The truth about common sense

I would have thought that the definition of common sense would be straight forward but I wasn’t quite ready for the truth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense


Whatever definition one uses, identifying particular items of knowledge as "common sense" becomes difficult. Philosophers may choose to avoid using the phrase when using precise language.

Isn’t it strange that we incorporate a phrase into our daily lives when the general consensus is there is no common sense? The image above shows a person trying to slot in a square peg into a round hole contrary to common sense. I have heard teachers reprimanding students to use their common sense because the students forgot to write down their names on the exam paper.

For myself, I have frequently encountered road bullies who do not seem to have common sense; they tailgate your vehicle to the extent that there is barely an inch of space between both vehicles in order to intimidate you. In one of my earlier articles “Are you E.T.”, road bullies truly illustrates how an E.T. would behave behind the wheels; common sense dictates that it is dangerous to tailgate a vehicle so closely. However, such road bullies do not have common sense, or do they choose to ignore it?

I believe that the majority of us chose to agree with the general consensus that there is no common sense simply because we have accepted the truth that the general population chose to ignore the fact that we do have a common sense. In this era of nanotechnology where the scientists are racing against time to map out the human genome project (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml) in their bid to search a cure for AIDS and cancer and other fatal diseases, we chose to be selfish with our individual needs.

When we sit down and think about it, common sense isn’t such a difficult concept, in fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that common sense is similar to my MALT concept (in my earlier post titled “The truth about the mind – does it exist). We are gifted with the ability to analyze and reason but we chose NOT to use our gifts. If common sense is universal, then there wouldn’t be wars or nuclear weapons or divorces for that matter.

The truth about common sense is not that it doesn’t exist, rather it has been overshadowed by other selfish reasons. What do you think?