The Common Sense Test

17OCT2008
Not long ago while working with a fellow Soldier reviewing a troubling choice of actions that caused undue delays in completing a task, he verbalized his analysis, “That doesn’t pass the common sense test.” His quick analysis didn’t require forming a committee or a board of inquiry, he didn’t possess a Ph.D. in physics nor did he pull out a big reference manual. He looked at the choice that was made by another, saw the obvious results that were staring us in the face and pronounced the only logical conclusion. It simply and unarguably did not pass the “The Common Sense Test.”
Now, I do not know who coined the phrase, “The Common Sense Test” and as far as I know it has been around for a long time. I know that in the nearly 40 years that I have been living in and out of military uniform I haven’t seen a course of study that produces certified evaluators of common sense. I haven’t found any online schools that offer to confer on their students this advanced intellectual accomplishment. I cannot find any list of college courses promising the student this acquisition of heightened intellectual powers. Still, some place in time someone found the simplest way to word the obvious without being afraid to put it out in the open and we have it now the phrase “The Common Sense Test.”
If “The Common Sense Test” would be used more often in Washington we wouldn’t have most of the problems we have in this world today. If “The Common Sense Test” was used by everybody on a daily basis people wouldn’t feel like they are living merely from crisis to crisis. It is pretty obvious when it hasn’t been used: Going in debt for something a person can’t afford, text messaging while driving, arguing about their rights all the while they are ignoring someone else’s, and a host of other problems that fail “The Common Sense Test.”
Common Sense can never be underrated or over used. Instill this basic ingredient of success into teenagers and they become productive adults. Develop it in parents and the children of the household gain a foundation for the future even when they make common sense errors. Require it of politicians and you can feel it across the whole nation!
You’ll have to admit that in time when common sense is lacking people see it. Someone can try to explain it away and argue about all the pros and cons of a project or action made without common sense, but even a child can see that something is lacking, something is missing. Call it what you will but when poor judgment is used in completing a task the analysis is always the same, “That doesn’t pass the common sense test.”
One of these days “The Reaper” is going to hand in his final report to Someone higher. The truth of the matter is that all the reasons and all the excuses for failing to apply “The Common Sense Test” will only add to the fire.
THE GRIMM REAPER REPORT © 17OCT2008
http://the-grimm-reaper-report.blogspot.com/