The Progressive Atrophy of Common Sense (part I)
One of the things that concerns me most in recent years is the complete lack of common sense displayed by the general public and the institutions that serve them. Many examples are available and whilst most seem to stem from the US and the religious right, for example, school text books in Texas are prohibited from containing the word 'imagine' because it looks very similar to the word 'magic' which of course is blasphemes. It is all to easy however, to put it all down to 'them stupid Americans'. It doesn't take long to find occurences of mindless stupidity in any country in the western world.
A lot of this stupidity is due to the juggernaut of political correctness. Take for example the small shop owner that had to fight off a £1000 fine for selling golliwogs.
Or the more recent example of Sydney Mcgee, people so afraid by nudity, the human body, that a respected teacher was removed from her position.
That's right, a respected and popular teacher took her 5th grade class to the Dallas Museum of Art. The children were exposed to nude art whilst on the trip... shocking. Following the complaints of one of the child's parents, Ms McGee was suspended.
The trip had been approved by the principle and the children were accompanied by 4 other teachers and 12 parents. Even so, she was called into the principles office after the complaint.
Later she received a memo from the principle stating:
"During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations."