Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Sometimes, warning labels concern me.
I mean, who inspired the label on blow dryers that points out the device should not be used in the shower? And what would even be the point, barring electrocution? Why would you dry your hair while the water is spraying you?
And are there actually people who need to be cautioned not to light a candle until they remove it from the package?
Also, you know those plastic bags that hold clothing when you order it online? Who needs to be offered the sage advice that it’s not a good idea to put said bag over their head?
Maybe, with all of these warning labels
, we’re rendering Darwin’s principle of natural selection invalid.
Darwin’s hypothesis states that living organisms evolve by differential survival in a world with “Malthusian” overpopulation, in which only the fittest spread their genes into future generations. By fittest we mean best adapted to the prevailing environment, and by environment we mean both the living and the nonliving environment. (source)
Before the emails roll in telling me that I “don’t science,” I’m well aware that the theory of natural selection was about genetic changes that occur over a series of generations. However, the point remains that once upon a time, being stupid got you killed. And no one got sued. The person who couldn’t figure out that some ill-conceived idea was a bad one faced the consequences. If the consequences didn’t kill them, they learned not to do the stupid thing again, making them just a teeny bit smarter and more equipped to deal with the world. Some who believe our planet is overpopulated might even argue that the obsolescence of natural selection is the root cause of the people boom.
But now, we are coddled, cautioned, and warned out of needing to think for ourselves. Another evolutionary theory says that when some trait or characteristic goes unused, it disappears after a few generations. Sort of like those cave fish that don’t have any eyes, After multiple generations deep underground in the pitch black, their eye sockets are now empty. Perhaps after multiple generations without the need for critical thought and common sense, those in “civilized societies” are going to evolve into creatures with their own empty spots where something useful was previously.
Well, here’s a warning for this article:
“WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MIGHT MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE. Since common sense is rare to the point of almost being completely extinct, the sudden appearance of it might be a little shocking. Should shock occur, please sit down and put your head between your knees, inhale through your nose and out of your mouth slowly until heart rate returns to normal. Some exclusions apply, see store for details.” ~ Melissa Melton
Now, on to some warning labels that just shouldn’t need to be…
Here are some warning labels from actual products
. One must wonder about the origin of these warnings. Did they come up because someone in our litigious society actually sued a company because of an injury like the ones warned against?
- Do not ingest. ~ Lava lamp
- This formula may cause drowsiness, if affected do not operate heavy machinery or drive a vehicle. ~ Infant pain relief liquid
- Do not attempt to stop chain with hands. ~ Chainsaw
- Peel fruit from cellophane backing before eating. ~ Fruit By the Foot
- Product will be hot after heating. ~ Mark and Spencer’s Bread Pudding
- “Do not use orally.” ~ Toilet brush
- This is not a lifesaving device. ~ Beachball
- Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly. ~ Superhero cape from a Halloween costume
Good grief. So, when the SHTF, in the midst of a warning label-free disaster, what’s going to happen to all of the people who required these labels to survive?
I’ll tell you what’s going to happen to them. You’ll have people trying to open a can of peaches with a giant butcher knife, in the process nearly removing a digit. People who are accustomed to being nannied through every step of their days will be stymied by basic survival skills like sanitation, navigation (sans GPS), and the acquisition of safe drinking water.
When I was in Bosnia recently with Selco, I was in awe of the fact that they don’t have warning labels, guard rails, or any other protective things keeping stupid people alive. He got a good laugh from my shock over the fact that a scenic lookout had no railing to keep people from plunging to their deaths.
And then there’s technology, making folks dumber…
Dumbing us down, even more, is the dependence on technology.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a chronic Googler. If I don’t know some random bit of trivia, I’m that gal typing it into a search bar at the first opportunity. “Who was the first person to…Holy cow, Google. Why would you even…Just NO.” Anyhow, back to technology. As wonderful as it is to have a world of information in a handheld device, you still have to be able to think things through for yourself.
