Common sense is not so common

“Common sense is not so common” is a phrase that we often get to hear and more often get to see in action. It’s definitely a loaded statement and quite ironic, to be honest. I once saw one of my batchmates putting ice cubes in a bowl and placing it right under the ceiling fan, hoping that it would slow down the melting process. Told you it's quite ironic sometimes.

But why does it happen? Why is something that has “common” in its name, not so common at all? Can it be attributed to incompetence, inability to comprehend or is it just sheer stupidity?

Well, I did some research and found many reasons for it. But the most compelling one was that common sense was never meant to be common in the first place.

I know it's hard to register but stay with me on this one.

Let me ask you something, how would you define common sense? The most direct answer would be anything that makes sense, simple. Anything that should be logically done in order to pave the way for a favorable outcome in a certain situation.

But in reality, everything is super subjective. The very logic and sense that you come up with is heavily influenced by your beliefs, your capabilities, and your knowledge.

Our beliefs, our views, and also our take on life is heavily influenced by the series of events that have happened in our lives. It is very subjective.

For example: Robinhood was a hero to the poor and a criminal to the rich. A person who loves money and is greedy about it, would define the acts of Robinhood as sheer stupidity. Not because of the “stealing” part but because of the “giving it away to the poor” part. On the contrary, the poor would define this act as heroic and noble. We cannot really define if something is right or wrong, sensible or illogical. Same goes with logic as well. As a child I would find the act of meditating illogical. To me, then, it was a sheer waste of time. For me, it was doing literally nothing. However now meditating is an important part of my daily routine. It makes perfect sense to me now. And many would still feel the same way about meditating, which I felt about it during my childhood. Would that mean that I am right and they are wrong? I have common sense and they don’t. Not really.

Thus, an act of common sense for you might not be common sense for someone else. So the question is not about whether common sense is common or not. It's more about whether it makes sense to you individually or not. If it does, it would come across as common sense for you.

It’s quite fascinating, isn’t it? How we’re all built differently, think differently, and do things differently. How we see life differently, have different ambitions, have different dreams and have different reasons to be happy. Although we are all carbon based organisms that require food, air, and water to sustain. Yet the thing we call common sense is not so common at all. Even as a term, the definitions differ from person to person.

Therefore, common sense not being common is more of a concrete scientific fact than merely an ironic statement. Why? Because it is completely true, has a good explanation behind it and most importantly makes perfect sense. To me, at least. Again, it is super subjective, remember?

Now that I look back I feel like placing the bowl of ice under the fan was not a very bad idea, after all.