Finding Common Sense in a World of Non Sense

Over the past few years, I have observed public discourse over important things devolving into a collective "emotional temper tantrum." And I wonder if we have lost the ability to think things through. We don't think-we emote. We "lash out" with such a natural ease, it's breathtaking. And we do so without consideration of the consequences.

One could observe that we've become a "self absorbed, hyper-sensitive and hysterical people." Like volcanoes, spewing forth our "grievances" with no constraints. Have we become too precious, that we can't handle an insult or a passionate argument without filing a lawsuit?

We need a healthy dose of common sense to pull us back from the emotional brink of non sense. Common sense is "sound judgment not polluted by theory" or simply put, it is "understanding the obvious." The two characteristics that define common sense are level headedness and practicality.

My friend Mark has common sense and he is very passionate about things. But his strong opinions don't get in the away of his ability to think things through. Mark and I would have these long talks about Church and how things should be handled. Our conversations would be filled with emotion, but towards the end of our talk, we both took an honest look at the facts. This pulled us back to reality and we could consider what was practical-even if we disagreed.  

Mark would ask the question "Will this work?" And even though we had separate ideas, we both knew what was "obvious." Common sense forces me to face reality. My plan may be clever, but not practical. It may look great on paper, but won't work in real life.

Common sense is the balance between ideology and pragmatism-we need both. Debate and disagreement are healthy in a culture that accentuates common sense. Unfortunately we have lost this balance. I once heard someone say, "You have a right to your own opinions, but you don't have a right to your own facts." Today we are not speaking from the same basic set of facts-take "global warming" for example. If we cannot speak from the same objective reality we are speaking non-sense to one another.

We need to get back on the same page and have a common "reality." The pendulum has swung way over to the ideological side of things where there is a different reality and language to go with it. Common sense will correct this off balanced life. We may disagree about ideas but not about reality. Our differences will be invigorating and actually mean something. But until common sense is the mega-phone by which we speak to one another-it will all be non-sense.