“…Common sense is nothing more than the voices of the thousands and thousands of ghosts of our past.”
I have paraphrased this from Robert Pirsig’s book ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’. If this is indeed the case, then it appears a lot of people either no longer believe in ghosts or have some how become deaf to these voices. Common sense, along with personal responsibility, good manners and even grace under pressure all appear to be rare and perhaps even endangered characteristics these days. But why has this happened? Is it the desperate struggle to accumulate material possessions or the struggle to maintain sanity in the face of a seemingly endless barrage of temptations? Is it because we live in large, crowded and noisy cities because this is where the work we do can be found? Is it because television provides an endless supply of programming featuring egocentric people getting away with the sort of things our parents would have been horrified about?
I don’t have any answers, just a lot more questions. Some will come back here and undoubtedly say it is ‘the erosion of Christian values’, to which I will say right off the bat – don’t bother. I don’t believe this to be the case. If it were the case, then Australia would have a lot more problems than we do as we have a large multi-cultural, multi-religious population. I don’t doubt the problem is complex. I have a healthy layman’s interest in Sociology and a small understanding of how this affects humanity. I also believe I can still hear the 'ghosts' from my past, therefore I do have a modicum of common sense about the things I do and the way I live my life. I’m just hoping some else out there might give me some insight. Anyone?