A Question of Common Sensing

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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In a ‘common sense’ culture, there is a continuity from the individual through family, community and state. At every level there is a communal understanding of the nature of life, its’ meaning, and to a large extent, a sense of ‘right’ practices reflecting those understandings.

This common-sensing is supported, nourished, and passed through generations by myth - the stories of wisdom that illustrate the best and worst of what life should and should not be.

In those cultures, during times of strong common-sensing, individuals, families, and communities shared a ‘good’ life working together to solve common problems and disagreements. Laws and prohibitions were few because there was little need: left to common-sensing, the social order constantly evolved and sustained itself.

If one need’s an explanation of the state of our existence in today’s world, I would suggest that it is directly attributable to the lack of common-sensing at every level of social structure.

Common-sensing has been replaced by the loudest proselytizers whose methods lie in coercion, not cooperation. Instead of inviting the dialog and explanations that would lead us back to a common sensing of the world, they promote divisiveness, relying on fear and hate to force their views on others.

The myths that supported our experience of common-sensing are dead, replaced with this philosophy, that religion, all seeking exclusionary goals. In the cacaphony of competing ‘isms’, only the loudest and most coercive hold sway. The times where we could say, “it’s just common sense.” have long since passed us.

Is there a way out of this mess? What can religion or philosophy off to begin our journey toward the sanity within common-sensing? Will we, or our children, or our children’s children ever be able to say, “it’s just common sense.”?

JT

2

yeah it’s common knowledge :wink:

I assume you mean “offer” instead of “off”. philosophy or religion can’t teach common sense. They teach you a set path. Basically any philosophy or religion teaches you how to think in that mindset.

-ism = tunnel vision.

I would hope so. But it takes a village of common knowledge to make a society of common sense.

It takes a seperation of fact and mythology that we currently lack in both the scientific field and the philosophical, religious fields.

How can somebody know what should be common knowledge if they are told these fantastical myths about spirituality and then told they are the absolute truth. anything that doesn’t align with that truth is a lie.

Science in some regards has created it’s own ism and works in the same way but opposite.

interesting post overall, I think i would disagree with there ever being a culture rooted in any type of common sense though.

-mb

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Hi JT,

In my environment I notice that there is an ever decreasing ‘common’ sense. I believe that it was when tradition was no longer understood intuitively, but either explained by ‘experts’ or ridiculed by ‘experts’ of another kind, that people lost their orientation, failing to find a ‘common’ sense or explanation. It has been the loss of something authoritative in the lives of people that has caused a lot of our social problems.

Common-sensing could protect us from many a folly, but we consider myth to be fiction, intuition to be imaginations, sentience to be emotional yearning. Common sense is regarded to be a corset of society that is just uncomfortable. Mention common sense in a Bible meeting and you might get thrown out :wink:

Shalom
Bob

4

Hey MB,

Don’t EVER use the phrase “it take’s a village…”! We don’t want to start a war with the radical right, do we? :wink:

Hi Bob,

And yet, isn’t that the problem? In the beginning, Bible meetings were for the expressed purpose of telling the stories that maintained the common world view. Today the Bible, the Quran, all the ‘holy texts’ have become ‘position papers’ carefully defining limits and boundaries, defining the saved from the damned. The shared experience and wisdom of the stories that promoted our commonality lie trampled in the dirt.

Where will the collective wisdom we need for today find a home? In the warring religions? Where does the child of today find that sense of community, of right actions, of orderly belonging? Where does that child find common-sensing?

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I believe you’ve posed an unanswerable question. you should post it in my question thread. Really there is no definable way for any of us to “learn” common sense. IME it just sort of happened.

you know? and yet with my common sense I realize that i don’t have all the answers just alot of the questions.

maybe I need to drink some of my tea.

(I was wondering if you’d catch the “it takes a village”. I would still concur with that, it’d be easier for children to learn common sense, if their elders weren’t so caught up with dogma.)

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JT,

It must begin in the heart of the individual. Right actions of the individual. The responsibility doesn’t lie with some organisation. It lies with the one who has vision and who can hold that vision and who can manifest this heart in themselves and in their family. When Tao is lost, we practice right action according to our conscience - the conscience has all the directions - it knows what to do. When we practice right action, our conditioned mind submits and Tao is present. When Tao is present, there is common sense. The key is to manifest Tao and then everything else takes care of itself.

Or as Jesus said; “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all the rest shall be added unto you”.

A

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Hi A,

Yes, of course. The Tao is always with and in us, but my concern is the lack of ‘grounding’ for the children, who have no teachers in that the parents have no grounding either. There has to be a base, a home, a something from which common-sensing can begin, take root, and grow. I see very little of that in any social circumstance in today’s world. Moreover, I find little to suggest that there is anything viable to help create (re-create?) that ‘grounding’. This is both my observation and complaint. I’d be extremely happy to be shown the way out of the maze. How do we provide for the next generation?

JT

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JT,

The foundation is the parents. Children learn from their parents. End of story. Our responsibility is to be the finest example of ‘real’ people and to manifest truth in our children’s lives. There is no organisation that is going to accomplish this. We must inspire our own children. They don’t learn what we verbally teach them JT, they learn what our actions teach them. The tricky part is that our actions need to be genuine - children pick up on fake.

The only way for our actions to be genuine is for us to observe ourselves. If we observe ourselves then we have an opportunity to master ourselves. Self mastery is key.

A

9

Hi Guys,

I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying here. Rules of whatever kind are just the banister, it’s the steps that have to be trodden by each generation. However, the stair without a banister can be very tricky.

Shalom
Bob

10

How can a culture manifest common sensing if its members are unable to appreciate common sense?

Our culture is a reflection of what we are collectively. It is an unconscious balance of influences.

However, the possibilities for a person are greater than that of a culture. For example, it will be said that during the upcoming holiday weekend, X amount of people will be killed on the highways. Speeches will be made , warnings will be posted, and all sorts of cautions to be careful will be in the media. After the weekend X amount of people will still be killed. The individual has the choice if he will be one of them giving him an opportunity the society does not have.

I agree with Liquidangel

The culture will teach what it is. Our possibilities have to be taught initially by parents and grandparents or whatever familiar ties are alive.

Children see right through all the fakery which is part of why they rebel against it. They are still open enough to “feel”, not reason, that something is horribly wrong. This is why the parents first obligation is to help themselves so that they can pass this along the ways of inner growth to their children.

Often parents abandon themselves thinking that they are sacrificing for their children. All that is being sacrificed is the example of how the child can acquire common sense since the parents themselves have sacrificed it.

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Hi all,

I can agree that parenting is part of the issue, and yes, children see through the ‘do what I say, not what I do’, but even so-called ‘good’ parenting is just part of the issue. There is the larger community that, in the past, helped reinforce what was taught in the home. It is the lack of the total fabric of ‘community’ from which we suffer. Instead of a continuous woven piece, we have a collection of threads. I’m not suggesting some black and white scenario, but simply an observation that it seems that our fractious societies are less and less capable of providing a base for common sensing.

JT

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JT,

That is precisely my point. That I right my family, you right yours, Bob his etc. Eventually the dots are connected. Voila! Society begins to change because essentially we are society.

Very simple.

A