his yacht in mysterious circumstances after robbing his employee's pension fund in an attempt to keep his empire afloat.
It's not the paper it once was.
Geoff
I liked it until toward the end
When it started saying that the 10 commandments belonged in school and stuff.
Much to my extended family's disappointment, my mom and dad have always told me that my religion is MY choice. So far, I haven't found one that "fits" quite right. They told me that if I was atheist, that'd be okay, too... but I'm pretty sure that there is SOME kind of higher power. Right now, I'm leaning toward Shamanism (like Aunty Edeyn) or maybe Pastafarian.
REW (Roo)
PS - you talk like Aunty Edeyn
Openness
If you're looking for a church, try seeing if there's a Unitarian Universalist congregation near you. Here is their national website. They're generally fairly open about beliefs, and very welcoming and nondiscriminatory, but they provide a lot of the familiar social trappings of organized religion.
May he Rest in Peace
knowing that those who knew him, respected him and still believe in him.
Diana
Bad evidence
The hot coffee lawsuit lady suffered third-degree burns. The court found that they were making the coffee too hot to be safely consumed, hotter than other restaurants. That case has unfairly gained a reputation as an example of frivolous litigation.
And churches have always been businesses. Even after Jesus kicked the moneylenders out of the temple, it didn't take long for them to come back.
Hot Coffee Lawsuit Lady.
Did you know she asked McDonalds for only $20,000 in medical bills, McDonalds countered with an offer for $800. This annoyed her so she went to a lawyer. Did you know of the millions she was awarded they appealled and got it reduced twice then settled out of court for an unknown amount but after the 2nd reduction it was less than 700,000 and her lawyer probably got most of that.
Did you know that McDonalds served its coffee at about 180 degrees and the National Coffee Association of America recommends 195 to 205 degrees? Home coffee makers can reach the latter settings.
The only real change that came from this whole mess was a label now resides on your cups..."Warning hot beverage" or some such and your coffee is cold by the time you get to your office because they reduced the temperature of their coffee.
Now if you wanna talk about frivolous lawsuits... http://www.lawsuit.no/
Dayna.
Jesus' Ejection
Actually, it was money-changers, not money-lenders, that Jesus legendarily removed. Businessmen, indeed, but with a sanctioned religious purpose: exchanging secular coins for ones suitable for Temple use and donation. ("Render unto Caesar..." wasn't just Jesus' policy.) If I recall correctly, tradition says that the changers stayed outside the sacred area after that incident, for the generation or so before the Second Temple was destroyed by Rome, making it a moot point.
The money-lending came much later: in the Middle Ages when Jews in European cities were restricted from most other occupations and there were sanctions against Christians loaning money at interest. (Of course, there was no Temple in Jerusalem then, nor had there been for more than 1000 years.)
All beside your point, of course. But people like my Dad -- who felt he was forced into a sales career for which he wasn't suited in the early 1950s because the cement company he worked for wouldn't promote a Jew to chief chemist -- always found that particular mistake discomfiting, with its suggestion that usury was part of the religion in Temple days.
Eric
It's odd that ...
... when advocating the virtues of the early bird no-one thinks of the disadvantage of being the early worm. I suppose it goes with the unbridled advocacy of 'freedom' which as often as not is the freedom of the strong to exploit the weak.
I would hope this shallow, evidence free obituary of so-called 'common sense' was found in the Sun or Sport rather than the Times, which, despite its owner, is usually a little more thoughtful than this.
Geoff
Obviously Not from The Times
And probably not from any mainstream publication. The London Times attribution is obviously spurious, this is an American screed from internal evidence; most of the examples are American. It may have run on the op-ed page of some small town weekly or as a letter in some larger paper but I doubt any more prominent distribution. From the timing of some of the cases referred to, I suspect an origin in the digital age, probably just as it is -- an internet meme.
There used to be similar things that circulated by office Xerox and before that by Ditto machine -- one study of such things coined the phrase "Urban Legend". The internet makes hardcopy unnecessary and memes spread faster.
It's not that there isn't some truth in what it says but the truth is diluted and distorted by misinformation and disinformation; it's not a scholarly paper, it's just another rant. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Attributed/Claimed Source
Here is the earliest example I could find in 5 minutes without trying very hard. Oddly enough, it has an attribution, too.
http://itribe.biz/marketing/?p=53
The website listed as a source for the article looks like one of those consolidation/webspam sites. Maybe it wasn't always. Allen Jesson today seems to have a blog on blogspot, where he peddles his internet marketing expertise. Given his choice of careers, I wouldn't be 100% certain of his authorship, either. It would be conceivable for some marketing charlatan to appropriate some popular work and slap a name on it to further his objectives. However, I haven't found this particular screed with anyone else's name on it, other than the extremely prolific Anonymous. (Again, note the disclaimer that I've invested all of 5 minutes in researching this, so your mileage may vary.)
Also of interest, this Common Sense Obituary was the subject of an email virus hoax which was going around in April of 2007.
This is an old joke
I got sent it the first time by a very conservative, reactionary friend. They fail to mention that the same sort of (non)sense has also supported the suppression of women and other minority(?)groups for hundreds of years.
Thank goodness the Anglican church is suporting the ordination/ consecration of women bishops. So where will the dissenters run off to in their best party dresses? Should we invite the misogynists here?
Angharad
(tongue firmly in cheek).
