COMMON SENSE

A common refrain bemoans the increasing burden of legislation. How has this obsession with legislation, rules and dictats come about? Is it perhaps our loss of confidence in that thing we call “common sense” Or is the root of the problem our actual loss of common sense? In actuality it is probably a combination of both of these compounded by the process of centralisation in virtually all spheres of life, which dis-empowers people and transfers that power to central bureaucracies and power bases. And, just as muscles which aren’t used gradually wither, so, common sense, superseded by legislation and regulation, also diminishes.
We should also consider the effect that increasing disengagement from nature and the natural world has upon our perception of reality. Humans are animals and as such, very much part of nature. But our unique human characteristic of rationality,without that vital counter-balance of intuitive wisdom, has led us to believe, wrongly, that we are separate from and "above" nature but this has just alienated us from our real roots. We need to re-connect in order to regain our "common" sense-- a perception shared with and derived from our "common" nature.
Our alienation from nature and our sanitising of nature run in parallel with materialism- a human construct which distracts us from, and warps our sense of, reality and hence, of common sense.Modern human culture now shares a devalued "common sense" now often rooted in trivia and material superficialities. Our goal must be to re-build a "common-sense" derived from participating in and contributing to that rich tapestry that is the natural world and the encouragement of intuition.