Why Is Common Sense so Rare?
Topic started by Bala Pillai (@ roosevelt.sydneywerks.com.au) on Mon Aug 11 09:17:57 .
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Why Is Common Sense so Rare?
Why
is Common Sense so Rare?
The main and root cause is
href="ditheism" target="new">http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0004723.html">ditheism
- the unnatural belief in two opposite forces. Humans have drifted too
far from Nature and Naturalism. Ditheism has bred viewing the world
with binary (opposites) lenses.
Consider the following examples:
Is not light more complementary to
darkness than opposite? What use is a lightbulb, if not for darkness?
Are not males more complementary to
females than opposite?
Are not plugs more complementary to
sockets than opposite?
Is not pretty complementary with ugly? If
every flowering plant were a rose plant, would you like roses as much? Doesn't
the diverse ecovariety of plants play a role in roses being special?
Is not war more complementary to peace
than opposite? Is it not true that it is those who have first-hand
weary experience of the pains of war who provide the greatest energy
for peace efforts? Is it not true, that prolonged peace-time leads to
apathy and denial, which in turn leads to ignoring the plight of
sections of the population? Which in turn leads to Martin Luther King's
"riots are the language of the unheard". And which John F Kennedy
remarks with "those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent
change inevitable"? And Catherine Schroeder to state "some people
change their ways when they see the light, most when they feel the
heat"? Heat is needed? And war is the last straw of cascadingly intense
tension?
Take any pair that are said to be
opposites and see it as a process, and you will sense a complementary
circle of life. Similar to waves, mountain ranges and the spinning
orbiting Earth.
Default viewing things as opposites has
lots of ripple effects. Ignoring corollaries is one.
For example when someone says "Oh it is expensive". We ought to
be thinking "expensive compared to what?" and "can I afford to have the
problem continue -- can I afford *not* to spend in solving the
problemt? What are the costs of *not* buying?". And the best answer
would come from balancing the obvious with the corollary.
Another ripple effect is
defensiveness and hypocrisy because of focus on the superlatives
rather than the infinitives. For example, for good reason, in
most Eastern languages we ask "how age are you?" not "how old are
you?". Age = infinitive. Old = superlative. With "how age are you?" the
question is asking for state information. It does not allow for emotive
loadings upon "young" and "old" to develop as easily. When we ask "how
old are you?" we immediately put lots of people on the defensive. We
also encourage folks to lie (by rationalisation) if the answer is not
an "acceptable" answer. Isn't language meant to bridge human beings,
not cause trillions of dollars worth of misunderstandings?
Viewing the world as default
opposites, obscures one's ability to abstract. Combined with
defensiveness which feeds fear, this oppositism has many to exaggerate
the exception and downplay the prevalent. And to not perceive that
which one is less comfortable with - denial. This is the gravest
effect of ditheism. It dulls one's perception of reality. It
weakens one's ability to act on ambiguity. It feeds
procrastination. When a population cannot distill
observations, when they behave akin to those who insisted that the
Earth is flat because it is uncomfortable to admit it is spherical,
they cannot become smarter. They become prey to incumbents with power.
Like in the Dark Ages of Europe. And no amount of KM tools are going to
change this.
What's the solution? Try viewing the
world naturally for 7 days -- see corollaries. Sense the dialectic. See
that side of the moon that your eyes can't see. See that part
of the tree, the crown roots, that your eyes can't see. Feel the world,
as default full of complementaries, apparent or not. For example when
someone asks "how's your day?", consider answering "roses, thorns and
in-betweens". This probably is more accurate than "good" or "bad" :-).
If it helps your perception of ambiguity, great. If not revert back to
status ante.
"Ants have no (or little) problems with
food and shelter. Ditto with birds and nearly every other species.
Humans are bogged down by anxieties over food and shelter. With minds,
shouldn't humans be thousands of times ahead, not trailing fractions
behind ants?"
Responses:
- From: Idiappam (@ cache139.156ce.maxonline.com.sg)
on: Mon Aug 11 12:29:23 EDT 2003
Common sense is just that! Common. But crude common sense is rare!
I you had some, you would not have compiled such a long-winded story of something so Common. Who would read? Even if some do, who would decipher?
- From: tony (@ user-2ive70u.dialup.mindspring.com)
on: Mon Aug 11 17:52:11 EDT 2003
One man's common sense is another man's nonsense.
Dravidian backward common sense does not jive with any other copmmon sense. It may be nonsense to you for ignoring education , health and clean water supply and concentrating all energy on Kannagi statue and 'selection of Super Star' but from a dravidiann perspective clean water and education is way down on the totem pole.Siomilarly you may think that imbeciles should not be given degrees just because they are imbeciles and that may be your opinion. Dr. No brain, Dr Tamilian will argue that only morons should get degrees as others have 5000 years of reservation meaning they have brains.I am with the dravidians as I want to get a degree.Anna U. is more difficult as they include two movies of MGR and JJ in the syllabus while in Stalin U. syllabus there is no mention of MGR and JJ. Just velaikari and one Mu Ka muthu movie.However Anna U. degree has more value.
