Obituary

[shakenbake]

[FONT=&quot]An Obituary printed in the LondonTimes.....Absolutely Dead Brilliant!!
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]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:
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]- 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.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]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).
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]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.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]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.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]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.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Common Sense was preceded in death,
-by his parents, Truth and Trust,
-by his wife, Discretion,
-by his daughter, Responsibility,
-and by his son, Reason.
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;
- I Know My Rights
- I Want It Now
- Someone Else Is To Blame
- I'm A Victim
- Pay me for Doing Nothing
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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

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[oil&gas]

Common sense is an oxymoron. It is about as common as the
Holy Bible is holy.

 

[james t kirk]

Doubt that the London Times came up with this.

It's just another one of those American right wing pissed off conservative rants.

 

[Aardvark154]

It's just another one of those American right wing pissed off conservative rants.

Which even if true, doesn't change the fact that it contains valid points.

 

[oldjones]

Which even if true, doesn't change the fact that it contains valid points.

The most important of which is that the ordinary good sense whose passing we mourn was common to all. Conservatives killed their share by neglect, abuse and starvation just as much as did any other part of the commonwealth.

We in the City of Toronto had a recent and vivid object lesson and demonstration of conservatives massacring common sense that we still haven't recovered from.

 

[GPIDEAL]

Doubt that the London Times came up with this.

It's just another one of those American right wing pissed off conservative rants.

Bravo James.

I've seen this in an email.

 

[james t kirk]

Which even if true, doesn't change the fact that it contains valid points.

Maybe a few, but when you take it as a whole, it was written by a nutter.

 

[johnhenrygalt]

I wish that my some miracle the idiots who wrote that screed could live the last 70 years in reverse. Grow up with 21 century mores, come into adulthood in the 90s and 80s, live middle life in the 70s and 60s and then have their retirement in the 50s and 40s. Would they be praising society's "common sense", would he really think that truth, trust, discretion, responsibility and reason were on the upswing? Would he be praising the transformation of society from 21st century inclusiveness to 1950s racism and sexism? Would he think it an improvement going from our present family values to a society where men were encouraged to assault their children, and were permitted to assault their wives with impunity?

On the whole, in North America, far more "common sense" is exercised in 2015 than at any time in the last 65 years.

 

[oldjones]

I wish that my some miracle the idiots who wrote that screed could live the last 70 years in reverse. Grow up with 21 century mores, come into adulthood in the 90s and 80s, live middle life in the 70s and 60s and then have their retirement in the 50s and 40s. Would they be praising society's "common sense", would he really think that truth, trust, discretion, responsibility and reason were on the upswing? Would he be praising the transformation of society from 21st century inclusiveness to 1950s racism and sexism? Would he think it an improvement going from our present family values to a society where men were encouraged to assault their children, and were permitted to assault their wives with impunity?

On the whole, in North America, far more "common sense" is exercised in 2015 than at any time in the last 65 years.

I really liked your suggestion to the callow, shallow writer, but I'd have to disagree with your closing thought. Common sense is one of those terms that we all agree on until the moment we get down to specifics. At that point there'll always be someone claiming only their specifics are common sense and yours are stupid at best, and more likely villainous or deranged. That process is already underway here in this thread.

What is true is that outlying and novel ideas and attitudes have a history of becoming the norm, and just as commonly, things once accepted as universal truth — and common sense — often are seen as superstition, prejudice, or ignorance as time goes on. But all those clichéd nostrums the writer tossed off on the way to the soapbox still express unchanged truth. Even if the language is now so archaic it has to be explained, like 'Penny-wise and pound-foolish'. On that basis I see no evidence whatsoever that North Americans of today exercise any more common sense than their ancestors, for all that they've made once radical ideas into common assumptions. Like everyone else in the world.

We should remember that before it was common-sense to think the world was flat, the Greeks and Romans knew it was round (and just how big around it is to this day) Just common sense really when you look at stars, shadows and ocean horizons.