Ep. 101: The False Universality of “Common Sense”
Added 2020-02-19 15:32:50 +0000 UTC“145 CEOs Call On Senate To Pass 'Common-sense, Bipartisan' Gun Laws,” NPR states. “Local Democrat pushes back on NY bail reform law: It's about 'common sense,' not politics,” a Fox News headline reads. “The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Trump’s Appeal to Common Sense Is His Dismissal of It,” The Nation warns. Everywhere we turn we are told by pundits and politicians that "common sense" demands we support their preferred policy prescription.
It's a common appeal: a political issue—whether health-insurance, immigration, foreign policy, or gun violence—reaches a real or perceived extreme, and, in reaction, media pundits and political figures claim the most appropriate response must be ostensibly neutral, reasonable "common sense" reforms.
But these claims are insidious. While "common sense" may appear to be a constructive guiding principle, there is no meaningful definition of the concept and when it is evoked, it's almost always an appeal to status quo ideology. What’s sensible to a member of the Tea Party isn’t the same as what’s sensible to an activist seeking to end police violence. So, whose “common sense” is really being promoted when we hear these calls to action?
On this week's episode, we explore how appeals to “common sense” present politics as a matter of rationality rather than of morality; how these demands reinforce centrist and right-wing ideologies and how the Left can work to build an alternative common sense.
We are joined by cultural anthropologist Dr. Kate Crehan, Professor Emerita at College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center.
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Guest
Dr. Kate Crehan is Professor Emerita at College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center, and the author of Gramsci's Common Sense: Inequality and Its Narratives.
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Show Notes
Why 'common sense' is so popular with politicians, at least in their rhetoric
Chuck McCutcheon | October 26, 2015 | Christian Science Monitor
Common Sense is always Reactionary [PDF]
Geoffrey Nowell Smith | November 3, 1971 | 7 Days
Book Review: Gramsci’s Common Sense: Inequality and its Narratives
Rose Deller | January 4th, 2017 | LSE Review of Books
The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Trump’s Appeal to Common Sense Is His Dismissal of It
Sophia Rosenfeld | March 1, 2017 | The Nation
Yes, the Republican Party has become pathological. But why?
Lee Drutman | September 22, 2017 | Vox
Chantal Mouffe on the crisis within liberal democracy
McKenzie Wark | June 17, 2016 | Public Seminar
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
Towards the end of the interview, I think your guest was referring to this great analysis by the Nerdwriter (https://www.thestreet.com/opinion/the-smart-stupid-way-donald-trump-talks-13418003, or perhaps another more conventional academic source) which points out that what sounds like blather and bluster to smartypants people actually seems practiced to function as crude, effective salesmanship to many others in a country primed to reject critical thinking and embrace the prosperity gospel, MLMs and all variety of scams, cons, good deals and “common sense solutions.”
Emvee
2020-02-19 23:45:13 +0000 UTC
