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Topic: Common Sense
josie68's photo
Fri 05/27/11 05:33 AM


I guess to me common sense is being able to make decisions that will keep me alive and well.

Where I live if visitors dont have common sense they die.
Whether it is just from being bitten by something poisonous, going where somthing will eat you, or just going somewhere without enough provisions or knowledge to survive.

However when I visited america, I found that I didnt have enough common sense for over there to see that things where dangerous and would have been oblivous to things that people would say,

"If you had any common sense you would know that.""

Well obviously I didn't as it wasnt obvious to me that there could be places that you really shouldnt go and that there would be people that didnt want to make friends with you.. Honestly how are you supposed to know those things..

so for me here I have heaps of common sense.. But I see heaps of visitors who seem to have none.. But in their own natural environment they probably have heaps as well.

So I think we can only judge common sense on our own knowledge..


Josie... so Crocodile Dundee was a true movie? It was not fiction?

Wow... the things I learn at fifty-seven.

I believe you, Josie. I am just aghast. I thought American commons sense (money is God, God is Christian, and Blacks and Hispanics are tolerated, but despised across the board, and loaded guns are good to have for everyone, so long as nobody shoots any of them, at least not at each other) was self-evident. (I am being sarcastic here.)


laugh Strangely enough, i know exactly how crocodile dundee felt. There are really no places in the city I live in that I wouldnt be safe to wander around.

We have every colour person and nationality here and as long as you get off your butt and work you are respected and equal to everyone else.
If they live off the government and my taxes all their lives, then I am sorry but i will still be friendly but i do not have any respect for them.

And yep where I live it is just like the movie, well not in town but out of town, if you are dumb enough to lean over the water and try and fill a canteen then yep there is a big possability you could be grabbed. You just use common sense.laugh A croc can jump out of the water and grab you, they do it to cows so a human is just another meal, no big deal and they can run as fast as us.

Our gun laws are good, and you can own a gun you just cant randomly carry it, and honestly why would you need to. :smile:


jrbogie's photo
Fri 05/27/11 05:36 AM
can't legally carry a gun RANDOMLY in america either.

josie68's photo
Fri 05/27/11 05:38 AM


sorry that you have that impression of america, josie. but there's nowhere in the country that i "really shouldn't go."


Try Harlem, or the Watts, or any number of places where a blonde woman alone would be eaten alive, literally, her flesh being ripped off her bones by raw teeth of individual American citizens.

JR, I think you live in an America that either does not exist, or it is an image of itself that is fed to you by American common sense.


I loved America, and the people there.

Obviously I had to work out a few things that made you all appear different at times but not really. Well except trying to understand the accents over there.

And Wux that is what I was talking about, i saw some neat old houses that i wanted to buy, they where soooooo cool, but Anaconda said i couldnt as it wasnt a safe place as i was white what what what
To me I cant see what difference it makes, and i dont see why i cant just make friends with the neighbors there the same as here.

Its not like I would care who came into my home, I wouldnt lock it anyway. Soooo I think its just different.

jrbogie's photo
Fri 05/27/11 06:06 AM
i don't lock my home either.

Redykeulous's photo
Fri 05/27/11 07:00 AM
Below is a reply I had posted to the question of common sense in another forum several months ago - but it's still valid.

Common sense is an old term. It is most often associated with old adages that were created to be used as a ‘rule of thumb” – which is itself an adage which referred to a general consensus of measurement. There was a general consensus that the length of most thumbs (from tip to the first joint) was about 1 inch, so when you were without a ruler you used “the rule of thumb”.

Many such adages were used to refer to ‘common sense’.
Some of the earliest forms of “common sense” that are still in use today were taken from Proverbs. The Bible was often used to defer to ‘common sense’.

Theatre was good for creating new adages that substituted for ‘common sense’, Shakespeare, for example provided many.

As more people became educated and could actually read, cheap reading material became more available.

Like Almanacks such as:
Poor Richard’s Almanack and news - The Pennsylvania Gazette ( ala Benjamin Franklin)
“Many hands make light work,” “A penny saved is two-pence clear,” Honesty is the best policy,” and “Kill two birds with one stone.”

