What has happened to common sense

You think that's bad, when I was a kid .... lol

 

AH AH AH AH!! Yes very funny. I love the cheese shop and dead parrot skits too.
But the point I am making is perhaps because we didn't have so much laid on like people have today, because we had to think for ourselves more and deal with problems ourselves more, especialy practical problems, this contributed to having more 'common sense'. How many people today do anything on their own cars? In the past most people did all but major repairs and maintenance themselves. Most women made at least some clothes for their families and they all repaired their clothes and there was a lot more home preserving and making of things like ginger beer, cakes and biscuits going on. There were more chooks and vege gardens in backyards. Barbecues had wood fires in them which meant you had to collect and then chop the wood and light the fire and keep it going. You didn't just turn the gas on like today.
You didn't just turn your brain off and vege out in front of the box at night like nearly everyone does today. What do you think we did? Just sat around and stared at each other? No! we used our brains and our common sense to occupy ourselves. People today have become soft and lazy, physicaly and mentally. Go into any shopping centre and check the numbers of grossly over weight people wadling about. Weren't many fatties years ago, we had more common sense, weren't so greedy and weren't so bloody lazy!

 

Now this IS COMMON SENSE ..... Now we are getting somewhere.

 

I agree with Adultmale, I grew up in much the same way, and no I am not 80, only 58. I think it all changed because of our generation, we changed it ourselves. Again, I want us to look at what we do, not what is done by governments, business, media etc. Believe it or not they do not make us do much at all, most of what we do is voluntary and of our free will. By the way, I am going somewhere here........ Keep thinking

 

I think one aspect is taking responsibility of ones own action, is very important. It would seem that whenever anything happens, it is accepted practice to find someone to blame. I do think you would be correct about this generation causing the problems.

Only a few years ago I heard a joke that is very apt to this issue.
An American walks into a dark room and stubs his toe on a chair. He shouted and said " who put that F..king thing there?"
An Australian walks into a dark room and stubs his toe on a chair. He just laughs and said " stupid B..sted, I should have turned the light on."

I only use the Nationalities, because that is how I heard the joke.

As Both did not use the common sense, would show how each person has a different outlook on the same incident but only one accepts he did not use his common sense.

However, I would suggest, maybe we should ask a question before ruling out government interference in this topic. Laws and regulations would be more conducive to ignore common sense in certain ways(not really interested in debating over government involvement). Are these laws and regulations, which would seem to intrinsically reducing common sense, In response to the public beliefs and wishes? Or are they influencing the public, to make common sense irrelevant?

I would consider the government are acting, in response to public opinion. Meaning, that we can not blame the government for making it easier not to deal in common sense.IMO

 

I think this is very close to the truth, with your "or"s replaced by "and"s maybe?

I loved your story too, problem is today though, more and more Australians are asking "who put that there?"

I can remember the "olden days" too, we never had television until I was 9. Once if we read about some American suing the local authorities because his child fell off a swing, we would say "Typical Yanks, they will sue over anything." Well look at Australia today, someone burgles your home, trips and falls on a loose tile and they sue you.

I think there are third parties in your summaries, vested interests.

Solicitors are who are turning us sue happy, look at them advertising on TV. Then the insurance companies hike their rates, naturally, so then the government legislate. Children's playgrounds and playground equipment, fencing etc. I have seen parents bring their children to them, put them in, go and lay down and sun bake. They are not child minding centres, common sense is gone! If something goes wrong, it's the courts for not locking all paedophiles up forever, or the police not doing their jobs, or the parks playgrounds aren't up to standards, or .. or .. or .., but not my responsibility, oh no!

 

I have a simple, common sense answer for you, sir.

Common sense is the enemy of manipulation. It's the worst fear of screwy political agendas, political con-artists and bull(*)(*)(*)(*)ters in general.
So it was made to be un-PC to shut people up.

BUT common sense has more value and pure power than ever, because PC is SO darn stupid and harmful and it can't stand up in the light of day - to common sense.
And if you choose to wear common sense like armor, PC can't touch you with it's stench and you can breath free of it.


I love your OP topic. Rated 5. Well done.

 

Well thank you, I am flattered. I think that today, the manipulators are becoming smarter and can outsmart common sense in a lot of cases, herein lies a major problem!

 

Well I am pleased, we are getting very good replies, and except for a few smart bastards lol, you know who you are, those two names have not been mentioned.

And I think we are starting to think...think common sense..

 

While I agree with this, I just had to share a news story I heard today.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/343274/kidnapper-sues-two-former-hostages
Common sense would tell you that this should be considered a joke. However, it seems to have made it to court.

check the story at the bottom.

Media does not seem to help people to use common sense.

Yes, I am wondering myself, these third parties. Is it, that these third parties have pursued the Government to create laws and departments to open the door for the third party to argue against common sense.

Of course, these third parties need support of sectors of the public. As I say, the only thing to consider, when discussing the government, is where they the chicken or the egg. I really believe that it is a generational thing. So much has happened in the last 50 years or so. people want to experience it all. When common sense is shelved, when people wish to do something.

So true, common sense is gone, but why? I had instances when driving somebody did something stupid in front of me. After some defensive driving, my passenger said I should have just hit the other car, they would have been in the wrong. Common sense tells me (as I explained) it would not matter to me or him, who was at fault if I am dead. Did this person consider, If we hit him we will make money? Maybe it was just a silly thought. The other thing is, common sense would tell me, that I am not a perfect driver. If I was to do something similar, I would expect others to use their own common sense to avoid incident. My Passenger showed me, I can not expect it anymore.

Is common decency going the same way? Maybe.

