Common Sense

 

By: ET Williams – From The Book “Whatever Happen To COMMON SENSE”

We are living in a time in which lies are so pervasive across the airwaves that it is both disturbing and alarming. People are calling black white and white orange. I’m not sure what happened to rational, thinking people, but I believe I have a pretty good basis for my beliefs. We all believe in what I like to call an acute fabrication of truth and facts. It appears as if the majority of the world is blind to the truth, so I’m going to write in a new Braille language, so that those who lack mental reasoning may understand what I’m trying to articulate. You don’t need a PhD, nor do you need to be trained in quantum physics, in order to make sound decisions. As I see it, one of the problems is that our society lives ostentatiously but without substance.

 

Being ingenuous for a moment, I believe that one would need to make a highly concerted effort to make the nonsensical arguments that most people put forth on a daily basis. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines common sense as “sound and prudent judgment based on simple perception of the situation or facts.” I like to refer to common sense as God-given sense, a fundamental trait we are born with. Common sense is a reaction or action that is almost second nature. It’s something you really don’t even need to think about before you do it. You just know when something is wrong and when something is right. As an adult, I do not need to be told not to stick a pencil up my nose, because common sense tells me that it will hurt. You don’t need a road map on parenting to know that if you have children, you need to work to support them. Grandma and Grandpa may not have finished sixth grade, but they knew that a man ought to work to support his family and not depend on the government. If you have kids, you know that even at a young age, they can tell the difference between right and wrong.

 

Maybe we need to tell people to stop thinking about what they are doing and just react. If they merely react in most situations, I have no doubt that they will make more sound decisions than are presently being made. If an object is thrown at your head, no one needs to send you a telegram that says “Duck.” You don’t need a crash course on pain before the object makes contact—you just react.

Forget what you were taught in school about wrong and right. Disregard what CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC or the Internet says about a particular story. Just ask yourself basic, common sense questions, and I believe you will experience a more rational thought process. Ask a hundred five-year olds if telling lies is a good thing and all one hundred of them will say that lying is bad. The children will state that lying is bad, if their parents have not corrupted their minds with the convenient truth. .

 

In the past, most people had a clear definition of right and wrong. There have always been evil people and those who try to justify their wrongdoings. What is scary about society today is that these people often do not even attempt to justify their behavior anymore. These individuals truly believe that their methods are right and truthful. The line between good and evil has become so blurred that most adults today make statements and decisions that thirty years ago would have embarrassed a six-year-old. People are being brainwashed into thinking that irrational is rational. Sometimes you just want to grab a person and shake them until they scream, “I am not making any sense.”

 

Children today are wise when it comes to computers and technology, but have no clue about life decisions and becoming an adult. This is primarily the fault of parents and educators who instruct children that they need not use their brains. When teachers say that humans evolved from monkeys, they are simply making monkeys out of our children. Why have we not continued to come from monkeys? One day you should go to the zoo and a naked man should be standing in a cage, and when your child asks why the man is in the cage with the gorillas. The zookeeper might simply suggest that he evolved.

 

You can perform many tasks without giving them much thought once you have performed these activities often enough. For instance, when I get out of bed in the morning, I put my feet on the floor and stand up without even thinking about it. Who rolls out of bed onto their face before standing up? An inebriated person that’s who! We need to stop intoxicating our kids through our education system and in the media. We need to sober them up with truth and common sense. Some things you learn in early childhood stick with you until you die—for example, if I put my hand in fire, it will burn. There is no gray area; fire will burn you every time. You don’t need to be the most well read person to figure this out.

 

Most of us learned this essential lesson on fire safety in our adolescence. However, some grownups still do not grasp this principle. They have repeated the same mistakes over and over, and when their imprudent choices burn them in life, they are undeterred. Most of us learned about the dangers of fire by putting our hand in flames or on a hot object and, when it burned, took our hand off the object or out of the fire. We didn’t need to learn the lesson twice; that’s if you are somewhat sane.

 

There seems to be an immense influx of irrational people in our world today. Make no mistake, my friend—it takes great consideration to become an illogical person. It involves disregarding your conscience repeatedly in order to become immune to reason. How can you say with a straight face that there is no such thing as an absolute and really believe it? I don’t believe that anyone was born not believing in absolutes. Rather, it is learned behavior taught in Ivy League universities and other places of higher learning. Many students of life take graduate courses in being unreasonable by attending the “University of Media.” From there, it’s on to studying for their doctorates by hanging around their so-called intellectual friends.

 

If a highly educated moron or an uneducated fool makes the statement that there are no absolutes, politely ask, “Are you absolutely sure there are no absolutes?” It is a self-defeating statement that once said aloud and thought about becomes preposterous.

 

 

When your congress person or senator tells you that we need to give money to people who simply don’t want to work, you should tell him or her that the idea is ridiculous. I don’t care if he or she says it is only fair to spread the wealth or that not everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Ask Mr. or Mrs. Politician, “Are you suggesting that it’s my job to buy boots for another grown-up?” I say put the boots on layaway until you can afford them and then pull yourself up by those boots once you have paid them off.

 

What gives anyone the right to take taxpayers’ money and support lowlifes who don’t want to work? Anyone can fall on hard times, but if you have been on government assistance for more than four years, there is a problem with your work ethics. I use ethics very loosely when referring to career welfare recipients. Some may want to work, but it’s still not my job to support them. Giving welfare to people or extending charity should be voluntary, not a government requirement.