People have become so dependent on their navigation systems that reading a physical, honest-to-goodness-piece-of-paper map has become a lost art. Not only that, but some folks rely more on their GPS than their common sense, sort of like these tourists who drove right into the Pacific Ocean because the nav system told them to.
And what about situational awareness?
That’s another skill that seems to have gone the way of the dodo. Have you ever seen a person walking down the street so engrossed in texting that they don’t even see an obstacle in their path? Sort of like this woman and the giant fountain?
What if the situation was more dangerous than falling into a giant fountain? What if you were busy texting and there was an armed robbery and you walked right into the middle of it? What if your eyes were glued to the screen and there was some unexpected wild animal, like, I dunno, a bear?
Because…that actually happened.
Self-reliance is being bred out of society
It’s fun to laugh at these examples of life in today’s America, but there’s an underlying note of impending tragedy.
With all of this constant nannying, we have a society of giant toddlers. It isn’t really their fault. They’ve become accustomed to a society in which people never have to think. They don’t have to produce food, deal with injuries, or even work for a living. Heat is the turn of a dial, entertainment doesn’t require reading skills, and products get thrown away instead of repaired. People don’t learn to predict impending danger by thinking the scenario through, and when danger does occur, they wait for heroes instead of rescuing themselves. They don’t even have to hear unpleasant things, because they can just say the magical incantation, “I’m offended” and the offensive unpleasantness is summarily banned and made illegal.
The coddling makes it even more difficult for the overprotected to accept it when something bad happens. Acceptance is the first step of surviving any disaster. I have written about the 3 steps of survival, and those steps are completely foreign to many of today’s general public.
To me, the pinnacle of preparedness is a way of thinking about pretty much everything you encounter. It’s a unique way of looking at a situation, assessing the options, and acting that defines the prepper mindset. Think about any stressful situation that has ever happened to you. Once you accepted the fact that it had happened you were able to set a course of action. Once you had definitive steps to take, you probably felt much calmer. You took control of the things you could, and you executed your plan. Only by taking that first step – accepting that this mishap had indeed occurred – could you take the next two.
Of course, a bunch of dependent dumb people are a whole lot easier to control than the critical thinkers who rely on themselves instead of Papa Government.
The difference here is pretty clear. Some of us are deliberate in our day-to-day actions, mindful of our surroundings, and possess a sensible, problem-solution mindset. But we’re in the minority. We have to face it: a survival mentality is now an anomaly. It’s all but obsolete.
We, the sturdy, practical, self-reliant folks are the mutant minority
This deeply touched me. Raised self reliant, strong, old now, i watched it happen, watched the social planners destroy a nation, you said much here, too much for this old man to reply to, hurts bad.
The only light I see, is people like you, who see it, and reach out to help others to understand.
Life, the world, has changed so dramatically, in the past 10 years, its truly an epic time in history, a change that for myself, and most I know, cannot adjust to. You made a real point with this article. Thank you for writing it.
Re: “Self-reliance is being bred out of society”
I fully believe this is intentional. The change in mindset is to weaken the American public, so complete Agenda 21 can be fully implemented.
The great majority of those who strive to be self-reliant also support and value freedom.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Ronald Reagan
I bought a papershredder: it had logos on it depicting what NOT to shred. One of the logos featured a baby.
Oh, I’m so glad they warned me beforehand! I was just about to put a baby through the shredder and then put it in a box for more compact transport, but I guess this is a no-no then?
Hahahahahaha…..I nearly fell out of my chair over here laughing at this! 🙂
In your final sentence, you used the word “mutant”… is that a reference to “x-men” where “they” are always trying to silence, capture, and try to make the mutants out to be the “bad guys”? I have thought that before when watching those movies… that “mutant” refers to anyone that “they” don’t like.
