There is nothing common about sense

Or why making sense of things is integral to optimal thought and function

Common sense was once applied to actions which were not stupid and which made sense in the circumstances. ‘Where’s your common sense?’ Mum or Dad would say when you encouraged your five year old brother to practise flying by jumping off a shed roof onto a pile of weight-absorbing but pretty rusty, corrugated iron.

Common sense is knowing the difference between stupid, irrational, dangerous and bullshit in essence. Surprisingly a lot of people, including adults, do not know the difference. It is not a term used much today and some would say that common sense has diminished as a human quality or skill.

Common sense could apply to abiding by cultural, social, religious, political norms so one did not get into trouble although equally one could argue that challenging such norms exhibited common sense when the norms were nonsensical, impractical or unreasonable.

One thing is certain, our human minds are hardwired to make sense of things because that contributes hugely to our capacity for survival. Common sense would say do not leave a lit candle beneath a curtain; do not let children play with matches; do not let the dog eat the rat poison. In essence, common sense is about being sensible and looking for some sense in words and actions which appear nonsensical but which are being presented as solutions. And never more so than from politicians.

Common sense can weave together facts, experience, instinct, circumstance, logic, reason, intuition, all of the senses, whether known or unknown, conscious or unconscious, real or imagined, to create a foundation for our actions.

Common sense is perhaps our most valuable skill and one to be constantly honed. Without common sense we become no more than robotoid organisms. Robots do not have common sense which is why it is also common sense to conclude that Robots ruling the world is ridiculous and dangerous.

What does common sense actually mean? One dictionary definition is:

Sense and common sense, judgment, wisdom mean ability to reach intelligent conclusions. Sense implies a reliable ability to judge and decide with soundness, prudence, and intelligence. a choice showing good sense. common sense suggests an average degree of such ability without sophistication or special knowledge

Someone called Dushka Zapata put the following on a Quora question about what is common sense.

A person who stops and considers that something is not necessarily right just because everyone is doing it is displaying common sense.

A person who questions procedure, routine and policy rather than blindly replicating something that perhaps can be done better is displaying common sense.

A person with the presence of mind to listen to her gut rather than obeying a social norm is displaying common sense.

Common sense is an innate ability to judge a situation through reason and instinct rather than knowledge.

In short, common sense means the ability, to lesser and greater degrees, to think and act in sensible ways which provide optimal survival results and which explains what is happening, what is being done or what is being said. Such an ability is to some degree innate, some of it is absorbed from family, society, education, and some of it can be learned by practising the basic rules, the most important of which is questioning motivations and potential outcomes.

Those who do not, cannot, will not question actions and statements are not likely to be standing on a solid foundation of common sense. Facts and research- based positions work well with common sense but common sense can do very well without them. Common sense is alert, aware, connected, in tune, sensitive and always, always processing the information.

Some instances of common sense in my view are:

Common sense would say that the chances of humans radically altering the climate were not high.

Common sense would say that reducing cow farts to change climatic conditions was ridiculous.

Common sense would say that a pregnant man was ridiculous.

Common sense would say that pretending a male can be a female and vice-versa was ridiculous and indeed a sign of mental illness.

Common sense would say that a colonial occupier, Israel, which practises sadistic cruelty and bestial savagery against the native people whose land it has stolen, and yet believes it will not meet increasing resistance,is insane.

Common sense would say that Trump wants to stop war and yet keeps sending bombs and weapons to Israel, means he does not want to stop war.

Common sense would say that putting the world’s richest man into unelected office, armed with a Presidential chainsaw to sack millions and increase poverty would not go down well with Americans, particularly those who believed him when he said he would Make America Great Again.

Common sense would say when Trump says he wants to do a deal with Ukraine for rare earth minerals when Ukraine is a mess and not even on the list of major rare earth resources, sounds seriously dodgy if not readily identifiable bullshit.

China has the highest reserves of rare earths, followed by Brazil, India, Australia, Russia, Vietnam, US and number 8 is Greenland. Ukraine does not even make the list and the areas in Ukraine, with most of the rare earths are now held by Russia. And since stabilising Ukraine enough to mine anything will take years, it all sounds like a scam since the US could access its own resources and buy what it needs certainly from India, Denmark which is the Government of Greenland, Australia and probably Vietnam and Brazil. https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/rare-earth-investing/rare-earth-reserves-country/

Common sense would say that in a country with some truly excellent minds that a series of Presidents ranging from the cretinous to the senile, as delivered by the US political system, says something is very wrong in that country.

Common sense would say that the fact the mainstream media is a Zionist shill on matters Israel means they are controlled by the mob they are promoting.

Common sense would say that when money rules political systems or any agenda, nothing will be done to benefit the ordinary people or indeed the planet.

Common sense says that when medicine uses fearmongering and bullying to push its products the system is not on your side and definitely not about healing or improving health.

Common sense says robots as soldiers and AI technology deciding who will die is going to create life and death decisions devoid of morality, integrity, compassion and humanity.

Common sense says no-one gets everything right and however bright Albert Einstein might have been in some areas, he was a dill in others. He never accepted Quantum Mechanics, or as he called it, Spooky Action At a Distance, and yet Quantum Mechanics is the foundation of our modern technological world. Einstein also supposedly said one of the most stupid things ever about common sense:

Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen. Lincoln Barnett The Universe and Dr Einstein (1950.

Common sense would also say do not believe everything you read, particularly about famous people.

Common sense says that if something does not make sense it is nonsensical, without sense and therefore likely to be a problem. More than that, the nonsensical in the hands of the rich and powerful is very, very dangerous.