Angharad
Common Sense Is Not Dead In Some Areas
In the Methodist Church, they have been ordaining women as pastors for years. In fact, the Senior Pastor at the Church I attend is a woman.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Too true
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Hmm. True, as far as it goes, but it might be more accurate to say that:
Not many attended his funeral because they were in the pot with the frog, unaware that they, too, were slowly being boiled.
And:
I think a lot of people realize it, but facing facts is sometimes harder than living a comfortable illusion.
Bemoaning the lack of values of the current generation is surely far older than Aristotle, who complained about them. It's been a cliche for nostalgia, of the way we like to remember the past. Still, to deny that values don't change over time is to deny history, and it's more obvious in this day and age of information: movies and books of a few generations ago seem foreign to us now, their values, and what was meaningful in them, antiquated.
Empires rise and fall as their citizens lose sight of what made them strong, generally weakening from within, through corruption or, to be more precise, a toleration of corruption, which in itself in engendered by the blurring of truth and lies, a lack of a sense of personal responsibility and responsibility to future generations, and, most of all, the abandonment of reason.
*Sigh*
I think I'll go back to that internal pocket universe now and finish writing my romance fantasy.
See yah. :)
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Reason, or Not
Considering human history and propensities, I must say that I vigorously disagree with your assessment of reason. Far from being abandoned, I think it is yet to be fully embraced. There have been hints and glimpses in the past, such as Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" , wherein he set forth a stunningly reasonable, and Deistic attack on the Christian church and all of its crimes, faults, and failings in the name of religion. And, our Deistic Founding Fathers, with their emphasis on natural law and science and away from the power and supernatural focus of the Church. For what it's worth (since no modern self-monickered Christian seems willing to believe it), the United States, insofar as it's anything, is a Deist nation, not a Christian one.
But, the sad fact is that individuals and institutions have a strong tendency to cling to the familiar, to seek power and comfort, and to eschew logic and reason. If they did not, we would not still be fighting battles for full legal equality for all persons, we would not still be arguing over the right of the pursuit of happiness, and we would not have a culture so utterly embarrassed and moralistic on the subject of sex. Nor, for that matter, would we have superstition and prescriptive religion.
Reason & religion
Considering human history and propensities, I must say that I vigorously disagree with your assessment of reason. Far from being abandoned, I think it is yet to be fully embraced. There have been hints and glimpses in the past, such as Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" , wherein he set forth a stunningly reasonable, and Deistic attack on the Christian church and all of its crimes, faults, and failings in the name of religion. And, our Deistic Founding Fathers, with their emphasis on natural law and science and away from the power and supernatural focus of the Church. For what it's worth (since no modern self-monickered Christian seems willing to believe it), the United States, insofar as it's anything, is a Deist nation, not a Christian one.
I'd say that's pretty accurate. Deist is probably the best description of the philosophy of the founding fathers. Jefferson was certainly one, and while there were Methodists and Episcopalians and (I think, Catholics) the essence of the founding of the US was more than merely Christian, non-denominational. The letter given to Washington from Moses Seixas, the Warden of the Jewish community in Newport illustrates this. He was plainly overjoyed that the right of free worship was established in the Constitution, a far more important thing merely a law, which could be removed or changed at any time by a King or Parliament. http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/hebrew/address.html
I love Tom Paine. As you're undoubtedly aware, since you mentioned him first, he was an incredibly important writer -- quite possibly the most influential writer who ever lived, at least in the West -- powerful, well-reasoned, and nothing was sacred to him.
As to whether the US is basically a Deist or Christian country today -- well, that's hard to say. Christianity isn't quite what it was in the 18th century and Deism isn't exactly a term many people are even aware of. I'd say it more super multi-dominational. Religion in the US is so complex a subject that it's very hard to generalize it.
But, the sad fact is that individuals and institutions have a strong tendency to cling to the familiar, to seek power and comfort, and to eschew logic and reason.
I agree with that.
If they did not, we would not still be fighting battles for full legal equality for all persons, we would not still be arguing over the right of the pursuit of happiness,
All for that, too.
... and we would not have a culture so utterly embarrassed and moralistic on the subject of sex.
Now here it gets tricky. It sounds good, but it needs to be defined. There are many cultures that have their own moral standards that might not agree with what is self-evident to you or me. Sexual standards vary from county to state to country. Canadian sex and pornography laws are sometimes looser and sometimes stricter than US law, for instance.
Nor, for that matter, would we have superstition and prescriptive religion.
Now here we have an enormously complex issue. At one time, I felt very much like saying, “A pox on all religions,†but I'm not so sure anymore. Certainly, I'd love to eradicate some religions (or heavily modify them), but all? Many issues in the world are based on demonstrable fantasy, wishful thinking, and outright lies, in principle, (in my opinion) not particularly different than religious superstition, and some of these fantasy issues are far more damaging than say, the Unitarians or Daoism. Other silly fantasies are relatively harmless. It doesn't mean that some religions aren't valid targets, but, just to be fair, one should choose carefully which religion one should attempt to destroy.
A few questions:
Is it possible to get rid of religion? Supposedly there is a "religion gene.â€
Is it moral to attempt to get rid of the “easy†religions without trying to eradicate the more evil religions?
If it is possible to get rid of religion, what should we replace it with?
Is a one-solution-fits-all solution preferable?
Do people have a right to practice a religion even after it's been demonstrated to be BS (or almost certainly BS)?
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Pastafarian?
Do tell REW. Is that an Italian religion? :)
Joanne
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
For more information on Pastafarianism, please see: