UnCommon Sense

How we learn common sense: common sense is an innate ability of all animals with ganglia. But we need to theorize a bit here, if humans have a unique ability to learn and make sense of what we learn.

So how do we learn common sense? And if it is so goshdarned common, why do some people don't have it? If we were born and raised by mouthbreating imbeciles, do we lack cmmon sense?

I ask this question in light of a startling finding I made while observing people. If you read modern manuals on electronics, you may find something that looks like this...

"CAUTION: Avoid place hands inside electric toaster while operationing"
"WARNING: Poking VCR slot while running will result in warranty void and/or death"
"Madeing in Taiwan"

Moron genes usually manifest themselves when the town idiots start reading manuals on toasters and VCR's made in Taiwan.

"Hey? I won't lose warranty /or die when I poke the VCR with a screwdriver while walking right? Let's try it Dirk!"

Stimulus response? Probably, if you teach your child not to stick his wet thumb in an electric plug by God forbid, letting him stick his thumb in and making him feel the excrutiating pain.

Mental modelling? Electricity bad! But wait, TV is good and it runs on electricity, It can't be that bad, right?

Okay, teaching. But who taught the first person born under the electricity age that electricity is bad?

"Oh, yeah? Who taught you... MOM!"

By the Dilbert Principle of human knowledge: All people with a few exceptions have collective IQ's lower than the number of my teeth. So my theory of learning common sense is this. Common sense is taught to us uncommon people. Why do you think we believe the Surgeon General's warning about smoking?

The few geniuses of the old world created missionaries that went to the various villages then taught
the native people not to spray RAID directly at their faces.

Then the natives cooked them on an open fire fed by burning books and
used RAID canisters.