Banish Common Sense « Communication & Common Sense

Banish Common Sense

01Jan09

If you have spent any amount of time listening to the radio in the last couple of days, you probably heard mention of this year’s list of overused or useless words and phrases that should be banished. If you haven’t, you can check out the full list by visiting Lake Superior State University’s website. Personally, two off of their list that I most agree with are “green” and “bailout”.

Now I am not at all opposed to the concept of going green for the most part but what I find really annoying is the fact that there really is no agreed upon definition for what is or is not green. If you talk to one person, a product is not green unless every aspect of it is environmentally friendly. On the other hand, a lot of people consider products, let’s say shampoo, that themselves are environmentally friendly but may not be packaged the same, still to be green. And what about products that the contents really aren’t that great but the packaging is fully biodegradeable? And what is environmentally friendly – methane from cows…I will assume at this point that you get the picture. If you want to introduce me to new terminology, please be sure that there is actually a definition for that term first.

Bailout. As with several million other Americans, my frustration with this word is endless so I won’t even start. You can get a general idea of my thoughts if desired by reading my post “For $700 Million, the Answer is…”It’s Not My Problem.”

But I do have a suggestion for a word that it seems has unfortunately become useless. Common sense. Apparently, looking around at the world today – the politicians, the executives, the influencers, etc. – common sense is not something that is used with any regularity. So often, I wind up dumbfounded when listening to those who are purported to be “experts” in their fields. I often think to myself “Does this person actually believe the things coming out of his or her mouth?” I mean, regardless of your particular education or experience in life, if you just take a moment to step back and apply common sense to a lot of the scenarios playing out around us and be honest enough to acknowledge the results even if you don’t agree with them, one couldn’t help but ask them, “Are you serious?”

So with this reasoning, I woefully submit to the list the now useless term, common sense. RIP.