- From: Idiappam (@ cache139.156ce.maxonline.com.sg)
on: Mon Aug 11 18:19:20 EDT 2003
hahaha! Tony you forgot to mention Sonia of Italy to lead Bharath Matha against the forwardness! Jai HInd! Vanthe matharam.
- From: Miami (@ 0-1pool108-113.nas4.peoria1.il.us.da.qwest.net)
on: Mon Aug 11 22:51:46 EDT 2003
>>Ants have no (or little) problems with
food and shelter. Ditto with birds and nearly every other species. Humans are bogged down by anxieties over food and shelter. With minds,
shouldn't humans be thousands of times ahead, not trailing fractions behind ants
This is oversimplification. Who said other species have no problem over food or shelter? Get into the boots of an ant or a bird or a dog and you will know what their life is like. They struggle as much as we do in gaining basic necessities. They may not have an anxiety over the future though.
- From: tony (@ user-2ive6gg.dialup.mindspring.com)
on: Wed Aug 13 03:26:10 EDT 2003
Why is common sense so rare?
Answer: Ants have no problems with food.Get into boots of Ants,bird or a dog.
My answer:Prawns are tastier than fish because fish can climb trees.
Both the above are good BACKWARD answers. I think my answer is better than Dr. Miami. Yet he gets the doctorate from Anna U.
- From: commonsense (@ proxify.com)
on: Wed Aug 13 05:35:51 EDT 2003
You can find from Dr.tony's posts that common sense is rare amongst sudhra brahmanas.
- From: tony (@ user-2iveajt.dialup.mindspring.com)
on: Wed Aug 13 21:38:30 EDT 2003
Dr.Common sense: So you vote with Dr.Miami. You say the correct answer for the question on common sense is that ants and dogs should wear boots.My answer is as irrelevant but shorter. Yours is one backward opinion.
- From: ;-) (@ ecc-24)
on: Fri Dec 31 20:04:18
those persons who lack brain and common sense is no more in this forum. they have been killed by the sunami
- From: davie (@ ecc-24)
on: Fri Dec 31 20:05:53 EST 2004
those persons who lack brain and common sense are no more in this forum. they have been killed/demented by the sunami
- From: ;-) (@ ecc-24)
on: Fri Dec 31 20:06:42 EST 2004
i like this thread
hmm
- From: Anil Kumar (@ 68-173-193-249.nyc.rr.com)
on: Fri Dec 31 23:03:49 EST 2004
I agree with Mr.Pillai. Imagination is the key. Humans are much better than animals.
- From: Anil Kumar (@ 68-173-193-249.nyc.rr.com)
on: Fri Dec 31 23:10:42 EST 2004
Humans are differant from animals because they have the power to imagin and think so they have the power to advance. so humans are not animals.
- From: Anil Kumar (@ 68-173-193-249.nyc.rr.com)
on: Sat Jan 1 00:34:16 EST 2005
"Is not war more complementary to peace than opposite? Is it not true that it is those who have first-hand weary experience of the pains of war who provide the greatest energy
for peace efforts? Is it not true, that prolonged peace-time leads to
apathy and denial, which in turn leads to ignoring the plight of
sections of the population? Which in turn leads to Martin Luther King's
"riots are the language of the unheard". And which John F Kennedy
remarks with "those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent
change inevitable"? And Catherine Schroeder to state "some people
change their ways when they see the light, most when they feel the
heat"? Heat is needed? And war is the last straw of cascadingly intense
tension?"
i agree with this. especially now in this crisis we can see it.
- From: Anil Kumar (@ 68-173-193-249.nyc.rr.com)
on: Sat Jan 1 00:41:16 EST 2005
"Is not war more complementary to peace than opposite? Is it not true that it is those who have first-hand weary experience of the pains of war who provide the greatest energy
for peace efforts?"
its very true on this crisis and we are thankful for that.
- From: Anil Kumar (@ 68-173-193-249.nyc.rr.com)
on: Sat Jan 1 00:48:52 EST 2005
it shows jesus was against war.
- From: davie (@ ecc-24)
on: Sat Jan 1 03:09:46 EST 2005
hmm anil kumar, ashoka was weary of war so he was craving for peace.
I think most of the present day people want peace just because they are sick of this cruel world i guess
bala pillais message has really a deep sense.
If all human beings were looking the same then it will become a great boredom to see each others face.
At the same time, too much of peace is also good for nothing.;-))
no im just kidding. Attaining perfect peace is impossible.
- From: happyindian (@ bbcache-8.singnet.com.sg)
on: Sat Jan 1 03:34:08 EST 2005
Nice article Bala Pillai - felt gd to read - & the same goes for Anil Kumar's response. True enuf, its opposites that keep the world bound in an inevitable karmic cycle of creation and destruction. An atom too needs electrons, protons and neutrons to exist / hv an identity. Each of us has some yin and yang - some positive aspects and some negative aspects in us. Duality is everywhere - nature can be tranquil one moment and destructive the other. Transcending duality as better humans and moving towards non-duality, with the mind anchored deep within the JeevAtman (viz, a part of the ParamAtman), is wht we can try to achieve in our lifetimes. As Davie says perfect peace is impossible too, so the world moves on....
- From: (@ rock-9149tikpam)
on: Sat Jan 1 08:18:27 EST 2005
happy indian ur also a srilankan right?
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