Making Sense of Common Sense

According to the ever helpful Wikipedia, "Merriam-Webster Online defines common sense as beliefs or propositions that most people consider prudent and of sound judgment, without reliance on esoteric knowledge or study or research, but based upon what they see as knowledge held by people "in common". Thus "common sense" (in this view) equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have." According to CitCat.com, common sense means 'akal' in Malay. Thus a person lacks in common sense is frowned upon as the person who 'tak ada akal'.

As we make our way to be better developed people, supposedly more advance in our thinking, attitude and overall conduct, this common sense that should be innate in us, seems to have lost its revered place. It may still be there somewhere in the convoluted brains of the modern man but seeing the many errors that these so called modern man commit, makes one wonder if it will resurface.

Taking up a a dedicated parking spot of a tenant, calling your lecturer at 10pm on the day she is on leave asking for your carry marks, or not giving signals for an ample time before changing lanes, are a few examples of where and when common sense and not to mention social grace have failed terribly. In these instances there were not due to lack of notifications or information, the unit address of the first example is clearly painted on the spot, the said lecturer had mentioned of her impending leave before, during and after she concluded the class and as with drivers in other countries, Malaysians are also required to go for driving classes and tests before they are allowed to drive. So what went wrong?

I might be guilty for simplifying things, but I think the problem lies in our attitude of having too much pride in ourselves aka being selfish. Our world revolve around ourselves that nobody can take precedence above us. This sickly attitude of the so called modern men and women can be the very source of the early demise of our caring society Well, one might argue that we are actually witnessing the destruction of the caring society vigorously promoted by the government.

Common sense breeds courtesy and courtesy is what makes a young man offers his seat on the LRT to a pregnant lady, a school boy offers to hold an old man's hand to help him to cross the road or a student offering to help carry his teacher's load. We all can do our part, in a small or big way, to bring back common sense into our folds. We just need to look beyond the confines of our egoistic selves and acknowledge that there are other people out there who deserve our attention.

Let's start today.