Celebrate Use Your Common Sense Day Every November 4
It was Will Rogers who said “Common sense ain’t that common.” And 128 years after that talented man’s birth, it was Bud Bilanich who created Use Your Common Sense Day.
Why did he feel the need for a day to encourage the use of common sense?
Because even people who should know better tend to do things that defy common sense. Which then leads to product warnings like these he posted a few years ago in honor of the day:
- “Do not use for drying pets.” The product? A microwave oven.
- “Caution: Remove infant before folding for storage.” The product? A portable stroller.
- “Caution: Hot beverages are hot!” Printed on a coffee cup.
His post contains lots more gems. Seriously. Did you know hammers “May be harmful if swallowed.”? Go check them out!
He chose November 4 for the celebration because that’s Will Rogers’ birthday.
Of course, people have been talking about common sense for hundreds of years, at least. For example, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet in 1776 outlining why the 13 colonies should be independent from Britain. He called it Common Sense.
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this unofficial holiday.
How to Celebrate Use Your Common Sense Day
This is a simple one: Use your common sense as you go through your day.
You’ll notice that the day assumes you do have common sense. Mr. Bilanich wants you to actually use it.
In his post announcing the creation of the day, he says he would change Will Rogers’ quote slightly to be “applied common sense ain’t all that common”.
And he’s probably right. For example, we all know texting while driving is a bad idea. People die when they’re paying attention to their texts instead of the road. But people keep doing it. Because they don’t think it’ll happen to them. Or they’re in a hurry and pulling over to text is inconvenient.
Other things that common sense tells us we shouldn’t do, but we sometimes do anyway:
- Step on the gas to get over the train tracks as the gates are coming down.
- Even worse, drive around already down gates because we don’t see the train (or it looks too far away to be dangerous).
- Remove the safety guard or other safety feature from our power tools.
See if you can find more ridiculous product warnings on things you own. If you do, share!
And shake your head when you realize the reason for those warnings is often that someone actually did that at least once!
Really!
See what sociologist Duncan J. Watts has to say about the failure of common sense in Everything is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us.
Show off your disillusionment with the lack of common sense with this Common Sense is So Rare These Days T-shirt. It says it all!
And finally, vow to use your common sense all 365 days of the year, instead of just one.
Do you have any other ideas for celebrating Use Your Common Sense Day?
[…] Use Your Common Sense Day: Do you have common sense? We sure hope so! We also hope you use it more than once a year. […]
[…] Use Your Common Sense Day: We know our readers have common sense (right?). But having it and using it aren’t always the same thing. We all have those days! But not on Nov. 4. On this day we actually use our common sense & avoid doing boneheaded things (like swallowing hammers …). […]