Common Sense - Do We Ever Need It Now!

Bennett Raglin

Has anyone ever told that you exhibited "Common Sense" ?

How do you define Common Sense? Various on-line dictionaries take a shot:

1.) good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.

2.) the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way :

Words associated with the concept of Common Sense includes practicality, wit, wisdom, intelligence, acumen, rationality, logic, experience, horse sense, reason, soundness, levelheadedness, sensibility....

Of course there is also the Revolutionary War era pamphlet Common Sense written by Thomas Paine which makes a case for a free and independent America out from under British rule.

The bottom line is that life is a lot harder than it needs to be if you don't develop and use common sense. Simple observation indicates that common sense is not in common use today and with potentially catastrophic consequences.

A recent article written by Victor Davis Hanson in the Patriot Post begins with the words: "Without common sense in government, civilization cannot continue". He makes a big argument in such a small article.

Hanson writes about the violence, arson and looting in our "protest cities", the calls to defund police, the increased gun sales as a result.

Where is the common sense in all that? Hanson writes, " According to a recent Gallup poll, most Black Americans favor maintaining or increasing police presence. Often, city officials who support cutting back on law enforcement still expect their own homes and property to be constantly policed. The same is often true of activist elites who live far from the inner city."

Giant fires in the Western US are being blamed on climate change but elected leaders do nothing to properly manage the resource as it exists. Common Sense?

Common Sense quickly sniffs out inconsistencies that destroys trust "The public trust in science depends on its consistency, its transparency and its divorce from politics and ideology. There can be no left or right, liberal or conservative, blue-state or red-state slant if scientific expertise is to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the very opposite has sometimes occurred."

.One last example--to mask or not to mask. Common Sense says if wearing masks is important, then wearing masks should be equally important to the liberal protestor on the street as they are to the conservative rally attendee, right?

"More than 1,000 health professionals, sympathetic to protests, even signed an open letter declaring that social activism was, for the moment, more important than social distancing."

Where is the COMMON SENSE??

Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense helped get the ball rolling on Revolution. Maybe it's time for a reminder?

Categories: Yakima News

Common Sense – Do We Ever Need It Now!