The Death of Comment Sense

"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:

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.

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).

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.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

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.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. 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.

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.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone."

From "London Times Obit", e-mail from Dom Desnoyers (8 July 2008).

We live at a time when Common Sense is dead but the forces that killed it remain alive and continue to infect our thoughts and actions. There is not one area of our society not affected by the moral confusions and social disorientations traceable to the loss of Common Sense and moral values that underpin it in our everyday life. Indeed, moral issues mock us, as we are wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors and yet we are impoverished in all that makes for a meaningful life. Our society is described by all the marks of a civilization in decline: Broken families, drugs and casual sex, booze and boredom, youth gangs and crime, slums and poverty next to mansions and riches, and most of all meaningless human relationships combined with obsessive personal materialism.

As Goldsmith put it,

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied." *

However bad the economy, and however great the confusions and disorientations that now describe modern America, the revival of this country must start in the family and must have a moral focus, not the economic objectives that so preoccupy politicians and policymakers. For, as Goldsmith implies, leadership waxes and wanes, for good or ill, but when the Common Man loses Common Sense, all is lost.

* Oliver Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village" (1770).

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Dom Desnoyers for this Tdj.