Common Sense vs. Conventional Wisdom
Kirk C Klingler

If there is anything that I believe is missing in this great country of ours, it is the lack of Common Sense. There are many examples of the problems that our society faces. When you see what is being done to either solve the problem, or to correct the wrongs caused by the problem, I scratch my head and wonder why the particular route was taken to solve the problem. Many times it seems as if a very convoluted solution was chosen to fix the problem. These solutions seem to lack Common Sense.

Many of the problems our society faces could be resolved with Common Sense solutions; instead, we try to follow Conventional Wisdom ideas. Common Sense would say; the Federal Government has demonstrated its ineptitude in correcting societal problems. Conventional Wisdom says; we need more Federal Government intervention to deal with any and all problems.

For example, why is it we give drugs to a child to correct their behavior problems? Why are we using drugs to solve problems that have plagued us for centuries? There have always been children with behavior problems in society. Prior to this time in our society we didn’t automatically choose to drug these children, we made them behave.

The definition of common sense is simply “sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.” When looking at the definition of Common Sense, what stands out is “normal native intelligence”. We Americans usually get our “normal native intelligence” by what we learn in the Public School system. Are the Public Schools failing us? Are they providing us with the necessary “normal native intelligence” to make Common Sense decisions?

Why do we have so many problems in our society being addressed without a common sense solution? Is it due to “Conventional Wisdom”? Ah yes, Conventional Wisdom, it is defined as “the ideas, opinions, or understanding that are considered to be generally accepted by the public”. Where do we get the ideas and opinions that become generally accepted by us, the public? Initially one might think that we would get ideas from our news sources, and opinions from editorialists and opinion makers.

Lets look at a time line of how ideas and opinions have proliferated in the last fifty years from around 1960 to the first decade of the 21st century. In the 60’s and 70’s news and opinions were mostly relegated to newspapers and the three main television networks ABC, NBC and CBS. In the later 70’s and into the 80’s with cable television and the advent of 24-hour news sources there was an increase in the volume of ideas and opinions. In the latter 80’s and into the 21st century, with the Internet increasing in its coverage of the world, there are more and more sources for ideas and opinions.

I have always thought that more communication is better, but we must be selective in what sources we use. There are biases that are inherent in most views. If these biases are presented by the source of the information then I find that source a little more credible than a source that considers itself as objective when it really isn’t. This is true when deal with both sides of the political spectrum. It is also undesirable if one particular political sides opinion is considered Conventional Wisdom. We need both sides of opinion to find a middle ground in order to find solutions and solve problems.

In addressing some of our societal ills and the solutions for these ills, it will be necessary to challenge or substantiate Conventional Wisdom with Common Sense. There are many topics that will be addressed in the following essays.