It will be those of us who DO think for ourselves, that DO produce food for ourselves, that CAN and DO fix things that are broken, that DO NOT need uncle nanny to tell us what and what not to do that WILL BE CONSIDERED MUTANTS AND TROUBLEMAKERS! And what do governments do with troublemakers? Yes, they round them up and put them somewhere that they can not make noise about what is going on. In the end here, it would be best not to advertise that you are doing things for yourself and do not need help, or you could find yourself in a “re-education” camp!
There’s another background phenomenon in play here that needs mentioning. Decades ago before the rise of our “litigious society” became a nearly everywhere thing, warning labels on products were generally minimal, and usually limited to hazards unlikely to be obvious to newbies. Even then, home shop machinery (like table saws, wood lathes, drill presses, etc) didn’t come with warnings to remove your wristwatches, rings and long sleeves so you didn’t risk losing your attached body parts. Such advice was usually passed along from more experienced users — as happened in the machine shops I worked in long ago.
So what changed? The gaping hole in our legal court system was, and still is, the lack of any serious penalty for filing some incredibly stupid lawsuit, even if you lose. There is no “loser pays” penalty, although I’ve heard that it is a common penalty in other countries’ legal systems. That in combination with law schools graduating armies of new lawyers hungry for bill-paying court cases resulted in an ongoing explosion of court cases. It also resulted in another explosion of goofy warning labels that I strongly suspect were written by other lawyers hoping that in possible court cases not yet filed against their client companies, such labels would provide some defenses that “our clients did everything possible to warn your stupid plaintiff not to stick his/her relevant body part in the dangerous area of the thingie that my client company sold, rented, manufactured, or even recommended — even if your plaintiff was too dumb to be using such a thingie in the first place.”
–Lewis
agreed. this whole trend started when the legal profession realized how rich they could get filing “nuisance” lawsuits. and they kept filing them until judges gave up and started allowing these lawsuits to be prosecuted. that opened the floodgates. but we don’t need to worry about the future of the species, because eventually some global disaster will kill off most of us, hopefully leaving a sustainable human population of reasonably intelligent specimens. clearly, we aren’t going to bother with preventing global warming, so that’ll do it even if nothing else gets us first.
In a related area, skills, my daughter told me recently that I never had to worry about anybody stealing my car. Why, I asked. Because it has a stick shift!! Most young people never even heard of such a thing!! LOLOL
Ditto. Matter of fact, I have no intention of every giving mine up (pushing 250K miles). Last I heard, only 15% of the population could drive a manual transmission.
Bob,
I am 25 and I don’t know anyone who drives stick. I know how to drive a tractor, so I could probably figure it out but like you said, most of us don’t know!!
Ever noticed that on most pills, OTC or prescription it says “take by mouth”?
I used to work for a doctor. I asked him about this once and he said people were basically stupid and if they had medicine for say, an ear ache, some of them would put the pill in their ear.
If Darwin is weeping, some of us are weeping for the future.,
This is called…. a special kind of stupid people who need these kind of labels. Honestly, I wonder everyday where common sense has gone. It’s hard to be found.
There are two things that are infinite … the universe and human stupidity … and I’m not sure about the universe.
That was an interesting article. Some of us are really that stupid. For example, I’m quite grateful for cooking instructions that end with, “Serve and enjoy”. I’m so afraid I’ll forget that part.
My granddaughter’s curling iron warned not to use while sleeping! This article was spot on & I still resist GPS. For pity’s sake people, teach your children & grandchildren! And is it wrong of me that I laughed my a** off at the lady falling into the fountain?
I’m probably gonna get blasted for what I’m about to say, but here goes. My opinion only. I believe that a lot of this is because the parents haven’t made their children accountable for their actions. Children these days are past rude. Their parents don’t know where they are or what they are doing, and with whom. I believe some common sense has to be taught, some has to be learned.
