As a reader, I’ve learned that whenever I encounter the phrase common sense, my skeptical instincts should go into high alert. What people tend to describe as common sense, is usually anything at all but common, and often makes no sense at all.
I provide as an example the quick and sloppy web site one person, using the pseudonym Regular Joe, set up recently under the title Common sense analysis of the political issues of the 2008 Presidential Election ebook. The author describes his work as
“an important ebook called: “A Regular Joe’s Take”. This ebook discusses the common sense analysis of the political issues without interference from the media or politicians.”
What an interesting idea of common sense: Discussing political issues without involving politicians. I wonder how Regular Joe thinks political issues are going to be acted upon without politicians getting involved. Politicians are by definition, after all, those people who are professionally involved in our nation’s political issues.
Furthermore, politicians are the people we democratically elect to to represent our interests in dealing with political issues. Through our action and our apathy, we have chosen them to think about political issues. Who is Regular Joe to take them out of the process? What qualifies him to disregard what our elected representatives are saying about political issues? His great big whopping common sense?
Besides, as the title of Regular Joe’s web site reveals, this ebook of his discusses the 2008 presidential election. The presidential election is the process by which Americans choose their most powerful politician. Discussing the election without discussing the politicians who are its focus doesn’t seem like common sense to me.
Reading further on down the page, I see what kind of common sense Regular Joe has in mind. He suggests that people look at a, “Newt Gingrich short but eye opening speech. Clearly understands the world we live in and the dangers we face as a nation. This is a must watch for everyone.”
When people write that they’ve got politician-free common sense, and cite Newt Gingrich as a credible non-politician source of ideas, it makes me wonder if there might be some alternative definition for the word sense that I’m not aware of:
Sense – noun: Babbling, self-contradictory idiocy
