Common Sense

As Ben Levin once said in an article, “one person’s prejudice is another person’s common sense.”

On the surface, common sense is reasonable and steady, not hysterical and impulsive. It rebels against self-delusion whether by willful ignorance or hypertrophied complication. It chooses ease over hardship, and effort over ease when effort is rewarded. It pretends to be intelligent without being intellectual. Passing itself off as neutral and temperate, neither fevered nor austere, bright not shiny, modest, not vain. Common sense asserts itself with such a rapid absence of ambiguity and thoroughness, destroying any patently ridiculous notions of complexity. It depicts the views of the Right as neutral and natural, while opposing positions are constructed as ‘political,’ defective, and contrary to common sense.

Common sense can be a paradox, though. On the one hand, a positive conception is common sense as the cultural knowledge of the community; community wisdom. On the other hand, common sense is over-simplification, a distorted vision, or at worst, false consciousness of how things are. It can keep power in the hands of those with the “right” knowledge, the “right” solutions, the Right solutions. Don’t think critically, people, be practical, use your common sense. Don’t ever, ever make the mistake of over-thinking things. Don’t argue – you can’t argue with common sense.

“So, if everyone gets a good education, the country will prosper, right?” Harpo the dog asked Humphrey.

This happened to be of Humphrey’s favorite common sense myths.

“Harpo, that is the logic behind a lot of policies, like the new Race to the Top in the United States!” Humphrey responded.

“Yes,” Harpo replied, eyes as wide as saucers. “And that policy was made up by very smart people!”

“You’d think so,” said Humphrey with a smirk. “But what if everybody in Toronto went out and got an MBA?”

Harpo cocked his head in thought. “That would be great, Humphrey! Then we’d be the most prosperous city ever!”

“But Harpo,” Humphrey asked. “Who would give us a groom? Who check our blood for heartworms every year? Who would make us our vente skinny lattes (hold the espresso) at Starbucks?”

Harpo cocked his head to the other side, and scratches his chin. “People?”

“What people?”

“Well, I suppose the people with the MBAs?” Harpo asked.

Humphrey smiled a wide smile. He exposed the theodicy of a certain brand of common sense. The poor are poor because they didn’t make the right choice, or even more simply, that’s just the way the egg rolls. But it’s not the natural order of things – it’s the world people created, the one that they perpetuate, reproduce, year after year, generation after generation. Humphrey knew that some people had to remain poor so that dogs like him could afford his vente skinny latte (hold the espresso).

Media, reality, or chemicals?

Humphrey believes he may have experienced something that felt like an acid trip this evening. He's unsure if the media is filled with distortions, reality has gone wrong, or if there was something in his salmon.
"Area residents find live snakes in the toilets!" announced the local news, with disturbing video (Humphrey paraphrased). More than one! In different places! He put on his Groucho Marx disguise and lied down in despair, hoping that runaway snakes would not make their way westbound to his toilet.

He quickly changed the channel, feeling mildly freaked out.
"So there will be full employment for R2-D2 and for the Transformers, but the total number of jobs here, very speculative," said the man in the suit on CNN, who turned out to be Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Congress was talking about an Arizona mine.
Humphrey shook his head rapidly and tapped his ear. Was he really hearing this? Robots taking away jobs? This is worse than snakes!
Sadly, yes. That was precisely what he heard.
Now, he can only hope that reruns of the Big Bang Theory will start soon so he can regain his mental stability.

Finally, a sunny day!

Humphrey had a great day playing with Trooper, Pacey, Bijoux, and Keelo.

Not to mention Prince!

What should Humph be for Hallowe'en?

Humphrey is still trying to figure out the ideal costume for 2011, and he has yet to find a Guy Faulkes mask to fit his face. In the mean time, here are a few possibilities:

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Humphrey is thankful for so many things! Among them are...

....a Thanksgiving table with dishes designed by Barbara Barry and set in his honor
...then filled with braised prime rib, vegtables, crab cakes and pumpkin pie! Yum!



