patndoris TechnoGeek

Common sense, just what is it? According to Merriam-Webster it is the "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Now we as humans, the top of the food chain, beings of higher intelligence - should have no problem making good and sensible judgment in given situations, should we? So what is it that makes people so senseless sometimes?

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I was reading a recent news story on a college student in southern China, who wanted to give the giant panda bear in the zoo a hug. Said student jumps the fence and meets with a less than cordial reception from the wild animal ripped from his natural habitat and confined to a life of captivity. The student was bitten several times and ended up in the hospital. Big surprise! I can imagine the panda thinking "You’re not the one who feeds me and I’m getting even!" I mean really, the six and a half foot high fence was really to keep the animal in, not the humans out right? And the warning signs? Yes, right, who really pays attention to those? The student said the panda just looked so cute and cuddly he wanted to hug it. News flash! Wild animals are not docile like the stuffed ones children play with. Go figure! You can read the article here if you’d like the full details.

Is it the fault of parental units? Humans don’t eat their young, or leave the weaker offspring to fend for themselves. We don’t (as a general rule in the civilized world) practice selective survival of the fittest. It is our job as parents to educate our young and teach them how to survive in life. Perhaps parents are too busy, or are unable themselves, to demonstrate how to use common sense. The little buggers do tend to learn more when they are actually exposed to it. Has society just made us believe we are the highest form of life, therefore we are invincible? I know a number of adults who seem to believe so. Is it TV? Did our offspring learn nothing from Steve Irwin (better known as the Crocodile Hunter)? Even he was not immune to the perils of wild animals (and he was a professional! Is it the age of the internet? Has the younger generation failed to experience the real aspects of life that teach how to have, and when to use, common sense? More and more teenagers today seem to find the videos on You Tube funny, no matter how serious the subject matter actually is. Have the video games portrayed dangerous situations as things we don’t need to fear?

When it comes to wild animals, I learned a very valuable lesson as a child. After a hike with my father, we heard the cries of a lonely little baby raccoon. It wasn’t hard to locate the little guy, and mama raccoon was nowhere to be seen. He was so cute. I begged my daddy to let me take him home as a pet. With more common sense than I at the time, my father insisted I didn’t want to do that. How in the world could he say what I wanted? Darn it! I wanted him as a pet. So common sense enabled father goes to the car, gets out a rather thick pair of leather work gloves, and picks up cute baby - who immediately begins screaming and screeching, and attacking the hands I envisioned whisking him off to a far better life as my pet. That cute little cuddly, just barely a handful of a bandit masked raccoon was darn vicious! I quickly changed my mind, told daddy to put him back, wild animals weren’t meant to be pets. I was pretty sure a ticked off mama raccoon was on her way to see what all the racket was about, and I didn’t want to be around when she got there. Valuable life lesson about the real world learned at a young age.

Some people have book smarts and some have street sense. But what has happened to common sense? The ability to demonstrate common sense is one way to avoid "learning the hard way". I fear for the coming generations if they don’t reclaim this once commonplace trait.