After one hundred “Views,” many readers have asked how it is possible to come up with a different topic each month. There is a simple answer and it arises from five things we take for granted until we lose one. I mean our senses of Touch, Taste, Smell, Sound and Sight.
These physical senses allow us to make sense of the world and it follows that the wider their inputs, the greater the chance that our outputs will be common-sense. Sensory inputs create electric currents and bubbling chemistry in the brain, and it is this that gives us lots of things to discuss in View from the Pew. So! As Sergei the TV Meerkat says, “Simple.”
But… Control of the brain can be lost and simple common-sense with it. Drugs can do it, even emotions such as anger and jealousy can do it. Control can also go when a crowd gets frenzied, and the Nuremburg rallies are examples of ordinary people going wild. It seems then that Common-Sense is a result of inputs from our five senses, plus filling our heads with good emotions not negative ones.
Although we Brits seem less susceptible to crowd-frenzy than most, we are still influenced by TV and Radio. And, as this is staffed by people who are selected from a narrow cohort of society, they manage to excite or exasperate us with topics that fit in with their own view of the world.
This is illustrated by the BBC’s choice of ‘experts’ with their diet of miserable prophecies of doom which, unless we do as we are told, will cause Floods, Droughts, Plagues and Pestilence. According to them, the world is a frightening place running out of everything.
I reckon they also think the planet is running out of its stock of ‘dire threats’ because why else would they be recycling the same old ones used by Moses 3500 years ago?
Talking of diet; I digress to say that, like most country folk, I eat anything and really enjoy a wide range of fresh local food. Meat, veg, salads, bread, fish, cakes, puddings, cheeses. Fantastic, especially with a glass of red wine or cider.
But back to the fare dished up by the media. Unlike with my wife’s food, I get bored with their predictable fare of fear and doom but unfortunately it does have an affect on many people, even some in the Forest of Dean. I noticed this when a young lady from Cinderford became worried that the eggs from our hens were not date-stamped!”
Her concern dissipated immediately I explained that a ‘Sell by date,’ ‘Best before date’ and ‘Use by date’ do not of themselves define good food. However this episode got me wondering why many youngsters put a total trust in supermarket labels but have doubts their own five senses.
It also made me realise how easy it is to undervalue the wondrous world of our senses. This happens when, for example, people pay hundreds of pounds for top-notch earphones yet never attend a live musical concert. Others point cameras at landscapes but ignore their own sense of sight and perspective. Some wander around cathedrals or galleries unsure of what they see or hear or feel; and then there are the millions of hours spent twittering to strangers on iPads as a substitute for exploring personal friendships.
Notwithstanding these caveats modern technology is beneficial particularly when aiding disabled folks live fuller lives. Such friends tell me that our senses have much greater capability and sensitivity than we think, and that it is best to stretch our senses to their limits before letting ourselves become reliant on technology.
However, musing on how we use our senses in conjunction with modern technology reminds me of the Mother from Minnesota who was teaching her little boy to memorise the Lord’s Prayer.
After three nights and with confidence high he decided to go solo. All went well until the line “ ……. lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from email …….“
View from the Pew 