 

Dominor,
that is why I believe we need to look at our children's upbrining in a different way.
The numbers of even small kids being absorbed into our money making machine, so to speak, is staggering.
No questions asked, as long the dollar keeps coming in and all wishes are fullfilled.
We have not only lost common sense, but certain values on top of it......
When I was young, philosophie was taught at our highschool. I thank God for that.
Cheers

 

Common sense has gone down the gurgler.

Thats why we're going to be paying billions for a carbon tax/ETS.

Instead of just fixing the farking thing.

Sorry i couldn't resist!

 

LOL

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_aBzrV37M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_aBzrV37M[/ame]

 

The topic is "What has happened to common sense", not "what has happened because we have no common sense.

OK you have brought it up ... so I am going to run with it .....

We should not have a carbon tax, common sense tells me this.

We should have a pollution tax, that is, that any process whereby bi products are created, will be taxed. The taxes can and should be past on to the consumers for 3 reasons.
1: They are a part of the "cost" of production.
2: They are wanted by the consumer, they want the product
3: The idea is not to raise money, but to either cut down consumption, hence pollution, or to make alternatives more financially viable.

Example. Petroleum. We buy the cars, we decide whether we want a 6 litre V8, or a small economical hybrid. We decide whether we want to run it on gasoline or Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

We are responsible for the amounts of carbon monoxide, sulphur, phosphorous and other chemicals we pump into the atmosphere. We get the vehicle tuned (or should), we decide to drive the 2 blocks to the shop, not walk.

If a "Pollution Tax" was added to petrol, it would make us think about usage, reducing the pollution by reducing usage, a lot of which is really unnecessary anyway. This would reduce pollution and relieve the strain on non-renewable resources. The taxes raised could be used to fund research into pollution cleaning and alternative sources.

The rationalisation by making the true costs of each energy source visible by removing subsidies, taxing the pollutants etc would show us the true viability of alternatives on a level playing field.

This is just personal transport and already we are making a gigantic inroad into the problem of pollution.

To me, this is COMMON SENSE

 

I like that

That IS common sense thinking, and this kind of thinking is LONG gone from most, hence the increase in road rage. (remember when we used to put the Yanks down because of THEIR road rage?)

Good post Garry

 

On this thread people are agreeing who would on most other threads be at each others throats.

Now common sense tells me that in any debate, their is usually only one correct result, one truth.

The conclusion of a debate is when the answer is found, the truth is found, and common sense tells us that there is only one truth.

If a debate seems to have no conclusion, no resolve, then common sense tells me that the answer MUST lie somewhere in between, not outside or either side.

Why, because most debates are by groups of intelligent people, who may have been influenced by something that prevents common sense from allowing them to see the truth.

A good debate will obscure these and find the truth or the influences will obscure the truth and no resolve will occur.

Therefore if all this is true, common sense tells me that neither side of the debate is the truth, or there would be .. no debate!!!

The TRUTH lies somewhere between the sides.

 

I have been giving some more thought to this topic and I have come to an embarassing conclusion.
Those of us in the 50 - 70 age group are responsible for much of what WE are complaining about. All those fat, lazy people with no common sense that I mentioned previously, guess what? they are OUR children and grandchildren!
We were the rebelious generation, the psychadelic generation, the flower children who wanted peace and free love. We are the generation that rejected the values of our parents and thought we knew a better way. Now we have the gaul to complain that our children do not have the same values that were instilled into us! We are the ones who allowed our children, the adults of today, to do as they pleased. We are the generation that spared the rod and spoiled the children. And now it is too late, we are out of the picture, our badly brought up children are now doing a bad job of bring up our grandchildren.

 

You seem to be from my vintage, there is a song I remember from when I was young, a song I loved then although the true meaning of it rings home more today. The song was by chain, one of Australia's greatest bands, penned by Matt Taylor, himself a legend.

It goes like this ...

it goes on ...

Maybe we took too much notice of that and not enough of this ...

 

one way to fix it is to put a price on carbon
the more expensive it gets, the more we are trying to avoid it
common sense

 

YES WOW Look at my next post, by George you've got it

 

I must apologise for making you all think, but isn't this better then arguing, heck we may even solve some things.

I said once before that politics should be like two neighbours chatting over the back fence, one from the left, one from the right. They should be chatting about the neighbourhood, it's problems and how the two of them can put their heads together to solve them.

Thankfully we will never all think the same, otherwise nothing would really happen, most often a compromise is closest to the truth.

 

As I think you made a general point, it is always an individual thing, eg. my children are not fat. Involve them in sports from an early age, and do something with them. Spend time with those who you love most. Limit teli and explain the world, and common sense will grow...
But boy oh boy, not funny to walk through shopping centres nowadays. I see your point there. Almost like zombies...

 

Yes I assume he meant in general, of course some of us have done a better job then others, all is not lost yet.

What I want is for all the real culprits for our problems to stand up ... OK sit down now and I will.

 

My 2 favorite knives were given to me by my mate’s dad (80 yo). One has a handle fashioned from a copper pipe and riveted to the blade. The other has an on old screw driver handle as the knife handle.

People were better at thrift. Things were fixed, now they are thrown out.

Some common sense needs regulation (eg. OH&S) because sense sometimes isn’t that common.

One thing from youngsters that drive me crazy – “we’re bored, we need something to do, build us a new skate park”

 

We have to be careful though, I believe this is where it all starts. Like banning "Cracker Night", OK some were stupid, 'had no common sense' and lost an eye, some were even criminal, but in general, most often common sense prevailed and most families enjoyed quality time building and burning a bon fire. Ok so we needed to reign things in, but to me that is the councils job. As the population grew, more social organisation, more 'common sense' would have allowed the council to apply it's role in providing for the overall needs of the people.
Common sense isn't it.