I got into an argument with someone the other day. Perhaps "got into" isn't the right word. I made a statement, admittedly universal and generalized, that he disagreed with. I don't like universal statements, but sometimes they are true. And since I am a narcissist, I have the right to determine that truth value. Here is the statement he disliked:
"Common sense trumps education."
It took me awhile to understand what about that statement was disagreeable. Looking back, I now think it was merely threatening. To a person who only has an education, this would devalue them more rapidly than a new car leaving a dealership parking lot.
The problem with this sentence, I think, is that it requires common sense to believe it. (Quick test: Do you believe it? Yes? Good. No? You lack common sense. Disagree? See above statement concerning the rights of narcissists.)
He provided a quick example: gravity. He said to me: "Common sense doesn't tell us that their is an invisible force that pulls two objects of mass toward one another."
And, I'll admit it. I was impressed. He used some nice words.
But, my response: "No, but common sense does tell me that if I throw something in the air, it is going to come back down." If I remember correctly, some variation of that is a popular euphemism. That's it. That is what I need to know.
By no means do I not see education of importance here. It is good that science has qualified and quantified the concept of gravity. It informs astronomy, engineering, even sports. What I want to impress, however, is that common sense must inform education, but common sense must always be the trump card.
Continuing this metaphor: the trump card is the card that always wins. It has the final say. This does not mean that all of the other cards are useless. It just means that it has the final say.
I realize, that, at times, education seems counter to common sense. I here would argue a distinction between intuition (which often gets us into just as stupid situations as a flawed education) and common sense. Intuition is instinct. Common sense is sense. Everyone has intuition and instinct, by definition. (Except sloths, maybe. Something about intuition seems to require a sense of immediacy, and nothing is immediate about sloths.) Common sense requires thinking. Stupid and common sense cannot operate together. Stupid and intuition can.
Go. Get an education. You have my blessing. But if you jump off of a cliff in order to measure gravity, I'm going to laugh at your obituary. And probably draw a mustache on the picture, too.
