Common Sense (or lack of it)
Reading the Independent on Monday, I was struck by a couple of items bizarre enough for me to wonder whether April 1st had been moved to mid-July and I just hadn’t heard. (You’re kidding me? Right?)
A stag party of young men, celebrating in an Alpine hut, discovered a snake (or it discovered them) and dared the would-be groom to lick the reptile on its scaley face. The snake had heard about this sort of behaviour and naturally objected in a forceful and direct manner. It bit the man, injecting enough venom into his tongue to spoil his celebration and interrupt the merrymaking with a spell in a hospital ward, being treated with anti-snakebite serum. He survived. I ask you, what idiot goes around licking snakes? Asps and adders are entitled to object when fondled by strangers. Cleopatra clasped an asp to her bosom attempting to end her life, and the asp obliged. Vipers aren’t fussy and Cleo’s breasts, though warm and soft, might have been a trifle smothering in the Egyptian climate. The asp just did what asps do. The bridegroom, on the other hand, appears to have been caught unawares by a creature determined to protect itself. If he was drunk, on drugs or just plain stupid that still wouldn’t have been an excuse. Common sense should have prevailed, and he wasn’t the only one present.
In rural Greece, I watched women working in the fields. They all wore knee high boots and they informed me it was to protect against snake bite. They had snake bite serum in the fridges too, even in remote areas. No lack of common sense there.
The last asp I saw was in Greece, near Kalmata. It emerged during a rainstorm from a friend’s under-house store room, where it had been quietly waiting for mice among the olive nets and old sanitary fittings and made its way from the partially flooded store across the driveway and into the olive grove. It was about twelve inches long, olive green, with an arrow shaped head. I watched it from the terrace, fascinated.
Common sense, however, told me to leave it alone, so I did, though I did warn the friend, who, because he has common sense, took extra care when entering the store and banged a stick hard on the ground outside to warn snakes, (who are deaf but respond to vibrations), so that they could make themselves scarce. Common sense.
Human without common sense is not so common, they full everywhere. Common sense is common but not common to common people. Nice piece guys
It’s a serious problem if person lack of common sense, you do things that’s rubbish and you think it makes sense. Common sense isn’t common at all.
The death of common sense makes a lot if things go wrong. This is because people are not willing to use their senses
This is such a bizarre tale. Indeed, common sense is not that common.
A wealth of common sense is required to be able to get through life. Unfortunately the bridegroom in the story didn’t seem to have much of it haha
In today’s world, people really do suffer a lack of common sense. Who in their right mind would even lick a snake?
It is stupid mistakes like these that see people cut their lives short. The bridegroom is lucky to have survived.
If this story is anything to go by, then clearly common sense is not so common. They is no excuse for wanting to lick a snake!
I think I read this story online too. It was simply the death of common sense.
People going out of their way to get in harm’s way just shows that common sense is not that common. What was that bridegroom even thinking?
Suffice to say, a wealth of common sense is something that guy that licked the snake wasn’t blessed with. It is unbelievable!!
The sheer number of people that have lack of common sense today is astounding. Sometimes I wonder whether as humanity we are moving forward or backwards.
Stupid mistakes often lead to stupid consequences. That bridegroom learnt that the hard way.
After reading the same story in The Guardian I have come to the conclusion that common sense is not so common. I mean, how else would you describe a sane man seeing it wise to try and lick a snake?