Common sense had already sustained a thousand blows and lacerations. It is time for its last rites and its eventual funeral. The long battle it endured lasted for at least a generation now. Its many attempts to fight back was akin to stopping the ebbing of a one-way tide that had been receding for decades now and leaving behind a drying sand - now almost devoid of a living thought. Its last line of defense - critical thinking - is crumbling and quickly giving way to a horde that can only be described as capably doing nothing but engage in group think. If common sense is on life support it is now a matter for society in particular and for all of civilization in general to pull the plug. Yes, we can pray for a miracle but prayer is now too another collateral casualty.
Common sense is dying from small blows and often lacerated with very little blood. It is now punch drunk from a jab here, a jab there, and body punches that merely stagger the senses without really causing a knockout, not even a knockdown. Common sense has not gone down for the count. At least, not yet. But it has already had recurring standing counts. And that is worst than being counted out entirely. It is a pitiful sight.
Here is one little jab. The New York public school system allowed its students - the only one to announce it publicly - to skip classes to attend a climate change rally. We should not have a problem with that ordinarily, except that the school system, based on 2017 data, lags behind many states in student proficiency in reading and math, described along with several other states as having, "Performed significantly lower than national public" average. Common sense could only gasp. Why let these students spend one day away from the classroom at all. Classrooms where prayer is no longer allowed and chocolate milk is now also removed from the school cafeteria (yes, New York City did it) have become a battleground where children are the innocent bystanders.
These young kids, not trusted to make decisions on what they eat or drink (sodas removed from school vending machines) by its own government (not their parents), are deemed smart enough to play a role in climate change debates. These are the same youth that its government will not allow to drive, vote or buy alcohol and other restricted items. It was common sense that determined these guidelines a long time ago. Now it looks on helplessly when these kids who ought to be allowed to enjoy a good part of their youth playing dodge ball (now prohibited during school recess) or develop critical thinking for themselves are practically driven to believe their world will end soon. They've been protected by safe spaces, made to fear "toxic masculinity", confused by the expanded definition of gender and bathroom assignments, etc. School system, prohibited from allowing prayer to insure that freedom of religion is adhered to, also abandoned civic classes from its curriculum, yet it may endorse one set of political views that are passed on by its teachers to students with unrelenting barrage and impunity .
Common sense is looking for refuge in adult minds because they should know better. But even that is now a notion that is in doubt. Higher education that used to provide a mental vaccine against the decline of common sense is no longer home to reason. The same adult minds now use their local legislature to re-label a felon, an ex-convict, as "justice involved" person or, get this - a "returning resident". How nutty is that? This whole idea of sanitizing these labels is exemplified by the San Francisco legislature to, among other things, identify a juvenile delinquent as "young person impacted by the justice system".
Below is an actual quote from the San Francisco Chronicle:
"The language resolution makes no mention of terms for victims of crime, but using the new terminology someone whose car has been broken into could well be: “A person who has come in contact with a returning resident who was involved with the justice system and who is currently under supervision with a history of substance use.”
In other words, someone whose car was broken into by a recently released offender, on parole with a drug problem".
Got that? This is what it has come down to. The rabid social liberalization of labels really does nothing to improve people's lives, whether you are a victim of crime or a criminal. Another laceration to common sense.
I do not wish for this to happen but imagine when we get to the point to call a murder victim as a "life-deprived person" while the murderer is a "life-terminating agent". Let's not be too sure to get this past the liberal wagon ride. Does it make the homeless feel better about their situation if they are labeled instead as "persons in-between-residency", such as someone who is in between jobs is for the moment - jobless?
We mourn the deathly malady that now plagues common sense. If it must indeed succumb to the inevitable extinction then the least we can do is to eulogize it.
Common sense. You had a good run. For centuries you kept civilization upwardly mobile; you gave birth to the Magna Carta; you provided us the platform from which democracy was launched; you made sure decency triumphed over barbarism, hard work is rewarded for those who toiled, sympathy over greed and compassion was more sensible than hate. In short, you made civilization a workable environment within the bounds of reason, free of the touchy feely that we are now enjoined to adopt, lest we offend someone or something.
We bid our goodbye. We celebrate the memories for keeping us within the guidelines of true sensibilities and a balanced view of a logical world by improving the human experience for centuries but, alas, we are offered in your stead the fantasy of safe spaces, the crying rooms, university curriculum and programs that defy critical thinking by launching a multi-million dollar program to study mindfulness, creating the equivalent of a "Kindness Institute".