 

Statements such as “That may be true for you, but my truth is…” are tools for justifying poor behavior. If something is true without a doubt, it doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. A forty-year-old man may believe that his truth is that he sleeps with four–year-old girls. Is his truth valid? Do you defend his truth, even if the four-year-old girl is your daughter?

 

How about the statement by former president Bill Clinton” it depends on what the meaning of the word ’is’ is” in explaining his inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky to a grand jury. When you get to a point where you start changing the meaning of words in order to justify your false belief, you are on the slippery slope of absurdity. If you begin to gravitate toward a doctrine of untested conviction, I beg you to examine yourself, especially when this fervor is outside the system of coherent thinking and logical understanding. If you make the statement that we all have a right to free healthcare, even those who are not American citizens, is a preposterous statement. This is the insanity that I’m speaking about.

 

When we start labeling perverts who molest children as sex offenders, we changed the meaning of what a pervert really is. A sex offender should be someone who has committed a sex crime such as prostitution. An adult who has sex with children is not a sex offender; he is a deranged animal. When we as a culture begin to change the meaning of words in order to justify our actions, all hope is gone. We are on the road to self-destruction.

 

Traveling down the road of life, we might see signs such as “Road out Ahead” or “Bridge Has Been Blown Up” or “Enter and Die,” but we ignore them because we believe in positive thinking or in our own truths. I say to the positive thinker, “Keep on the path to your truth, but I must warn you that the end is self-destruction.” Positive thinkers are stubborn reality deniers, dream seekers, and kumbaya (come by here) pushers. The problem is that some people, who mostly have Muslim names, want to “come by here”—meaning America—to blow us up.

 

Changing the meaning of words makes it impossible to communicate with one another. How can you converse with a person who insists on arguing at every turn? “Well, that is just my truth and I really believe it so don’t judge me,” might be a common response from a reality denier. How can you have a meaningful conversation with someone who, when shown the facts, will completely ignore the evidence? He or she responds by saying, “I just don’t see it like that,” without presenting any good reason for his or her point of view. All hope of having a meaningful tête-à-tête is out the window.

 

 

If I tell you that it’s against the law to break into someone’s house, but you tell me that you have had a hard life and that it’s not your fault that you’re a thief, you’re in denial. We must establish some absolutes to solve the problem of thievery  or someone is going to be seriously hurt—and it will definitely be the thief if it’s my house he’s burglarizing.

 

Can you see that we might need to establish some clear definitions and outline a few basic rules in order to coexist? No matter what the former president or anyone else says about words not having exact definitions, they do have meaning. Everyone believes in absolutes—just look at the everyday lives of most people. We go to work because we need a paycheck. What if you went into work one day and your boss had decided that his truth was not to pay you for your services? I’m inclined to believe that you would become a believer in absolutes. You would demand with all certainty that you are owed compensation for your labor. I don’t believe you would accept your employer’s truth. You would insist on being paid.

 

When you were a child, what did your parents and teachers tell you about coloring? You were probably instructed to color inside the lines. I think this is one of the problems in society today—no one wants to be told or to tell someone else that they are coloring outside the lines, simply because they may come off as judgmental or intolerant. God left out this commandment when he spoke from Mount Sinai: “Thou shall put up with anybody else’s belief or opinion no matter how absurd that belief or opinion may be.” Opinions are like butt holes—we all have one and they all stink.

 

The definition that has been ascribed to tolerance is that everybody’s lifestyle or opinion is true and carries equal weight, no matter how outrageous it may be. This just isn’t so. I hear people speak about diversity as if it is the highest form of virtue. If I have fifty-two fragrances of cow manure, does this make it smell like roses? I think not. Diversity without substance or standards still stinks.

 

Most proponents of diversity laud it just as long as it suits their argument. If you suggest that you should be able to say the name of Jesus in a public forum, they will say that this goes against the concept of separation of church and state. They make this argument even though the Constitution does not actually specify that church and state should be separate. If they are so into diversity, why don’t they have an open mind with regard to this aspect of it?

 

The first amendment says that ( ) “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” You will notice that the separation of church and state is not specifically referred to. It does say that Congress cannot institute a religion, but it also says Congress cannot make a law “prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” or “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” So if I want to invoke Jesus’ name, you have no right to scream, “Separation of church and state” because I am not attempting to establish a specific religion. Furthermore, I do not work for the government, so do not attempt to violate my first amendment rights.

 

We have allowed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and partisan organizations to take our rights without a fight. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We are in need of a good rebellion in the great United States of America. This is the only way to stop a hostile takeover by ungodly men and women.

 

Look at what ( ) Thomas Jefferson said about rebellion in a letter to William Smith in 1787:

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

It might be time to fertilize this country with patriots, saints, tyrants, and dictators.

A man is always more famous after he dies. He has a vision of dying for a cause that is bigger than he is. Most of the time, he never sees the vision come to the light. Historians usually write about a man’s zeal and drive for his particular cause.

Adults always tell children not to give in to peer pressure, but it seems to me that adults are far worse than children when it comes to succumbing to pressures from their friends and family. We buy things we don’t even want in an effort to impress people we don’t even like. You might be at work or at family gathering and sense that something is wrong, but if the majority says everything is all right, you tend to go with the flow. The average person will suppress his or her own convictions just to get along with the views of the majority.