A Eulogy for Common Sense

The triumph of ideology over common sense is killing the planet.

I have spent the best part of the last eighty years on a lengthy journey working toward acquiring some degree of common sense. It is never easy. I look back on my youth when there was a lack of common sense along with a few other hang ups. I have come a long way. As we go through life there are a lot of painful challenges faced and dealt with. Old age is the time you can look back, and say, I have run the gauntlet, acquired some common sense a modicum of wisdom and some peace of mind . As you approach the big abyss you acquire a special appreciation of what it is to be alive.

Common sense in our times is roundly denigrated, simply because it is so common and doesn’t put any fancy letters before or after your name. It is only acquired through life experience and our receptiveness to what life has to teach us. There are no guarantees and no official certifications.

Grey hair, a big gut and the right reading glasses are the trappings of common sense and wisdom, even then there are no guarantees.

The road to common sense is greatly enhanced by reading and hanging around the sages who have established their credentials. It rubs off, it can be contagious; but unfortunately it is not contagious enough. Some folks have a life-time immunity to it.

Common sense is never a gift, it is earned. It is a blessing. In this day and age it is a punishment as we see in high places a complete lack of common sense and wisdom and too many millions of people are getting hurt.

We have an inalienable right to expect our leaders to have a modicum of common sense with a bit of wisdom thrown in. Too often we see the triumph of ideology over common sense.

Politicians are supposed to deliver peace, order, and good government and now they deliver the exact opposites in very vulgar quantities.

When entering office they immediately suffer conflicted loyalties… loyalty to the people who elected them, the party they represent, loyalty to the party leader, loyalty to the vested interests trying to win their favor, and loyalty to their native land. Juggling these loyalties is never an easy business. The pack mentality crushes common sense and go-along-to-get-along pragmatism is another great seduction. So are big fat pensions awaiting those who serve a minimum of six years in office. Perks and pensions are the common sense guide posts for too many Canadian politicians.

Now the triumph of ideology over common sense is replete. Politicians no longer lead they follow. They take their orders from the economic and political elites who control them. If we find ourselves getting impatient with our political leadership it is because they have been reduced to minor functionaries.

If you want to put a name on it, it is the ideology of neoliberalism in practice where political parties and politicians are redundant. Leadership skills, statecraft and common sense only come with practice and these are no longer required as politicians are just a parade of clowns following orders.

Neoliberalism has the stated goal of marginalizing politics and political parties.

It is not the least bit presumptuous to claim the political career of Jacinda Arden came to an end because of neoliberalism and its unremitting assault on democracy and any reform minded politician pursuing real change. Any progressive politician in our times faces monolithic opposition from well entrenched corporatist/ neoliberal lobbies.

Canada’s prime minister is a dyed-in-the-wool neoliberal just following orders.

When power elites see themselves as having absolute power and their power is challenged common sense becomes a psychosis without regard for human costs or consequences. This is why the Collective West is hell bent on escalating this war to where going nuclear becomes a stark reality. They are desperately fighting a rearguard war on the world to save a collapsing financial empire.

When is the last time you heard a Western politician speak for peace? They won’t as the are employed by the elitist war mongers to instigate war. Little wonder we have perpetual war and failed democracies.

War, militarism, reckless capitalism, neoliberalism, racism, hate, are the ideologies destroying us.

The triumph of ideologies over common sense is killing the planet.