The loss of common-sense

As I was mountain biking yesterday, I passed a group of teenagers that were cycling in the same direction I was on the single trail. Two of them were stopped, blocking the trail, both standing at the same level and apparently didn't know what to do. They couldn't figure that one should have moved forward, stayed on one side so I could proceed unimpeded. I had to tell them what to do in order to break their apparent paralysis. It took for them a long time to process what I was asking and when they understood, they immediately executed what I had asked them to do and I was able to proceed.

This little story is just here to show that young people may be savvy, computer educated and enlightened, but they appear to lack in the most essential and vital skill: Common sense. This later skill should come intuitively but is disabled by a world of convenience that begins whenever kids are rolled a red carpet for whatever they choose to do, all the way to the “intuitive” commands on their smart-phone or computer.

Perhaps, this is also due to the progressive, yet total disconnection modern humans are experiencing from nature and the real, concrete world. Their lives is becoming more and more virtual and they're loosing their physical connection to the material. I should add the fact that kids are so much self-centered these day and that civility follows common-sense into the toilets but that would be a whole topic a discussion that we'll cover later...