Here are a few others Phrases that pass as common sense:

He is rich that is satisfied.
He who gambles picks his own pocket.
Plough deep while sluggards sleep and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
A stitch in time, saves nine.
Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies in morning, sailors take warning!
Mind your P’s and Q’s. (actually refers to pints and quarts – from a time when the milk was delivered and the milk-man metered out the product with a ladel)

But ‘common sense’ is often handed down through culture and thus is a kind of ‘tribal’ knowledge. I leaned a lot of ‘common sense’ things from my family – and they were all about learning how to sucessfully maneuver and survive (in Chicago).

There is certainly value in many of these legacies. I have often survived (or at least faired better) by remembering some of that ‘common sense’ that I was taught.

However, does that kind of ‘common sense’ prepare us for what we need to know in today’s world?

The term, ‘common sense' as used today, takes its meaning from more recent philosophical thought. When we invoke ‘common sense’ today we are most often making some kind of assumptions that will guide our thought processes more critically.

Now we replace those old adages with facts that come from knowledge instead of the experience of generations long since past. What could they have known about maneuvering though this high tech, fast-paced, urban life-style?


wux's photo
Fri 05/27/11 08:04 AM
Edited by wux on Fri 05/27/11 08:07 AM
Fellow posters, and especially JRB, I would like to extend my apology for my earlier behaviour on this thread today.

I was harsh with my words. Too harsh, too antagonistic, belligerent, provokative.

I get into this if I socialize before taking my morning medication.

So Now I took it, waited a few hours, or some time in the least, and now I am apologizing.

(I was a blood-and-thunder preacher there for a second, eh? "You are all sinners!" I said, "You keep on fornicating, and you refuse to create a bloodbath!! Fools! You have no perception, the stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high. Fools! We must crush us comletely, so like our fathers, we also must war.")

Well, sorry, I apalogize and ask all those I insulted or hurt to please forgive me if it is possible.

I try to not post any more before I take my pills, but there is a chance I may slip again in the future.

jrbogie's photo
Fri 05/27/11 08:17 AM
never a worry in that regard here, wux. but thanks for the concern.

no photo
Fri 05/27/11 12:09 PM
Well wux you will get your wish when it comes to a war. I think we have 50 of them going on at this moment that are killing people as we speak. Everywhere from young 9 year olds taught to kill someone to join a guerilla clan in Congo to an all out war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also have many parts of the world where the people are fighting for basic needs such as Indian ladies spending the whole day digging to find fresh water from a well to the 500 million desert nomads sparing their water to feed camels.

As the resources are being exhausted from the rich countries to the draughts that cover half of Australia, to Siberia's ice sheets that hold methane ready to be released into the air when the planet's temperature rises each couple of years. When our resources and basic needs are taken away from mother earth we will suffer anyway. Just because the greedy billionaire still needs that extra billion and will destroy lives to attain it. If they dump chemical waste in our rivers or dump our trash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean we will destroy ourselves anyway.

Your wish to have war will happen when people can't get a glass of water or feed themselves.

History has shown when this happens diseases attack us eliminating the population and drastic measures are taken to get the necessary needs to feed a family, which includes killing to attain it.

I know this sounds so negative, but in reality at this rate it can happen if we don't change our attitudes on how we take care of our earth. The world population dilemma is a issue. We are popping out babies left and right without thinking of the future for these children. If you are making only $18,000 dollars in the United States then why are you having 6 children? If you don't have a job in South America then why are you having those 4 children? If there is not enough food to go around then why are you having a baby in Africa?

I know in many of the poor countries these children are a asset for the families as they are to work in the farms and keep up with the daily necessities leaving them with no education. The best they can do is write a "x" on a sheet of paper indicating they agree to whatever contract they are told to believe becoming slave labors for the rich.

In Cameroon there was once a fresh water lake. All the fish as of the lake is gone now. Now the people are forced to look elsewhere for water and many wars have been fought because of the lake for it was shared by another country in Africa.

