so i've been pretty much inundated in this healthcare crap that's been going on, and i realized this and issues like it boil down to one thing: an individual's take on common sense. to a lot of people common sense is a tradition inherited generation to generation, and it can encompass all manner of notions. for some racism or some other bigotry is common sense. locking people up for drugs is common sense. all these things are very rarely questioned because most people never think to ask.
it seems to me that common sense is a very flimsy basis for an argument, or even for a belief. there's really no such thing as a common sense approach, because "common sense" only guides our behavior arbitrarily. and in that way, it can be a wise leader just as well as a treacherous ally. the reason is this: our world and the conditions we face are in a constant state of flux. it's impossible to adhere to one single, prescribed approach and find the success one expects from it.
but there's a difference in our situation today. we've been denying nature -- defying her winds and standing rigid amidst winds intended to help us grow stronger, more evolved -- for many, many centuries. in the the age of discovery and the following colonial age our haphazard ruckus exploded to fill all the world, and the industrial age thereafter set in motion a mechanism that seems, looking then to now, designed to refine the abruption. the consequences of this are now growing so severe that it's threatening the very institutions we depend on to provide a quality of life that we, looking at the other possibilities around the world, are ever so lucky to have. common sense could well end it.
we have enough history to look back and reflect on and more than enough creativity to abolish "common sense," be honest with ourselves and the things we want to achieve and discover a way of achieving them; without disrupting ourselves or anyone else. we really have an amazing potential. it's truly spectacular what we've done, even with all our shortcomings and hindrances (many of them self-made). a little critical thinking isn't too much to ask, and i really think that's all it'll take.
