Life

Why I Chose Common Sense as the Theme for This Blog

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Hot button topics usually become hot buttons when common sense is pushed out of the way in favor of a few other, less desirable qualities.

Hot-button topics, otherwise known here as “Talkers” are a regular area of discussion here at Patrick’s Place. The reason is simple: it’s not that I always offer some revolutionary idea no one else has had, but that I’m able to see both sides of an argument and acknowledge that one side doesn’t always have the monopoly on being right.

I was reading an article over at Relevant Magazine about how to stay civil in political discussions on Facebook. (And unless you aren’t on Facebook at all, you’ve seen political arguments there.)

It’s so easy, as the article suggests, to lose sight of mutual respect and anything resembling manners in the race to make your point, convince everyone else that you’re the one who has all the answers and that anyone who disagrees is just a big fat idiot.

Common sense, however, dictates that one might pause for a moment and look for what’s right and wrong from both sides of an argument. Some of the best plans in everyday life come from compromise, in which potential problems one person saw were brought to the attention of another who didn’t see them.

Anger, frustration, one-upmanship and dishonesty turn political debates into flame wars.

I can’t count the number of posts I’ve seen from people who were all fired up about one controversy or another, who decided that they needed to send a jab towards those who disagree (rather than suggesting anything even resembling a viable alternative, mind you), and did so with a post so biased and twisted that it’s almost laughable.

Yet their political opponents get so equally fired up that they ignore the obvious twisting of facts for the sake of going into attack mode.

Let’s face it: what does anyone reasonably expect that to accomplish? How’s that honestly going to change their mind on a political topic?

What I try to do here, with “talkers” or most any other topic, is to look for both sides of the argument, then, through the colored glasses of common sense, figure out where the rightness and wrongness of an argument is. I’m sure an SEO expert would insist that I come right out and say “common sense” 30 times per post just to make sure the search engines know what I’m up to.

But as much as I’d like to rank in the top 100,000 on Alexa, I write for my audience, not for a search engine. Sure, I do my best to incorporate SEO practices into my writing, but not at the expense of what I have to say and how I really want to say it.

You may well disagree with things I say; no two people’s common sense is exactly alike, just as no two people’s individual points of view are exactly alike. Our common sense, much like everything else, comes out of our upbringing, our influences and our life experience. In my case, thanks primarily to my mom, who has a great deal of common sense, I’m able to do enough critical thinking to set aside — at least temporarily — my own strongly-held opinions to listen to what others say.

That doesn’t mean I’ll agree with them, naturally, but I can’t think of a better way to determine where I stand than to figure out where those around me do.

Common sense requires us to stop talking sometimes and listen more.

I hope that philosophy comes through in my posting. And I hope that mindset is contagious.

Can you imagine how much more we’d be able to accomplish in the world if all the screaming stopped and more collaboration began?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.