Rethinking "Common" Sense

Recently I read "Freakonomics" and one of the things that struck me while reading it was the authors' point that conventional wisdom is neither conventional nor wise. I think that similar re-evaluation of common sense is in order. I am increasingly aware in recent years that having any "sense," that is an understanding of considerate behavior and respect for others, among other things, is by no means common. Perhaps this is exacerbated in an urban environment where there are large numbers of people and very few structures in place to enforce or at the very least ensure awareness of "common sense."

A few examples:

1. My earlier blog post about my neighbors dog.

2. On the subject of dogs, our direct next-door neighbor currently has her sister staying with her, who in turn brought her dog. Instead of taking the dog outside to relieve itself, the sister just opens the door to the SHARED terrace and lets the dog do it's business. Now this wouldn't be a huge issue if she immediately picked up after the dog, but in the month or so she's been staying there we've only seen her do so once, and it was just after we had already picked up a week or more worth of dog droppings (which we have done at least 4-5 times). Now this is a SHARED terrace. Not only is it disgusting to have dog crap festering out there, it smells, and it's unhealthy. We take extra care to make sure that our dog, when he's out there, stays away from the soiled area. My wife even asked the sister to pick up after the dog, but this request has gone unheeded (today I picked up 2-4lbs of dog crap from the past couple of weeks). Having a bit of sense would incline one to ensure that their shared terrace was not covered with dog crap or stink like crazy in the hot, humid Chicago summer heat, but remember, sense is by no means common.

3. Public Transportation. Don't get me wrong, public transportation is great. It's affordable, (relatively) reliable, and it's (a bit) more eco-friendly. However, I've noticed that with both trains and busses people cannot figure out how to board and de-board. With trains people wait at the doors and rush on right when they open. A bit of sense would help people realize that if you step back for 10 seconds and let the people de-boarding off the train first, then you can get on much easier and likely find a place to sit or stand with relative ease. On busses the same principle applies, but is much worse. There are two doors, a smart person enters through the front and exits via the rear door. Now if one is elderly or needs help on or off, I can understand exiting through the front door where help is available. But for the rest of the able-bodied population this just prolongs the bus ride for everyone else. On many occasions I've seen people sitting in the very back of the bus, walk all the way to the front to get off, pushing past people boarding, only to walk back down the street past the rear door they chose not to use. How does this make any sense at all? Just as obnoxious is when people have been waiting for a bus for any period of time, get up to the pay box (usually with a queue behind them and an already packed bus), and spend the next 3 minutes fishing around for their fare. How difficult is it to have your fare ready when you board, especially when you've been doing nothing but waiting for the bus to show up for the past 5-10 minutes?

4. Airport security. People know this is a painful and cumbersome procedure already, but a collective lack of sense just makes it worse. Fortunately some airports have different lanes for families, experienced travelers, and folks in between. Usually the experienced line is quick and efficient (people with some sense), and the other lines are a total crap shoot. It's amazing that the new TSA rules have been in effect for almost 10 years and people still seem shocked that they can't bring large liquid containers through security or that they need to take out their laptop for the x-ray machine.


My favorite exchange from the film "Men In Black" was between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones where the latter explains that a person is intelligent, but that people are basically idiots. Perhaps I'm just becoming an old curmudgeon and noticing these things more often, but it seems to me that even this truism needs revision to state that SOME, but not all people are intelligent (i.e., have some 'sense'). I'm hoping that moving out of the city will mean that there are less folks around with the me-first attitude and more people with a hint of 'sense', common or not.