Common sense v book sense

Dad used to like to say that there were two kinds of sense-- common sense and book sense. Being a kid with a skull full of mush, I didn't quite get it. To me, there was intelligence or stupidity. There were smart people and idiots. But experience has taught me that the old man was right. My college education did little good for me, and I could have used what he called common sense.

Has anybody seen the academics that actually despise common sense? But what is common sense? For my own defintion, I'd say the difference between common sense and book sense is an academic that cannot tie his own shoes versus a blue collar guy who can fix anything. Hate to say this, but that is like the difference between myself and my oldest brother. He has "common sense". He can fix anything. He has a great reservoir of practical knowledge. He used that knowledge to make a good living for himself. But here I am, having to depend upon him because I don't have enough of that quality myself.

I don't want to short change myself too much. I recognize the problem. But I haven't been making much progress in overcoming the deficiency. One thing is certain. I cannot begin to match what he has accumulated over a lifetime, but I can stop being so much of an idiot about certain things.

Like for instance? Like setting up basic living quarters. I think I can set up a shelter out in the woods, but I cannot make a house that pass modern day building codes. Nor do I have the knowledge to navigate through the maze of regulations. But he has done that, and he is actually doing that now.

As for me, all I can do is watch and try to learn. But I've done that in fixing cars, but I don't do it very well. Not to short change myself too much, but I cannot begin to match what he does. He is really good at it. Me? Not so good. But I might get by with a little elbow grease and a lot of advice from a wiser head.

So what good is this blog? Well, if there's anything I do well is to see different sides of a problem. I take this on the micro scale, and extrapolate out to the macro scale. I'd say this country is being run by a bunch of people with their heads up their asses. I can see that better than even my brother can. Too many times, it seems, he goes along with things that are probably not the best. Maybe that is his common sense, but I think it is failing him a bit.

Trouble is, he won't listen to his little brother. I can't fix everything, but I do know a wee bit about how the big picture works. Things are FUBAR in this country right now. My brother knows it too, but he doesn't exactly listen to what I have to say about it.

On the macro scale, the "leadership" is like that too. They may know certain things, but they don't know everything. Consequently, somebody with a little common sense can run rings around them. I think that is what Trump is doing. A guy in real estate has more common sense than these clowns.

I may be right too in thinking it is intelligence. If they were half as smart as they thought they were, we'd be twice as much better off. That's why they should step aside. The "elites" are screwing up the world because they don't have any common sense, and also, they don't have the intelligence to understand that they don't.

I can see both sides of the fence. I know both, and have seen both. They are screwing up, and they'll take us all down with them if they aren't stopped. Now that is common sense.