The Death of Common Sense – a witty obituary and indictment of our time
These days there seems to be an absolute dearth of common sense. How many times have you caught yourself saying, “That’s crazy!” when some new regulation is announced, or politicians and economists declare their total faith in endless growth on a finite planet?
So I was amused and delighted this morning to come across an obituary to Common Sense. This version comes from BBC Stoke on Trent in England, whose Stuart George read out the obituary on the air in January last year. Evidently his version is an adaptation of an American columnist, Lori Borgman’s obituary to common sense published some time ago. (Her version is much longer, more wordy and, in my humble opinion, not as witty.)
(Links to the BBC on-air version and Lori Borgman’s are at the end of the post.)
(Warning – it appears there’s an email version of this obituary on the internet that spreads a virus or malware.)
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm:
Life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