It is a major issue in this world when we don't educate the population on how to be more responsible for ourselves and with others, but how can we teach the world to make this happen when every country, every person, has a different idealogy of what right and wrong is, what common sense means, and what is important to them because a tradition says it so when in reality it is harming the next man.

It is a real issue that many conferences are taking place in the UN, but only to be waivered off as another failed day amongst the elite rich who primarily don't care for it doesn't attain to them at the moment.

Yet I think the bubble will burst one day and the news will have plenty of reporting to do each day when people struggle to make ends meet.

By the way Europe's most wanted criminal was caught yesterday. The Serbian leader was responsible for slaughtering 8 million Muslims in the Balkan wars. You might consider him a hero, but most will call him a criminal.

no photo
Fri 05/27/11 12:15 PM
By the way I am a advocate of peace and always will be, but I do see the dilemmas we suffer in this world and each country has them. Some worse then others. Education is the problem, stricter rules perhaps, and the chance to really improve societies is a struggle for most governments. If it can be done peacefully to resolve these issues is a question we all ask. I would like to believe there is such a way, but after traveling to over 43 countries in my life and seeing the eternal struggles many societies suffer it will take a world cooperation to make this work. The problem is most people are trying to make ends meet and cannot offer much on the table to help the next man. What ashame!

That is why I say all the time...Have you looked into the mirror and asked yourself what you can do today to help the next person? Many say yes, but nothing happens!

msharmony's photo
Fri 05/27/11 12:42 PM

By the way I am a advocate of peace and always will be, but I do see the dilemmas we suffer in this world and each country has them. Some worse then others. Education is the problem, stricter rules perhaps, and the chance to really improve societies is a struggle for most governments. If it can be done peacefully to resolve these issues is a question we all ask. I would like to believe there is such a way, but after traveling to over 43 countries in my life and seeing the eternal struggles many societies suffer it will take a world cooperation to make this work. The problem is most people are trying to make ends meet and cannot offer much on the table to help the next man. What ashame!

That is why I say all the time...Have you looked into the mirror and asked yourself what you can do today to help the next person? Many say yes, but nothing happens!



some days I feel so bad that its all I can do to help myself because I feel as if I cant help others BEFORE I am able to do it for myself

..but , when I am feeling especially well, when I feel like I am doing what is necessary to be at 100 percent myself and have some left for others, I do tend to not turn away anyone in need of something that I am able to do without,,,

no photo
Fri 05/27/11 01:02 PM


By the way I am a advocate of peace and always will be, but I do see the dilemmas we suffer in this world and each country has them. Some worse then others. Education is the problem, stricter rules perhaps, and the chance to really improve societies is a struggle for most governments. If it can be done peacefully to resolve these issues is a question we all ask. I would like to believe there is such a way, but after traveling to over 43 countries in my life and seeing the eternal struggles many societies suffer it will take a world cooperation to make this work. The problem is most people are trying to make ends meet and cannot offer much on the table to help the next man. What ashame!

That is why I say all the time...Have you looked into the mirror and asked yourself what you can do today to help the next person? Many say yes, but nothing happens!



some days I feel so bad that its all I can do to help myself because I feel as if I cant help others BEFORE I am able to do it for myself

..but , when I am feeling especially well, when I feel like I am doing what is necessary to be at 100 percent myself and have some left for others, I do tend to not turn away anyone in need of something that I am able to do without,,,


I understand completely. It will take a united world mind set to do this anyway. I have been a humanitarian for a great portion of my life and there is never a time I experienced where everyone was happy. I did find some successes in my lifetime when it came to helping people, but many times there were times I couldn't help out or do enough for the next man. It is odd that we each go through this in different ways. Some don't see it and care less and others see it and do alot. It is a mind set I suppose.

Benjamin Franklin had a quote that I can't exactly recall how it is said but it goes along the lines as such: The more you know the more depressed you get.

Fortunately my enthusiasm on knowledge and life outweighs depression and I continue to preach the importance of peace in the name of every religion, spirituality, or not. It is so important we work on this. I hope great minds will be innovative and find ways to influence more minds on the importance of education that includes compassion and peace.

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