Not So Common Sense?

Tell me something… is there something you are really good at but you have no “formal training” to do it?

How about doing math? Are you really good at math, but you don’t have a teaching degree? How about history? Do you love history? Maybe Science and cutting edge technology? I must confess, I am a huge fan of all these myself. It is a standing joke at my house – my wife is always telling me I have all this “useless trivia knowledge” I should go on “Jeopardy”, “Smarter Than a 5^th Grader” or some show – where I usually know the answers to the questions.

Last year when I questioned the “real science” in Al Gore’s video… because I am not a “trained scientist”, but only read A LOT about a great many things, I was made out to be a fool. Is it foolish for a common man to be able to do the simple things like think for himself? Maybe do the math, know the history, understand the science and be able to read? Common sense stuff right? Or is it?

My question is: Why can’t others do these things?

Help me to understand this, because I’m confused. We have some of the most brilliant minds in this country and somewhere in the last 40 years we stopped thinking for ourselves and have turned over our lives to career politicians, judges and lawyers and we’ve basically let the foxes take over governing the hen house.

It would be funny, if it weren’t so true. Let me relay a story to you that has me thinking.

A long time ago there was a man named Aesop. He told stories, much like the great Greek philosophers – to educate. One of these fables is about a colony of frogs that have grown tired of their own leadership, they demand CHANGE. (Sound familiar?) So the frogs get together and pray that they get a new leader. Suddenly a tree falls to the ground in the middle of their bog and they hop away in fear of their new leader… yes they thought the tree was their leader. Over time, the tree is more and more accepted, but the more intimate the frogs get with the tree the more they realize the tree is nothing to be feared and is but only a tree.

Years go by and the frogs again get complacent and pray they get a leader that will BRING CHANGE. Suddenly a crane shows up and boy does this crane bring change! What change does the crane bring? He eats the frogs. Is it the change the frogs wanted? Probably not. Did the frogs have a specific list of changes they wanted brought about by the new leader? We are not told that they did. This sounds much like our own world today, doesn’t it? People are clamoring for change, but do they really know what kind of change they want or need to turn their world into a successful and prosperous land?

Once again, I am not a career politician. I am not a doctor or a lawyer. I am but a simple man of common sense. I can see this, can you?

Do you remember about 10 years ago when a political party wrote up what was then called “A Contract With America”? I know it fell apart and all but they had the right idea. In Business, more specifically Project Management, it’s called setting expectations. Just like a contract you have to set performance expectations, you have to get all parties to the contract to fully understand what is expected of them, set a timeline for when the contract begins and ends and if needed an exit strategy or performance analysis to correct or refocus our main objective if things go off course. Side note: This is genuinely what I am hearing from the Dino Rossi campaign for Governor of Washington State – He at least has a plan and wants to return Washington to the people, but that’s another topic.

Now, just for fun, what are the first two Laws of Moses? Do any of you know why God wrote ten laws into stone? Or why Moses brought the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai? (Today known as Jebel el Lawz http://www.wyattmuseum.com/mount-sinai-06.htm ) Setting expectations and organizational structure is very important in an organized society. So is getting what you pay for.

Back to the story of the frogs… did the frogs ask to be eaten alive by taxes? No the crane just made up it’s mind that the frogs were there for the benefit of his administration and were nothing more than the meal ticket he was looking for. Sound familiar? That’s just the way our own government looks at us – we are nothing more than their permanent meal ticket.

When was the last time you clamored for your taxes to be raised? When was the last time you wrote your representative in Congress and told them: I have way too much money – you have got to tax me more so I don’t have all this cash laying around stinking up my house!” When was the last time you said: “You know, I have worked for a living all my life. Worked my fingers to the bone. I’ve often had to work 3 and 4 jobs at a time to make ends meet, but I put my kids through school, sent them to college and now I’m retiring for ¼ of my income on Social Security.”

When did you vote to give Congress a free ride? When did you vote to give Congress a retirement plan that gives THEM their full congressional pay for life? Isn’t that something? You work for years and work hard to retire on ¼ of your income – whereas Congress can do a terrible job, they can have the worst approval numbers in history and THEY walk away on full pay for life. Do you see a conflict of interest there?

Congress also has the best bargaining method. They raise their own pay whenever they wish to. Shouldn’t there be some check point where we the people get to decide if they are cutting the mustard? Listen, man was not created to work like a dog, but if for people to get their common sense knocked back into them? Maybe Congress feels they have to be taxed to death? I know that the whole idea of a Republic was to have the people vote to have their wants needs and desires presented in a ruling and governing body by whom they elect to represent them. Once again I call to question… who’s majority body ever said it was okay for those who represent us to raise their own salaries? Who gave Congress the ultimate in retirement plan without OUR consent? Can you say POWER GRAB?

When it’s this kind of selfish money grubbing thought process going on in our leadership, it’s no wonder our educational system is geared to keep the masses stupid. It’s no wonder the masses still keep thinking that voting for the party line that wants to provide more services for free cannot understand – SOMEONE has to pay for those services. Pareto’s Law (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) speaks to this very thing.

So, Final Question:

Can you define the word change?

What kind(s) of change do you want to see in your government?

Write them down, add more of them to your list as you think of more – but make sure you itemize the changes you want. Change for the sake of change is not good enough. I for one would like to know what I am buying. I’ll tell you what, if the government is stupid enough to pay $800 for a toilet seat and buy a hammer for $400 (See: http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/insane-government-spending/article32983.html) Then maybe, just maybe they should be shopping like you do? Perhaps they should shop at a discount warehouse too?

When your candidates for office speak, let these changes on your list, be your buzz words for understanding where you are in your thinking and see if the candidate is in alignment with your thinking too. Of course no one will be 100%. Shoot, I’ve been married to my best friend for 10 years and we still disagree all the time. It’s the 75 – 80% of the things we DO agree upon that make our marriage work. Common Sense Stuff right?