What many of you are talking about is not common sense, it is personal responsibility.
I think personal responsibility is on the endangered list. It is very tempting to avoid it. I am a big proponent of personal responsibility, but I will never forget one time when I received a speeding ticket. I was speeding and should have just paid the ticket without a second thought. The thing was, I felt I was just moving with traffic and didn't deserve the ticket. Upon closer examination of the actual ticket I noticed a clerical error on it. I don't know if it would have gotten the ticket thrown out or not, but I do know I was very tempted to try.
Finally, my sense of personal responsibility kicked in and I paid the ticket without contesting it. It was an eye opener to me that I was so tempted to avoid my personal responsibility. Thankfully, I did not.
All we can do is try to practice what we preach. If we can't do that we should just shut up.
Common sense isn't "common" at all -- studies have proven it. Most people go by anecdotal evidence gained during their upbringing -- which many times does not have anything to do with actual evidence. However, the mentality of people with "common sense" can sometimes be more useful -- less messing about coming to a decision, just get out the wrench and try to fix it as best you can. The only problem is the level of intolerance between those who claim to have and hold dear "common sense" and those more interested with "proven facts" -- get a clue, you don't fix a 67 Chevy with a round table discussion and your don't fix our F'd up economy and foreign relations with a wrench.
Otherwise, we can bandy about the term common sense all you want -- here, lets try it:
It's common sense that everyone should be able to see a doctor in this, the greatest nation on Earth, for free -- hell, we should get a prize with every visit considering we spend 3x what the next nation on the list does (and yes, we are highest on the list, yes they all have universal healthcare, yes even for us when we visit them, yes we have the lowest life expectancy on the list too, yes our latest generation's life expectancy just went DOWN compared to the previous ones...and it goes on and on.).
It's common sense that we should not be living in, drinking, eating or otherwise be coming into contact with toxic substances.
It's common sense that when you shoot someone in the neck, you apologize to them -- not the other way around.
It's common sense that if someone doesn't have an income you don't lend them hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars to buy a house and there by wreck our economy.
It's common sense that posting rules on a wall -- even the 10 big ones some people in this nation seem to think are really important (hey, I'm not arguing the issue) -- doesn't do squat if most of this nation doesn't follow the spirit of those laws, much less the actual laws themselves.
Or the books they come with...
Or the stuff your religious personage of choice tells you on your sabbath...
But feel free to dissagree with me -- just explain to me why everyone is fat, in debt, and judgmental when last I check any one of those was a big no-no.
Nice glass house. Want a rock? It's a free gift with every cheeseburger...
Yes, I'm feeling a bit angsty -- time to go ride my Buell! (Best bike on the planet, only losers ride anything else!)
(Message edited by retrittion on September 05, 2008)
So when I accidentally bump into my pipes after a long ride and get burned that IS being hurt BY the motorcycle...
but that's not the same as say sitting on the seat and getting second degree burns on your ass. There is a reasonable expectation the header would burn you but it is not reasonable to expect the seat to.
It's common sense that if someone doesn't have an income you don't lend them hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars to buy a house and there by wreck our economy.
Actually, I would consider that to be common sense. If a person has no income, they have no way of paying you back.
There is a reasonable expectation the header would burn you but it is not reasonable to expect the seat to.
Replace "header" with "coffee" and "seat" with "coffee cup". Just saying that accidentally spilling coffee out of the cup onto yourself (a manner in which the coffee was not intended to be used) isn't much different than accidentally bumping into a hot part of my bike (again a manner in which it was not intended to be used). And the argument continues that a person could injure themselves with almost anything that is commercially available if it is not used properly. Should we hold Bic responsible if I screw up and fall on one of their pens and it impales my chest causing me to have surgery. No, my thoughtlessness is what caused the accident.
I guess I am just of a different line of thought and, quite frankly, am getting sick of seeing warning signs and stickers everywhere just so the manufacturers can cover their asses and not have to worry as much about getting sued because of people that have less than intelligent moments and zero personal responsibility. End Rant.