People have sued because the coffee they bought spilled on them and burned them. So, they had to put a label on the cup that hot coffee is hot? And this was an older person who did this? It seems to me that people are dummying down instead of getting smarter and learning from experience, and from others. Remember this is just MY opinion.
I agree. Have you seen the video of the teenagers trying to use a rotary phone
There is the old saw: Common sense is so rare it’s like a super power.
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Here is a little parable:
THE DEATH OF COMMON SENSE
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
– Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
– Why the early bird gets the worm;
– Life isn’t always fair;
– And maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student, but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death:
– by his parents, Truth and Trust,
– by his wife, Discretion,
– by his daughter, Responsibility,
– and by his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers:
– I Know My Rights
– I Want It Now
– Someone Else Is To Blame
– I’m A Victim
– Pay me for Doing Nothing
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
.
Unfortunately, I don’t know who the original author is.
If I remember right, this was written by a teacher. I think we can add The Education System to the list of culprits that have caused the demise of Common Sense. And, if I may also add, The Mainstream Media. Those two add more to the conspiracy feel of our loss. Peeps have learned to lie through their teeth to avoid the penalties of their own stupidity. That’s a negative adaptation. Most all mutations are deathly negative and calamitous. Time to re-examine our basic premises for existence if our mutations aren’t working for us.. Life is a choice after all.
Whoa!
You said. or quoted, “Life isn’t always fair”
I know of some who’s heads would explode, or they would run screaming for their safe space!
Years ago I bought a blow dryer which came with the warning “Do not use while sleeping.” Right up there for moronic!
I think your correct about a growing lack of common sense in our society today… but to somehow tie it to Darwin’s theory of evolution is more than a stretch. I appreciate your attempt to make gullibile people who believe everything they hear on the MSM, somehow not responsible for their own actions….but evolution doesn’t work that way.
With more understanding of how complicated DNA and genetics work…of late, more and more scientists are refuting most of Darwin’s theories.
No…it’s not “evolution” that somehow creates humans who lack common sense. It is the endless barrage of liberal politicians and their shotgun riding media, who scare people into believing a whole lot of stuff we can’t change…..and at the same time, telling us lies about things they insist we must change.
Darwin might be rolling in his grave…but it’s probably because his theories on evolution were mostly b.s.. Much like the new junk science of Climate Change…..The globalists and the news media have embraced these lies so they can better control and dumb down citizens.
Long ago an assistant minister of our church had a sign in his office that said: Stupid is supposed to hurt.
or my favorite …. “life is tough …. it’s tougher if you’re stupid!”
Watch the movie, “Idiocracy” if you can find it. We found it available at our library. The premise is that what passes for average intelligence will be viewed as genius in the future assuming things keep progressing as they are. Enjoy, and spread the word.
Upgrayedd gonna get his money!
I was a middle school teacher for 12 years before becoming a stay at home mom. A veteran colleague of mine always said “We have a front row seat to see the end of society.” Don’t get me wrong, I had amazing, hardworking and good students and parents…. but many who weren’t. I learned a lot about the person and parent I strive to be. I resist technology (e.g. social media, Alexa) and embrace and implement old school “everything” (from values to teaching materials and real toys!). It’s hard to find like-minded 30 something parents. Thankfully we have two great sets of friends who share the same principles. We are in the minority and I’m okay with that.
Dear Mouse, I’m sure you’ll find more like-mindeds. My DH taught middle school science in southeast LA for 30 years. It’s the reason we homeschooled. 🙂 Now our 30-something DILs are catching on and beginning to homeschool– what they swore they’d never do. There’s what DH calls a school-brain that comes from kids with a mixed up homelife bringing their neglected dysfunction to school where it combines with their mates who are as equally foolish. It’s why the DH said, “Our children will not set foot in a public classroom.” (college worked out fine) I understand how teachers are just plain worn out trying to navigate the lunacy and get some learning into such hard noggins. Oh, the manipulations and the mind games are just unreal!