We can only ask or wish that when perhaps we finally get tired of all of these, that you will come back. If and when that happens humanity will be well served once again. If not, then indeed this is goodbye.
Common sense is dying from small blows and often lacerated with very little blood. It is now punch drunk from a jab here, a jab there, and body punches that merely stagger the senses without really causing a knockout, not even a knockdown. Common sense has not gone down for the count. At least, not yet. But it has already had recurring standing counts. And that is worst than being counted out entirely. It is a pitiful sight.
Here is one little jab. The New York public school system allowed its students - the only one to announce it publicly - to skip classes to attend a climate change rally. We should not have a problem with that ordinarily, except that the school system, based on 2017 data, lags behind many states in student proficiency in reading and math, described along with several other states as having, "Performed significantly lower than national public" average. Common sense could only gasp. Why let these students spend one day away from the classroom at all. Classrooms where prayer is no longer allowed and chocolate milk is now also removed from the school cafeteria (yes, New York City did it) have become a battleground where children are the innocent bystanders.
These young kids, not trusted to make decisions on what they eat or drink (sodas removed from school vending machines) by its own government (not their parents), are deemed smart enough to play a role in climate change debates. These are the same youth that its government will not allow to drive, vote or buy alcohol and other restricted items. It was common sense that determined these guidelines a long time ago. Now it looks on helplessly when these kids who ought to be allowed to enjoy a good part of their youth playing dodge ball (now prohibited during school recess) or develop critical thinking for themselves are practically driven to believe their world will end soon. They've been protected by safe spaces, made to fear "toxic masculinity", confused by the expanded definition of gender and bathroom assignments, etc. School system, prohibited from allowing prayer to insure that freedom of religion is adhered to, also abandoned civic classes from its curriculum, yet it may endorse one set of political views that are passed on by its teachers to students with unrelenting barrage and impunity .
Common sense is looking for refuge in adult minds because they should know better. But even that is now a notion that is in doubt. Higher education that used to provide a mental vaccine against the decline of common sense is no longer home to reason. The same adult minds now use their local legislature to re-label a felon, an ex-convict, as "justice involved" person or, get this - a "returning resident". How nutty is that? This whole idea of sanitizing these labels is exemplified by the San Francisco legislature to, among other things, identify a juvenile delinquent as "young person impacted by the justice system".
Below is an actual quote from the San Francisco Chronicle:
"The language resolution makes no mention of terms for victims of crime, but using the new terminology someone whose car has been broken into could well be: “A person who has come in contact with a returning resident who was involved with the justice system and who is currently under supervision with a history of substance use.”
In other words, someone whose car was broken into by a recently released offender, on parole with a drug problem".
Got that? This is what it has come down to. The rabid social liberalization of labels really does nothing to improve people's lives, whether you are a victim of crime or a criminal. Another laceration to common sense.
I do not wish for this to happen but imagine when we get to the point to call a murder victim as a "life-deprived person" while the murderer is a "life-terminating agent". Let's not be too sure to get this past the liberal wagon ride. Does it make the homeless feel better about their situation if they are labeled instead as "persons in-between-residency", such as someone who is in between jobs is for the moment - jobless?
We mourn the deathly malady that now plagues common sense. If it must indeed succumb to the inevitable extinction then the least we can do is to eulogize it.
Common sense. You had a good run. For centuries you kept civilization upwardly mobile; you gave birth to the Magna Carta; you provided us the platform from which democracy was launched; you made sure decency triumphed over barbarism, hard work is rewarded for those who toiled, sympathy over greed and compassion was more sensible than hate. In short, you made civilization a workable environment within the bounds of reason, free of the touchy feely that we are now enjoined to adopt, lest we offend someone or something.
We bid our goodbye. We celebrate the memories for keeping us within the guidelines of true sensibilities and a balanced view of a logical world by improving the human experience for centuries but, alas, we are offered in your stead the fantasy of safe spaces, the crying rooms, university curriculum and programs that defy critical thinking by launching a multi-million dollar program to study mindfulness, creating the equivalent of a "Kindness Institute".
We can only ask or wish that when perhaps we finally get tired of all of these, that you will come back. If and when that happens humanity will be well served once again. If not, then indeed this is goodbye.
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