Don't You Have Common Sense?

-


Trevor Noah, and producers of The Daily Show sometimes take cameras to the street and ask voters about the state of America and why they will vote for this candidate and not the other one.

Some answers are funny. Others ridiculous, but what lingers in one’s mind is the sadness, that during elections, people voluntarily surrender common sense.

Common sense is how mothers bring up kids. Don’t touch the kettle or heater with wet hands. Electricity will zap you. Look left or right before you cross the road. Wash your hands before you touch that hamburger.

Kids grow up and they embrace common sense. They even threaten younger brothers and sisters: I’ll tell Mom you didn’t brush your teeth.

Therefore, it is baffling when adult voters over 25 years have no common sense, when it comes to voting, a process that might find their sons and daughters in another part of the world, guns and drones ablaze fighting TikTok creators.

Common sense is embalmed. That is why politicians on the campaign trail make Asia the enemy, when capitalism in Canada and the U.S. have profit-driven laws that send manufacturing jobs to China and other parts of Asia.

Common sense is embalmed when candidates for the White House use race as a problem. Blacks are out there to get you, when African Americans are fighting for the basic right to be alive, in the so-called greatest country in the world, and not shot in the back by what the police did to Jacob Blake, end of August 2020.

It is an issue because there are no records of white men shot in the back by the police, or shot because police thought they were going to commit crimes, by the nature of their whiteness.

Because common sense is embalmed, on hold, candidates always convince voters that Americans should vote against each other, and not against capitalism, that has made them lose their homes to live in trailer parks and sons and daughters forced to join the army to keep the family home.

The ‘22 U.S. Mid-terms are coming. Will common sense prevail?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

-
Image
Forget democracy.   It should be called political bullying. We are watching it in the prelude to the Canadian election on the 19 th of October, 2015.   Americans have also started their political bullying for the looming presidential election next year. So many trees wasted on books about democracy.   Some countries have big budgets for invading other countries ‘ to defend democracy’ but it is seldom practised in campaigning for elections.   Calling opponents names and printing flyers attacking each other is behaviour that will not be tolerated in kindergarten, but it is all legal, in campaigning.   It is irritating and such a let-down to the whole notion of democracy.   Grown-up men and women behaving like Grade One kids. It is also misleading because many voters believe it is real hatred.   Don’t let that fool you.   These politicians play golf together, attend the same dinner parties, eat and drink at the same social events, share jokes and cut deals in parliament.   They
Read more

Comfort Food As Regret Food

-
Image
Chicken curry. Comfort food is good for the soul, which usually bleeds in winter from icy roads, bad drivers that want to annihilate pedestrians, frozen fingers and toes that take a sabbatical.   What happened to my toes?   I thought I was wearing special socks for boots? We therefore have a right to comfort food which throws doctors’ orders out of the window and has no loyalty to calories.   No calculator on the table, thanks very much.   Piece of bread 5 calories, half a banana 10 calories, sugar-free cheesecake 2,000 calories.   Ah! Ah!  We only live once. Naw!   Comfort food is old school food with its compulsory second helping.   It involves licking fingers and giving a big sigh, about the good life, which is shelter, food, love and debt.   The problem is the zip.   The jeans remind you that comfort food can also be called you will regret food .   Home sweet home is even sweeter in winter after surviving blowing snow and bumper to bumper traffic. What is more welcoming th
Read more

No Air Miles

-
Image
I don’t have Air Miles.   I’m considering putting that on a T-Shirt because I cannot go to the drugstore (chemist) or coffee shop without the cashier asking me if I have air miles. We waited for about two minutes the other day, while this guy looked for his Air Miles card in his overweight wallet.   For what?   For a few points. I don’t have air miles because Mathematics is a foreign language.   I was never good in numbers. That is why I squashed the idea of being an investment banker very early in life.   I understand you can invest in cornfields before the soil is turned up or pork bellies even before a baby pig is born. That is how I view air miles, investing in tomorrow or the unknown.   I’m the dumb one.   Some people understand this air miles’ thing so well, I overheard one customer saying: I can even convert my points into cash. Points and air miles are the same thing in Canada and the U.S.   Drugstores or clothing stores even give you a card to collect point
Read more