I read today of a man who predicts we will all become brains uploaded to software living in a world of robots...and people in merely human bodies will be marginalised. Apparently he has paid to have his brain cryogenically stored- frozen- until this great development happens. What happens if the brain freezer company goes bust? This happened and a lot of would-be supermen lost their chance. But what interested me is that this futurist believs he has constructed his model of the future using basic science and common sense...
It's a tricky word nowadays. It used to mean...common sense. Now it can be code for right wing politics, lack of empathy, lack of perception- the very opposite of what it originally meant. Quite a few sophisticated people sneer at the very idea of common sense; strangely these people are also the ones most likely to embrace the idea that we are 'all equal'. They think that the term has become hopelessly hijacked but still people use it, less sophisticated more common people perhaps.
Mostly it now means- 'what I find obvious'.
Maybe a word that still finds common support is 'sane'. Obviously a man who thinks the world is going to end up like the matrix but without even the dance rave in Sion is not quite sane- however much he thinks he has common sense.
People want their kids to grow up sane with the ability to regain sanity quickly after the inevitable upendings life provides. Do sane people have common sense- yes, the old style low key version that stops you from completely falling on your face.
If common sense is used to support extremism it becomes uncommon sense. It may even be right- fleeing Hitler's germany in 1933 probably looked a bit extreme to most people- but it was uncommon sense.
Regain sanity quickly, use common and uncommon sense.