Common Sense

This past summer, the loss of common sense has become frighteningly real to me. I have watched people drive over the concrete flower bed that surrounds the dump station, back over planters that stand two feet high; drive over cement parking stops and take wrong turns, all because they are incapable of reading maps.  Several times we’ve had people arrive with their tent, but without their tent poles. This weekend, we had folks arrive with the poles and no tent.  You wonder, what were they thinking? But that is the problem in a nutshell, people don’t think anymore, nor are they expected to.

We’ve had those who walk into the office to register for a wolf watch, literally take three steps straight in from the door to arrive at the counter, turn around and are unable to retrace the three steps to find the door they just walked thru when they came in!   

 I recently observed a woman swaying in front of my office door.  At first glance, I assumed she was a little tipsy, but when I asked if she needed help, she suddenly realized what she was doing and sheepishly admitted she was trying to trigger the electric eye to open the door. I laughed, pointed to the doorknob and said turn and push.  People are used to having automatic doors or push bars; they do not know how to operate a simple door knob.  It was a short time later that I watched a woman struggling to open the door by pushing with both hands.  “You have to use the knob “I said and shared an eye roll with a nearby employee.  After a few more seconds of seeing her struggle with the knob, I added “you have to turn the knob first, and then push”.  She shot me a look as if I were to blame for her inability to operate a doorknob, and we all cringed when she slammed the door behind her so hard a box of Advil vibrated off a nearby shelf.  Verbalizing the instructions “turn the knob then push” has taken the place of “goodbye, have a nice day”.  It has become such a frequent necessity; I’m considering putting an instructional sign at the edge of the door above the knob.  However, I realize most wouldn’t comprehend what they are reading, and I’m not sure how to convey the message using pictures!

 Common sense is defined by the dictionary as “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. It is perceived as the knowledge and experience which most people already have or what we think they should have.” 

I have come to believe that as we as a society, advance in technology, the level of common sense diminishes proportionately.  The more technological advantages we utilize, the less capable we become.  If experience is the best teacher, then teachers have gone on strike!  Calculators in school have all but eliminated the need for using our brains to solve a simple math problem.  There is no need to memorize the times tables since that little hand held device solves the problem for us.  Escalators and elevators eliminate the need to exert ourselves walking to the second floor.  The internet has not only eliminated the need to learn the Dewey decimal system when searching for the book in the library, it has all but eliminated the need for going to the library.  Hit spell and grammar check on the tool bar, check wikipedia for a definition, everything is done for us, eliminating the “accountability” aspect of everyday living. The GPS and smart phones have eliminated the need to learn to navigate using a map. 

A product of parochial school, I can still recall the dreaded penmanship test.  The palmer method of writing was to blame for many a classmates’ sore knuckles.  Today, there are those who feel that children should not have to learn to write, when they have a keyboard.  Some have already lost the ability to read cursive. Soon it will be considered a skill much like archeologists who can decipher the ancient languages and hieroglyphics.  

I can’t help but wonder if we are sealing our own fates by shirking accountability and speeding toward advancements only to fall victim to our own self destruction.  There were the Mayans, the Incas, the lost city of Atlantis, all of whom stir the imaginations of archeologists across the globe.  Will some future civilization come to study us?  With all the advances in science, technology and medicine, I wonder what they’ll think when they unearth plastic bags imprinted with a warning not to put them over your head because it could cause suffocation, or finding those little tags on pillows and furniture warning of fines and possible imprisonment if removed.