Jim Auton: Professional Cynic #7 - You wanna live like you've got no common sense?

Jim Auton: Professional Cynic #7 – You wanna live like you’ve got no common sense?

Common sense. That’s an interesting couplet, isn’t it? Sense, that is common. Common as in prevalent, common as in its the person on the streets shared sense, that everyone recognises a familiar understanding.

So, in which case, the common sight from several weeks ago of queues snaking out of petrol station forecourts and down the road and over the horizon, that is a common sense of unified fuckwittery. Yes, some of those queuing were on fumes, some had one bar left on the dashboard, however, some were selfish, idiotic cunts.

Other examples of this variety of common sense are not wearing masks in shops and public transport and deciding not to have the vaccine because of “what they did read on the interweb, my phone told me not to get poison injected into me”. The idea that it is in some way against their human rights to be required to confirm negative tests, natural immunity or having had both jabs, to enter private property is quite laughable.

People don’t want to be told what to do, no nanny state, but they then listen to the media scaremongering and panic buy petrol. They listen to barely creditable “evidence” that Covid is a lie and it’s all a scam to quash our civil liberties but not actual medical evidence that the vaccine is safe and the best way to not get seriously ill.

We are now at a stage where the argument for lockdowns is being debated again. If you’re double jabbed, still taking sensible precautions and not pretending that everything is back to normal but feel we need to start living again, is this still the right approach? Yes, there are those more vulnerable that need to take care and not be reckless but the world needs to start turning again. Shutting everyone away because cases are rising isn’t going to fix everything. It obviously didn’t before. Most cases do not result in serious illness anymore and death are still comparatively low. Those hospitalised and dying are, in the majority, not double jabbed. Some of these are young people but some are those who have chosen to not have the vaccine.  On any given day over the past month, around 40,000 people have tested positive for Covid. That is 0.06% of the population of 67,220,000.

Then of course there is the pinnacle of ignorance over common sense. Brexit. The lemmings over the cliff approach to common sense. Because unfortunately, the majority of the common person voted to leave. Some may have for reasons other than slogans on a bus or “getting control of our laws and borders back” but no one knew for certain what would happen so surely common sense would be not to leave. It’s like trying to cut your toes nails with a scythe. It could work but you could also cut your foot off, and when the evidence is in favour of the latter it might be best to stick with those little scissors that maybe aren’t the best implement for the job but they get it done and you can stand up afterwards.

So, what is common sense? Protecting everyone temporarily and shutting up shop again? Trying to get back to a semblance of normality? Wearing a mask around people? Having the vaccine? Not panic buying patrol?

The unpopular opinion is that humans are naturally selfish and self-serving. They protect their own and generally don’t give a shit about anybody else. Of course, some good people help others, those who are selfless and kind, but that takes effort. To get off your arse and be charitable. That doesn’t appear to be human nature when they want to top up those extra couple of bars on their fuel meter or when they are asked to wear a mask in a restaurant.

It’s probably too late to save us now anyway, so just look after your own and fuck everyone else. Good luck everyone.

God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.