....a pack that loves him very much...

....every evening that ends with apples and toros...



...fantastic weather this holidy weekend....

....and all of his friends who bring him such joy every day of his life!
Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

A visit with Keelo

Humphrey was so grateful for his recent playdate with Keelo that it inspired him to do a look-a-like (which doesn't include the obvious similarity to Disney dog Bolt). Here are some highlights from their time together...

Keelo?

Humphrey!



I missed you, man!

Hey, what do you think you're doing???

Agghhh! Catch me if you can!

So much pawlitics to discuss this week!

Humphrey has had a very busy week! Of course, Thursday's provincial election meant a great deal of attention to matters of representative democracy. The Liberals, as everyone knows by now, won for a third straight term, though this time as a minority government. Humphrey's sentiment? Rather indifferent.
Now, in our representative democracy, every vote counts....but...on Sesame Street, every Count votes (think about that for a second while Humphrey prepares his remarks).

This brings us to Humphrey's special interest this week: Occupy Sesame Street. Given recent statistics indicating that 1% of Monsters consume 99% of cookies, Humphrey could not be more concerned about matters of carbohydrate distribution. He recognizes, of course, that he is among only 1% of dogs that consume 99% of Cheerios alloted to dogs, and that this may be equally unjust. So, a number of muppets have allegedly occupied Sesame Street to protest, though they've received little mainstream media coverage. Humphrey wanted to take part, asking everyone he met all week, "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"
Unfortunately, nobody offered a coherent answer, so he has not joined that protest.
In the mean time, he's also followed the media coverage about the copy-cat Wallstreet Occupation, and the impending other occupations of financial districts elsewhere.
To him, these occupations speak to the very sad absense of democracy (especially public forums for good discussion, and the civic skills to listen and learn). Obviously, the protesters are frustrated with several things. And obviously, the financial sector has a very different opinion about the matters at hand. But are they actually engaging in discourse? Are they making any effort whatsoever to give due consideration of the other's point of view?
Humphrey doesn't know for certain. But from his vantage point, it doesn't seem like any true civic discourse is happening.
He wishes that everyone would just invest in a book or two by Chantal Mouffe. The primary problem with a liberal democracy model, she writes,
…is its incapacity to come to terms with the nature of the political[i]. In one of its ver­sions, it reduces politics[ii] to the calculus of interests. Individuals are presented as rational actors moved by the search for the maximization of their self interest.
Mouffe asserts that “one of the main tasks of democracy consists in envisaging how it is possible to diffuse the tendencies to exclusion that are present in every construction of collective identities.” In Mouffe's ideal, which she calls agonistic democracy, everyone would just chill out and listen to one another. Talking is NOT persuading, listing is NOT blindly accepting. The idea is to come to an understanding of where the other person is coming from, and agreeing to disagree, but coming to compromise. Mouffe, interestingly, believes that consensus is just NOT possible for many public issues, so temporary compromise is the best we can hope for.
Humphrey has too much to read to get into the details of how these sorts of agonistic modes of communication would actually happen, but suffice to say they involve ground rules and civic skills. Humphrey learned the most about this via Simona Goi's published research in which she tested out agonistic communication among people on opposite sides of devisive issues, and it seems to work.
Now, he must seek out cookies before any elitist Monsters get their hands on them.

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[i] Mouffe defines the political as “the dimension of antagonism that is inherent in human relations”

[ii] Politics “consists in domesticating hostility and in trying to defuse the potential antagonism that exists in human relations”

They know how to throw a party in Massachusetts

Humphrey's Massachusetts poodle friends Teddie, Gibbie and Robbie routinely send him photos of their celebrations, and he has concluded that there ain't no party like a MA party! He looks longingly, wondering when he'll have a chance to wear a fabulous hat and frollick on the lawn near a giant cake.

Humph's Yankee Friend Lyric

Humphrey was delighted to receive this great look-a-like from his virtual friend Lyric.