Safety in our world today has now taken the place of rational problem solving thought.
I personally do not like the term “Common Sense”. the reason I do not is because common sense is a real thing that is part of us, it is part of our upbringing, how we were raised, what walk of life raised us, who our Parents where. Common Sense Ain’t Common. A dairy farmers kid is raised very differently from an Accountants kid. Different life, different exposures, different social groups. So how they were raised, what they were exposed to, is a very different thing. Therefore those two kids “Common Sense” is very different.
A dairy farmer as a parent may place more emphasis on the work and mechanics of how the farm works on his children, and an Accountant may place more importance on liberal arts skills on their children. FACT. So therefore if those two children in the same grade, same school are best friends, and socialize, some of each other will rub off, their common sense, is still not the same, not unless they are best friends and spend most of their time together, and learn from each other. Common Sense is learned from mistakes. That good old fashioned teacher, that School Marm that has no forgiveness for stupidity. Her only philosophy, “Stupidity should be painful”.
Folks who actually do things for a living chuckle greatly and cringe at our safety governors. OSHA, MSHA, and et al. there are many. They help us so much and cost us countless manhours protecting ourselves from well bad judgement. Now do not take this as an indictment of those agencies. In the early years they did much for their stated causes. Currently that may be perceived differently.
Having been involved in Health and Safety in several companies, I have been attached at the hip to OSHA, MSHA, NDSC, RMSC, and a few others. I refuse to have anything to do with CALOSHA (they are off their lid).
There are several issues I have with honest, objective, and well thought safety. Here is OSHA’s safety tip for today: Safety tip for the day now I ask anyone reading. How the hell is this a safety tip? These are bureaucrats that have no damn idea how to change their own tire, and oil? Oh that’s evil, why do I need it in my car? OSHA actually cited itself, and collected a fine from itself for an improper scaffold at its HQ building.. Taxpayer dollars at work.
Safety in the workplace is in fact extremely important. Every single day we work, we, I want every hand to go home just as good or better then they showed up for work. Yes the old days of my trade are gone, the old work 12, drink 12, rinse and repeat are long gone, we have better standards now. But what we do not have is the teaching that went with it, or the objectivity. Stupid used to be handled abruptly. You got fired.
Now, one does not get fired because they are stupid. They bring a lawsuit, they win, and well a new level of stupid sticker and safety briefings are born.
If and I say If you cannot figure out that putting your hand in that spot when the tail gate is open, and your partner is closing it, that its going to be really painful, that Sticker is not going to save the pain. That sticker is however a requirement by that company because it happened.
All safety stickers, warnings and signs exist because well, someone somewhere did it, and won money in court over their being stupid. Go buy a curling iron for your lady, there will be a label on the cord that says “Do not insert into any bodily orifice”. Go buy a power chain saw, “Do not touch chain while moving”. These warnings exist not because of common sense, but because of stupid. Stupid is really the only way to put it.
Accidents on the job or in life do happen, but every single one of them has caused the over safety that now rules our lives. 129 Schools closed because of the hazard presented by the recent solar eclipse. So stupid, what a great learning event that proposed. Solar Eclipse USA Today had a whole thing on how not to harm your kid.
At what point do we go back to “learning the hard way”? At what point do we as folks learn from our own mistakes and stop crying because we are in fact stupid? At what point do we accept the fact we really need to hold people accountable for their own stupidity so all of the rest of us that can walk and chew gum at the same time never have to read a sticker like this:
Caution to readers: This article may make you laugh. Stupid should be painful.
That is all.
Spud.
None of that addresses morality or the depth of the gene pool