There’s a phrase you’ll hear people use pretty frequently in one form or another these days: Common sense is no longer very common.
And I couldn’t agree more with that. In my view, common sense has largely been pushed aside and replaced by a complicated, convoluted set of twisted, upside down values and thought processes that have permeated almost every nook and cranny of society.
As a result, we now have to sort through all kinds of labels, buzzwords and catch-phrases, and conform to unwelcome (and often dreadful) principles regarding subjects and situations that formerly didn’t have (or need) any such nonsense associated with them. And you never know what will be added to the list next, but you know it will be something significant and it’s coming soon.
I’m convinced that if common sense wasn’t so rare, we would all be better off and many detrimental things that are taking place wouldn’t be.
For example, there wouldn’t be guys who call themselves gals competing against real females in sports, and there wouldn’t have to be laws defining what a man or woman is (like is happening in Kansas).
Social media wouldn’t have a stranglehold on so many people, and dictate how they spend their time and view both their surroundings and other people.
There wouldn’t be a huge crisis at the United States’ southern border, but rather an organized, orderly (and maintained) system of allowing people to enter the country.
There wouldn’t be politicians yelling into TV cameras about matters they don’t even completely understand themselves.
U.S. politicians wouldn’t argue, call each other names and act as if everyone who’s not a member of their clique is an enemy, and they would make compromises and find middle ground when dealing with major issues that affect the entire country (as was the standard not that many years ago).
Education curriculum wouldn’t be manipulated to promote a one-sided set of ideals.
The federal government would spend far less money on policing the world or offering “good will” to other nations, and spend far more money on domestic problems, projects and infrastructure, and any other relevant matter that affects Americans on their home soil.
Pharmaceutical companies would be far less influential than the uninhibited, overbearing beasts they have been allowed to become.
There certainly wouldn’t be big, weird balloons being allowed to cross the entire continent while collecting and sharing sensitive information, and there surely wouldn’t be small hobby balloons being shot down with high-tech, expensive military equipment.
It would be perfectly OK to be of any skin color without fearing that you might offend someone simply by existing in the way you were created.
And the will of God would still be at the center of all major decision-making processes, as it was when the country was born.
There’s a whole lot more than the few things I’ve mentioned here that could be added, and figuring out how and where it all fits in the big picture shouldn’t take much brain power. We’re talking about extremely basic, obvious concepts that have been reconstructed into absurd issues by a relative handful of individuals who believe they “know better” and that what has been good or factual for so long is now unacceptable.
And nobody is benefiting.
Anyway, I fear that common sense – like a lot of things that humanity so desperately needs – has more than likely been permanently thrown out the window, since too many so-called (and self-proclaimed) “leaders” don’t view it as a viable guideline and seem to think it’s up to them to determine a new right and wrong.
That’s such a shame, because common sense should tell anyone that some things are good and some are bad, and some are right and some are wrong. And no matter who is in what position of power, the status of most of those things doesn’t suddenly change.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.