Debbers
Thank you for the encouragement Debbers! I completely understand your husband’s perspective (God bless him for 30 years of teaching!) and why your family homeschools. I am terrible at math so I feel like my daughter would be doomed in that subject! And science too lol
The less “qualified” you are to home school, the more important it is that you do it. The HSLDF Home School Legal Defense Fund shows that public school academic achievement tests correlate closely with parents’ academic achievement, but most home schoolers scored around the 80th percentile regardless. Also “he who teaches learns twice,” so if you’re bad at math, you will finally get it when you home school and the whole family will be better off.
How many people have died from falling into the Grand Canyon, trying to get that perfect selfie?
Just a few more for the Darwin awards.
A related problem IMO is the overegulation of business. There are some seriously stupid rules out there that businesses have to comply with or be fined heavily. If something happens accidentally once per decade, there is no reason to have all kinds of rules and placards required, et cetera, et cetera. The word accident exists for a reason. Not everything can be regulated into non-existence.
About 25 years ago I bought a can of paint that was labelled ” Do not drink paint”. Good thing I read that or I might not have been able to paint my garage.
This is all part of evolution and you should not be concerned, what is happening is suppose to happen and couldn’t happen any other way. Warning labels are generally created in response to a claim (financial pain). So yes, most of the stupid warning labels are actually in response to real events. The phrase “Make something idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.” Evolution does not work in the way we think and so we endlessly get it wrong. Darwin did after all only propose a “theory” although many believe it to be fact.
The rise of agriculture 10,000 years ago created the first society in humans. Prior to that, there was no society and no money system. Agriculture allowed us to leverage effort 10 fold which then meant not everyone was necessary in the quest for survival. The devil makes work for idle hands. With the rise of effciency in agriculture and society meant that less and less people are needed in subsistence and therefore these “idle” people became the Land owners, Master and Lords. Evil and disharmony has grown in humans since with our population numbers swelling to uncontrollable and unsustainable levels. But the Masters need their slaves (God forbid that otherwise they would have to do their own work).
The system is fundamentally broken, humans are the only animal to work completely against Nature and the natural world and only what comes next can help both the Planet and Human beings as a whole. If everyone woke up to this, and stopped being SELFISH (putting themselves before others) then the whole problem would stop. Unfortunately, we are all getting more selfish not less selfish and so the damage continues.
Stop trying to save the world by changing things outside yourself or changing others, instead change the only thing you have control over – Your Self ! If you are unselfishly loving, the world will change by itself. Freedom comes from the inside, not the outside – ask Nelson Mandela
Educate yourself – in love, Children of the Law of One (CLO)
Fab article and yes, it boggles the mind some of the stupidity that goes on. As someone commented, common sense is now so rare it can be considered a super power
Daisy, I really really enjoyed that … but it’s not nice to make fun of the majority. (SARC)
Your pop up add every 15 seconds was really annoying
Thank you for letting me know – we only have on pop-up and it should disappear when you click the x in the upper right-hand corner. We’ll check it out and see what’s wrong.
I got a telescope that had a sticker that came with it, that said not to look at the sun with it. The instruction manual said to put the sticker on it. I didn’t, I don’t think anyone is that frickin’ stupid.
NOT relying on those who claim to own you is deeply offensive to them. The psychopathic government won’t let you opt out of anything they have planned for you.
HA! I still laugh over my windshield cover which reads
“before driving, DO NOT drive with it on your windshield”
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, from the days of Usenet w-a-y back in the 1980’s, the Darwin Awards:
https://darwinawards.com
!
i think I might know some of these winners.
One of Bill Engvall’s first stand up routines was about there should be a sign for stupid people so you didn’t waste too much time with them. “I took Preparation H orally. I still got hemorrhoids but now my mouth is real small. Here’s Your Sign.” https://youtu.be/-iUqydOeWFA?t=110
what a pretty essay . full of truth i enjoy