The final définition of this terminology
Simple Common Sense
This is a popular expression that speaks of the basic wisdom we all have. There is an inherent wisdom in all human beings. The elders formerly guided the steps of the younger generation. The little tricks and techniques discovered by our grandmothers and grandfathers facilitated life in a thousand ways. There is a popular wisdom called common sense.
We should not ignore what allows us to quickly come to an innate and intuitive understanding of life. Due to the constant complication of life with science and bureaucracy we have come to a huge wasting of resources and extraordinarily paper laden world that makes life really complicated and expensive. We need to quickly return to a healthy management of the ecology and the environment. There are some understandings where there is no need to explain. Every person who has a minimum of common sense knows certain things instinctively without any need for explanation. We need to invest on the intelligence of Man and develop it. We have all that is needed to remedy our current problems. To succeed in solving the countless problems created by our modern way of life we need to exercise this intelligence every day in all situations of life. We need to develop our judgement, to learn how to make our own decisions, to determine the truth quickly in ourselves. This autonomy that has deserted modern men dependent on the «system» for near everything, has to return to our way of life.
Ex. – Civil servants have a reputation of doing the least possible and to always place responsibility on their superiors to exonerate themselves from the uncountable inconveniences that they impose on those who are desperately trying to make ends meet. The vast majority of them do not use their judgment, the common sense that says that sometimes in the interest of the people they serve it’s better to bend the rules a bit. We have not learned to think and to rely on our own human intelligence. On the contrary, we’ve abandoned our common sense and our judgment and put it in the hands of the authorities and averted looking on, while the industry and multinationals are rapidly polluting the world that is the heritage of our future generations. This is the opposite of common sense.
It’s time to reaffirm our innate intelligence, wisdom and judgment. It’s time to learn to rely on our own evaluation of the complexities of life and have the courage to put our foot on the ground and say STOP! The best way of stimulating honesty, integrity and reliability is to trust ourselves and others. Mistakes will happen but that’s often the only way we can learn!
The impressive success of the green or teal companies described in Frédéric Laloux’s book[1] on companies that work without any hierarchy or authority and where all the employees may make the decisions which apply to their fields of activity, is the perfect illustration of the correctness of this approach which relies on the intelligence of Man. This way now has to apply to all domains of human activity, in public administration as well as politics. To be able to apply this approach to politics we are going to need a global transformation of current structures to adapt them to common sense reality.
Ex. – Common sense says that if decisions are taken by majority vote that there will always be a minority of dissatisfied people at odds with the decision. It presupposes they not be inclined to collaborate when it’s not outright opposition. This situation creates political opposition parties, rivalry, discord, disharmony and dysfunction which then spills over on those who are affected by the aforementioned decision. The universal method of consensus which formerly existed in all indigenous nations’ structures of governance respects everyone’s’ opinions. It’s the same method as those of the green and teal companies sometimes called liberated companies as they have no hierarchical structure. In this way all decisions will be supported by the whole community and very often be the best decision. When there are mistakes everyone feels responsible and concerned by the decision thus everyone will work at its resolution.
Ex.- In the current political «system», if a mistake is made opposition parties will try to blame the party leading the government without trying to remedy the situation which in fact favors them. During this time, too often have we seen the government hiding its’ mistakes, minimizing their importance or sweeping them under the carpet. Common sense immediately shows us that this way of doing things is ineffective and costly.
Ex.- We can carry these considerations still farther as they are the reality most nations who are governed by majority vote have to deal with. We know that to be skillful and effective in a complex field of work requires information, education, training and then time to practice and get better and better at our job. Our politicians are in office only a few years! By the time they’ve learned how things work it’s already the elections and often another candidate from the opposition party with an opposite agenda. The work that was accomplished even if beneficial is often scrolled back because of the opposition and the different ideas different political parties have. In fact, those who ultimately influence our lives the most in relationship with our government within this «system», are state employees and bureaucrats. When things are not perfect they place the blame on their superiors, the elected official who is there only a few years. Do you think that this is a logical and an efficient way of managing our nations? Is this common sense?
Common sense can help us solve innumerable problems quickly and at a lower cost that a scientific or administrative approach. Let us come back to common sense in our everyday lives. Let us trust our innate intelligence and have the courage to apply it to our lives. This sometimes requires going against the rules of the «system». The thing is, we need to have the courage of our convictions if we want the intelligence of Humanity to offer solutions to the worldwide catastrophic situation in which we find ourselves today. This is often called peaceful civil resistance and becomes a necessary and important tool in the fight against governmental stupidity, destruction of the environment, the erosion of our liberties and quality of life.
I will thus use the term “common sense” for those affirmations that in my view do not require any other explanation that the innate intelligence of the reader.
[1] REINVENTING ORGANISATIONS by Frédéric Laloux, published by NELSON PARKER, Brussels, Belgium, 2014