A Total Eclipse of The Brain..........On Common Sense

I am currently reading "Common Sense: Why It's No Longer Common" by Lawrence E. Joseph and I must say its a very simple but entertaining read that manages to be quite thought provoking as well. This book is a wealth of quotes like, "Common-sense approaches to everything from entrepreneurship to home pickling to auto repair proved that anything could be done." If you follow this blog you must know that I am a firm believer in the concept of 'Possible Impossibilities' - the Idea that we are capable of doing anything if we are prepared to do the work required and make the sacrifices necessary. I reproduce a quote here from the book, " 'The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense' wrote Thomas Edison". It seems Mr. Edison was very much my kind of guy; a proponent of WORK, PERSISTENCE and Common Sense. But the premise of the novel and a fact in my book is that more so than ever before, common sense is far less common, and is gradually reducing. It has always been in short supply but it seems the 'C-S' graph took a dip when the 20th century died and dipped even lower when the 21st was born and we can only guess the depths to which it will descend because one fact is certain; Common Sense will never be common.

Common Sense is simply good sense and sound judgment in practical matters, or as the book puts it, "Common Sense is the good sense that everybody should have." - Emphasis here on everybody should have.........But what we have now is what I label as A Total Eclipse of The Brain: a situation where most people are governed more by their Reactions rather than their Actions; their Fears rather than their Dreams; and their Follies rather than by their Common Sense. Common Sense is about, "[identifying] the simplest truths, to [recognizing] striking absurdities and to [being] shocked by palpable contradictions." Lets look at these two scenarios - Exercise and eat well balanced and healthy meals to be fit and to live long - Eat anyhow and don't exercise but go on a crash diet every once in a while to loose weight and look good. I don't even need to explain! So it begs the question how all these 'dieting schemes' have proliferated the consciousness of the populace. Common Sense is practical and does not follow any dogma, philosophy, religion or even education. For example "Working teaches common sense" and it is good sense that the harder you work, the more you succeed; the more you sacrifice now the more you gain later. Simple! Practical! Sensible! FACT!

Sometimes we the so called Literate and Intelligent denizens lack common sense the most because we consistently out-think ourselves and complicate simple matters. We all want to succeed in our ambitions and achieve our goals but how many of us are willing to do the work and make the sacrifices needed. We live in a society that prefers to complain and compromise whereas what we need to do is to focus and be unwavering in our pursuits. I know people whose dream goes something like this; work lesser hours, blow money on useless things, don't really think about saving and still manage to somehow retire early to a Bentley, a nice yacht and a mega-mansion. What a folly! Any sensible person matures when they realize that WORK and WORK alone is the way to survive this increasingly demanding world of ours, but only fools think they can skip the line and succeed. A new wave of Smart-Asses have flooded society, people who prefer shortcuts like crime, superstition, and luck to good old Plain Hard Work - How is undeserved success sustainable? A bemusing statistic shows that about 90% of all lottery winners squander their wealth within a few years of gaining it and most die completely broke or worse off than before they were so 'lucky'. Why? Because EASY COME, EASY GO. Simple, Practical, Sensible, FACT!