Common sense should help us break down big words into bite-sized pieces such as semi (half) + quin (five) + centennial (100) to get the right answer: 250 years. However, if you never learned or have already forgotten how to string together semi, quin, and centennial, you are not alone. Sometimes common sense isn’t so common after all.
So where did the phrase come from, how has it been used throughout our country’s 250 years of independence, and how can we unite through our common experiences as we move to celebrate our country during the semiquincentennial?
Let’s start with the history. Aristotle came up with “sensus communis” as a way to compile information provided by the five senses to get a more cohesive or unifying impression. The sixth sense was born.
More than 400 years later, Cicero took this idea one step further and added the community aspect to it, thus creating a shared, social understanding.
In the 14th century, we see the phrase used to denote an “ordinary understanding” that everyone should agree upon because the impressions are so simple or ordinary to grasp. This said, I’m a firm believe that today’s version of common sense is actually a broken concept–keep reading to find out why.
By the late 1600’s, reasoning and judgement had been added to the mix of ordinary thinking, and common sense took on political import in settling issues or finding agreement.
Enter January 10, 1776. Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense, arguing for independence from Britain. At this time, Paine transformed common sense from a philosophical concept or political tool into a powerful call to action.
Under Paine’s not so gentle nudging, thirteen colonies reasoned their way to agreement. On July 2, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia and adopted on July 4–a day many Americans celebrate as a day of freedom.
The rationalization for this monumental act of treason against the crown? Common sense, or the “self-evident” truths penned primarily by Thomas Jefferson.
Since then, the phrase common sense has been used as a tool for motivation and condemnation. We bandy the word around with a sense of superiority and disgust when talking about people who should have known better. “It’s just common sense.”
We use it to pressure others to our way of thinking, stating opinion as fact and adding a quick, “It’s just common sense.”
We do this to our family, to our friends, to our coworkers, to those we serve, and to those who serve us. We use it to put an end to uncomfortable conversations and to justify our actions.
I was fairly young the moment I realized the falsity of this phrase in its current iteration. When I was in the fourth grade, we pulled up to a car wash bay with the garage door closed against the Midwest winter cold. My dad told me to open it. I got out and frantically searched for a door knob before crawling back into the front seat in defeat.
My dad shook his head and said, “All you had to do was push the button.” Until that moment, I hadn’t seen the tiny, red button pulsing about a foot over my head. Until that moment, I’d never had/seen/used an automatic garage door in my young life. The only doors I’d opened to that point used a knob. My dad continued, “How are you going to survive if you don’t use your common sense?”
My 9ish year old self inherently understood that I could not extrapolate a “common” understanding for something I had never been taught or experienced.
The second my dad got out of the car and showed me how to open a car wash door with nothing more than his pointer finger, I earned “ordinary understanding” of how automatic garage doors worked. I was inducted into the how-to-open-a-car-wash-and-other-similar-doors-with-a-finger common sense club.
My perceived lack of common sense cost me embarrassment, defeat, a small spark of anger, and a sense of not being good enough or smart enough. All because I had not lived and learned the same “common” journey my dad had. It made me tentative to bump up against new things for fear of not knowing what everyone else in the world could effortlessly figure out. It made me diligent about becoming a life-long learner, so as to never be that inept again.
Two-hundred-fifty years ago, Common Sense started a revolution in its quest for freedom. Since then, we have been a nation that pulls together and pulls apart. We have hurt and been hurt. We have advocated for and we have advocated against our family, our neighbors, our government, and our friends.
While we have traveled far on many different paths, no journey has been common, nor has it been wholly unique. Instead, we have traveled–together and separately–toward a destination of equality and freedom.
This year, America will celebrate the past 250 years. That history is bright, and beautiful, and amazing. It is also dark and damaging, with some chapters hidden so far in the shadows as to be nonexistent. Regardless, it is our history. We cannot change it. We can only understand it and our role within it.
During the semiquincentennial, there will be an abundance of dates and people to remember, celebrations, events, parades, toasts, and speeches. As a semi-professional knowledge seeker, I ask that you tap into Aristotle’s “sensus communis” to use all the information at your disposal to better understand the bigger picture. Take the time to (re)learn what those inherent, self-evident, human rights and freedoms meant in 1776 and explore what they mean to you personally today.
This year, give yourself permission to question before doing. Figure out which moments over the past 250 years you want to celebrate and why. Then, carry on joyously, raucously, and whole-heartedly in the way that feels right to you.
To learn more about the history of America’s independence, stop by your local library or check out the National Constitution Center online.
until next time, keep reading, keep learning, and keep growing~ jody
