Common or uncommon sense.

Kelly was writing about common sense with this post.

This sentence got me to thinking:

"That's what I think is happening to common sense. It's dying out because not enough people are having the kind of life experience that makes it common in the first place."

It does seem that fewer people have common sense these days.

Where does common sense come from and where is it going?

The first type of common sense is genetic. I think they used to call it horse sense. An innate form of intelligence and ability to put a sequence of events together before they happen and make the appropriate decision based on limited information.

Example: You are loading your car about to go on a road trip and you see a weird bump on the side of your tire. You know nothing about tires but you take it to the local gas station to get it checked before you get out on the road a hundred miles from the nearest tire store.

That is common sense...and it's rarer than hens teeth. I know most of the folks that read and comment on this blog have at least some of this virtue or you wouldn't have come back after the first visit.

The next type of common sense is what I call: life experience with extrapolation.

Example: Walter is a lazy fuck who procrastinates and doesn't pay his electric bill. Then when the warning letters arrive he doesn't take them seriously and decides he has plenty of time to procrastinate some more. Walter is surprised when he wakes up late for work because his power has been shut off and has to jump through a bunch of flaming hoops and miss more work to get his service reconnected.

All of the sudden, a light bulb goes on above Walters head and he realizes that paying the electric bill is not optional and eventually bad annoying things will happen if you neglect this duty.

The extrapolation part is when Walter looks over at his desk and sees all the other bills he's been neglecting and decides to take care of them too so they don't shut off his phone, cable and Internet.

I bet if you've read up to this point, you are saying to yourself.."well no shit Hammer nobody could be that dumb."

Au contraire. I've met many many people that fall into the next category.

This type I call...you were born without the part of your brain that allows you to learn lessons.

Example: (true story) Maria likes to go out and party after work. Alcohol affects her more than most people and she always ends up stumbling and yelling and making an ass out of herself after two drinks. She insists on driving even though she can't walk, talk or find her car.

Needless to say, she is arrested for drunk driving. Her family posts bail..and that same night she borrows her husband's car and goes drinking, gets falling down stupid drunk and once again gets arrested.

The judge feels sorry for her..she is college educated, articulate, very attractive, has two young children, a good job and a family that will vouch for her. He puts her on probation, gives a verbal warning and approves a provisional drivers license that allows her to go to work.

That night. She goes out and repeats the same behavior and is arrested once again. Her husband begs her to go into an alcohol program and the judge mandates that she stay out of bars and go to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Alcohol is not the problem. If it were booze she could get wasted on the couch in front of the TV no problem...the problem is Maria has a brain not unlike a broken record. This behavior could manifest itself with abusive men, shopping debt, gambling, embezzling etc...

Just so you know, Maria was arrested 18 times in two years for the exact same thing. The judge got tired of it and sentenced her to 4 years in prison. she lost her family, job, home, everything.

Guess what she did the night she got out of prison?

I guess to sum it all up..some people are born with sense, some have to learn from mistakes and some will never ever have a clue even if you beat them over the head with a clue bat.