Against Common Sense

The conservative movement has over the last twenty years tried to change the meaning of certain words.  For example, the word "liberal" has been demonized and pushed to the left so effectively by conservatives that liberals have had to call themselves something else entirely, progressives.  The word "conservative" in contrast has been transformed and pushed to the right.  I sincerely doubt that, on the basis of his actions,  Ronald Reagan would be considered much of a conservative today.  He rose taxes during his stay in office.  He protected Medicare and Social Security.  In today's world, Reagan just might be considered a RINO, a Republican In Name Only.

All of this is kind of amusing.  But one phrase which Republicans co-opted that I wish they hadn't is "common sense."  The phrase has had a long and useful history.   Whatever it may mean in a particular application, it should be reserved for pieces of knowledge and understanding that are so obvious that no one need to consult a book (or Google).  For instance, no one (I think) doubts the existence of gravity.  You throw an apple in the air and it's going to fall.  That's common sense.

You can apply "common sense" to basic finance as well.  If you earn 10,000 dollars a month net and spend 20,000 a month, common sense says you will be in serious debt in no time.  Insult someone and it's common sense that they won't like you very much.

But the conservatives have created a new meaning of the phrase.  Common sense for them is: "I know this is true despite evidence otherwise so I'm going to ignore data entirely and cling to my prejudices and false beliefs."  Alternatively, it means, "Well I know this doesn't really make any sense at all or it's just a supposition, so I'll give it weight by calling it 'common sense.'"  Essentially, it's following your gut and never reading a word that might tell you that your gut instinct is wrong.  Essentially, "common sense" has become a code phrase for celebrating ignorance.

For example, conservatives are inclined to not believe in evolution.  Their arguments used to be bible based.  But now, they've embraced a new approach, intelligent design.  This approach is one that conservatives will tell you is based on "common sense."  The argument goes like this.  Look at Mt. Rushmore.  It's obviously made by humans. Nature alone couldn't do that.  Now look at the human body.  It's so complex and intricate.  Evolution couldn't have made that either.  It's just plain common sense.

Except it isn't common sense at all.  The data say that that evolution works.  Your gut may tell you it isn't possible.  But your gut instinct is wrong.  I've been reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle as of late, and I'm just floored by how smart and observant Darwin was.  He's only twenty something years old at the time and he is  connecting the dots in ways that are amazing.  The man obviously was a genius.  Intelligent design is for idiots.

Evolution is an intricate and beautiful theory that explains a great deal of the observational world.  It is not simple.  But it is right as rain.

Here's another "common sense" argument that I hear from some conservatives concerning science.  Global warming is a hoax.  Look at the snows this month in Washington DC, for example.  If global warming were real, that couldn't happen.  Warmer means no snow.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this.  Global warming is a myth propagated by granola eating lovers of Al Gore.

The theory that CO2 influences climate is actually very simple and has been around for a long, long time.  In the scientific community it's a given that significantly changing the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere will change climate and global temperature.  The exact way that CO2 increases will change climate is not predictable and can be expected to be complex.  But just because it is complex doesn't mean that it defies "common sense."  It simply defies simple minded reasoning.

Outside the field of science, the conservative movement is even more cocky about its use of "common sense."  For example, when they talk about health care in this country, they commonly refer to their "common sense solutions."  Here are some of them.  They come from a Republican website.

1) Promote healthier lifestyles.  You don't think we do this already?
2) Allow people to buy insurance across state lines.  Essentially, this will allow healthy people, like me, to buy insurance in states with the least regulated and cheapest insurance and make the least healthy people pay through the nose in highly regulated states.  I fail to see why this is a "common sense" solution.
3) Enhance HSA insurance policies.  I have one of these.  They are catastrophic policies that allow rich people, like me, to bank their health expenses tax free.  If you're not healthy or you're not rich, they are worthless.  So the Republicans are proposing to make these policies even better for rich people like me.  Again, I fail to see how this can be a "common sense" solution.
4) End junk lawsuits.  This will reduce costs by about 2 percent.  Our costs are about double what other world economic powers pay.  It is not common sense to think a 2 percent reduction is a solution.

The problems with health care currently are that it is too costly and tens of millions of citizens can't get access to anything but emergency room treatment.  It would be "common sense" to work on issues of cost and access.  The Republican's "Common Sense Reforms" (that's what they call them) don't do either.  How much common sense do the Republicans have vis a vis health care?  None.

I could do a similar analysis with conservative proposals concerning energy use in this country.  They don't have any real solutions.  They seem to think there are vast undiscovered pools of oil in the US (there aren't).  They seem to think that some magic technology fix is right around the corner (good luck with that).

The basic problem with the conservative movement's use of the words "common sense" is that none of their solutions employ common sense.  Since they have abused these words to such a degree, I'm more than inclined to eliminate the phrase from my own vocabulary.  Conservatives have polluted those words.  Instead of "common sense," I'm now going to use the word "obvious."  Gravity is obvious.  Global change is obvious.  Evolution is obvious.  The ignorance of the conservative political community is also...obvious.