common sense

Not. Your. Competence.

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Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

– John F. Kennedy

I’ve always liked talking about common sense.  It’s a rare commodity with many people who feel that they can open their mouth to make a comment on a topic they have very little knowledge about.  Common sense, is like a deodorant.  The people who need it most never use it.  And the buffoons who follow these walking mouthpiece of trash? Well, let’s keep it simple – no greater fool than the fool that was fooled by a fool.

It is most tempting to call out people who don’t even know what they’re talking about but have this feeling of entitlement as being experts.  The field of law and medicine, for example, require the most stringent of expertise in order to practice the field.  You cannot even be called an attorney or doctor (of medicine) without the necessary degree and passing the bar/board exam.  Even with these degrees, one cannot generally claim to be the overall expert in a subspecialty field.  In law, for example, the competence of your lawyers will vary depending on their expertise. Taxation, corporate, criminal family,  international law, labor law, etc.  That’s how cases are won.  You get the best.  It’s the same in medicine.  Not everyone can induct anaesthesia.  Not everyone can remove a mass from your breast.  Not everyone is an infectious diseases expert.  Not everyone can perform a heart transplant.  You need to get the best if you want to increase your chances of survival from diseases.

The similarity between the two is that getting the best may be costly. Regardless of our status in life, unfortunately there is a price to pay for getting the best. Unless there are those that are providing their services for free – like free legal aid or free consultation and expert opinions from those that are the best in their profession. The truth is, life’s not fair.

And being at the bottom of the totem pole has its price as well.

So when someone who knows little, or sadly, nothing about medical science totally depends on hysteria or political agenda from a populist standpoint and sows disinformation on issues that he/she does not understand, no one benefits from the cavalcade of bad information.

The incompetent who pretend to know everything don’t understand that their lack of knowledge is damaging and dangerous. It is, tantamount to literally attempting to get away with a crime.

It’s bad enough that the less fortunate citizens are getting the raw end of the deal when incompetent people propagate bad science or laws. Instead of educating the masses into understanding their health or their rights, there are opportunists who utilize the ignorance of the many in order to stir a crowd. All because of personal gains.

Real leaders will always work at educating its people with the right information. As they say, “give a man fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him a lifetime.”

He who looks for advantage out of the gullible, strips out all nobility.

Common sense and logic

kidatheartLeave a comment

In my first year in college, one of our subject was Logic.  I recall my professor, Mrs. Estrella de Leon passionately going through the essentials of simple logic.

Logic after all is fundamental to how humans communicate.  Public debates, ways of reasoning are daily exercises that are shaped by the principles of logic. Mathematical background and symbolic methods are not prerequisites to symbolic logic.  All that is required is the brain in between your two ears in order to appreciate Argument and Critical Thinking.

Symbolic logic is the simplest form of logic and is a great time-saver in argumentation. It works on basic premises of common sense. It requires minor intuitive neuronal capacity for understanding. There is, after all, a scientific basis for something as basic as logic.

Basic logic, after all, is common sense.

Aristotle once said that

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Logic and common sense escapes many of us today.

From government officials to the trolls who have nothing better to do in life but leave vile useless, brainless comments. Or make inutile decisions that are tantamount to making stupid a daily exercise in judgement.

It is obvious that these oppressors are simply trying to silence the noise. But not everyone lacks logic or common sense. Balls and courage may be lacking but hopefully we find enough moral values that isn’t ready to sell our souls and integrity to the devil.

We all know where this is leading to. Because in politics today, common sense and logic just don’t go together.

Let’s not even try to argue the obvious fact that those who still embrace the way the government is being run have run out of the remaining common sense and logic they have left. If you feel alluded to, take a bow.

Good people don’t need laws to tell them to act responsibly, and bad people will always find a way around the laws.

– Plato