Lack of Common Sense: Ignorance or Stupidity

"Common sense is not so common." When Voltaire penned these words some 250 years ago I wonder what was going through his mind? Was he merely making a satirical comment of his time? Or was he thinking, as I am today, that it always has been true and forever will be?

So what is Common Sense? It is defined as sound practical sense. I take this to be basic stuff, that everyone should know, no matter how old you are or from whatever part of the world you live in. It's the stuff that is in our genes. It's our inherent knowledge, like we know if you drop something it will fall to the ground.

Next, let's define the other two words:
Ignorance - one who lacks knowledge.
Stupidity - one who is foolish.
One may, at first, assume they are both mean the same thing, but if you think about it they are really quite different. My view is that ignorance can be "fixed" through teaching and learning. While stupity, can afflict even the most brilliant of persons and is neither taught or learned, it simply is.

Before we look at people let's look at the plight of the hapless Dodo Bird. It's name is from the Portuguese word doudo, which means simpleton, halfwit or stupid person. So does this mean the Dodo was a stupid bird. Hardly, it had managed to survive for thousands of years on it's tiny island. But it's isolation in an environment free from natural predators caused it to loose it's most basic of common sense survival skills; to flee when faced with something unknown. The result was devasting. Had it been given sufficient time it may have learned this skill once more and been able to survive. But time was not on the Dodo's side so it became extinct in a few short years. It died from evolutionary ignorance. It didn't know that other things could and would kill it.

So now let us examine what usually happens to people who lack common sense. In todays world, not much. Maybe a lawsuit, a divorce, time in jail or a hospital, a demotion or being fired, but rarely does it end in death. A far cry from a million or so years ago. Then a lack of common sense would have likely meant you were something else's dinner. A fate not unlike that of the Dodo. A lack of common sense was a quick way to insure your genes were removed from the genome pool. We now give these individuals an award, a Darwin Award. Awarded each year, posthumously, to honor those who improve the species by accidently removing themselves from it.

Those who learned from others mistakes survived, at least long enough to pass their common sense genes along, or more aptly put, the genes that allow their offspring to learn to have common sense too. So in prehistoric times, common sense was one of our competitive advantages over the rest of the animal kingdom. It allowed us to move our way to the top of the food chain. So what happened? Why is it that we have seemingly lost this ability and yet remain atop the natural order of things?

We have become intelligent enough to allow us to become stupid. It didn't happen overnight. Like most things that involve evolution it has taken an awfully long time and has happened almost invisibly to most. Then along comes Voltaire, who states it like it's an obvious observation, and all people say is, he's being nothing but satirical. Yet, sadly, it is still the truth.

I don't dispute there are ignorant people out there, but almost everyone on the planet knows that if they jump from the roof of a two storey building, roughly 3 meters, they are likely going to get hurt or possibly even die. So why do people do it? Are these people who lack common sense ignorant or stupid?

I would have to say they are simply stupid. The truly stupid person ignores the danger and continues on their path of self destruction to whatever end that may take them. What is usually the last thing a stupid person says before they die?
"Betcha never seen anyone do this before!"
Sadly, they never live long enough to know if they won that bet. And hopefully, for the sake of all of humanity, they have not had the chance to procreate either.