The easiest way to get people to vote against their own interests in modern times is to simply tell people you stand for ‘common sense’.
The term dates back to Aristotle, who was attempting to explain perception. Common sense was the uniting of our five senses into recognising a single object. Take tea – you can smell, see and taste it, you recognise the feel and you can hear it being made. We don’t know how others taste, smell or see it – we have no comparison to our own, but our ‘common’ shared knowledge of these senses tell us all it’s tea.
Very quickly, savvy communicators saw a way to apply it to politics.
In 1776, Thomas Paine sparked the beginnings of the American revolution with his pamphlet ‘Common Sense’: “Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to defend us.”
As Paine wrote, “time makes more converts than reason”, and so, common sense, which he argued sat with the people, against kings, now tends to sit with would-be kings cosplaying as workers, convincing them the needs of the wealthy are the needs of all.
“It’s a common sense revolution,” claimed Donald Trump in his second inaugural address. Shortly after, Trump’s “common sense” told him diversity was to blame for the fatal collision between a plane and a helicopter at Washington airport. (It wasn’t diversity – it was systemic failures, including cost cutting, which were to blame).
Trump’s common sense revolution, as Prof Barbara Leckie and others have identified, is an updated take of conservative Ontario leader Mike Harris’s ‘common sense revolution’ which cut social services and welfare in the 1990s.
In Australia, the purveyors of ‘common sense’ are Pauline Hanson and her conspiracy of senators who argue the populist far right take of the day as ‘common sense’. David Hughes, who only found a political voice when he felt something was personally being taken from his future wealth, claims it’s not ideology, but ‘common sense’ which is guiding him.
Which is amusing – Hughes’ wealth is neither common, nor his complaints based in sense. But he has managed to tap into the seemingly ever flowing political grift of grievance, in which by expressing his individual displeasure at not being able to grow his wealth in quite the same manner, he’s convinced some people his loss is theirs.
Hughes’ property wealth is passive income and not productive. It’s wealth built from other people’s incomes. But because he, like Pauline Hanson – a multi-millionaire in her own right – once struggled financially, they pretend their wealth is immaterial to their current grievances, instead of being their primary concern. It is only a short skip and a jump from the ‘common sense’ politics of ‘they’re taking something from me’ to support for ‘I want to take liberties from them’.
Hughes is now advocating for Australia’s spy agency to focus on those who disagree and correct him on social media. Hughes has the space to say and support whatever he wishes, but, like others who take correction and accountability as a personal attack, now wants the power of the state security apparatus to control who can have a voice.
That’s not common sense – it’s fascism, and where this strain of ‘common sense’ leads.
Since 2001, ‘common sense’ has seen Australia pass more than 100 pieces of national security legislation.
These laws limit our speech, our liberties, our rights and our movements – in ways most people don’t understand until they are applied to you.
The most recent laws which passed through the parliament give ASIO as broad a brush as they wish in who they question and detain. It was an extension of powers ASIO already held, but now can be aimed at anti-genocide protesters based on vibes and political will.
The Counter-Terrorism Amendment Bill, introduced on August 12, can control who “certain individuals” interact with and what areas they move through. The ‘common sense’ approach, which is pushed by authoritarians and would-be fascist ideologues is that ‘if you’re not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about’, but in Australia – which appears to be following the US in a democratic backslide – the laws are applied based on political agendas, not safety.
Instinctively, we know this, which is why Hughes – as he continues his right-wing slide – immediately reaches for control in the face of correction.
When you look at what Australians actually want, you can’t help but see a silenced majority. Not silent – silenced. People who want something different but feel bullied into submission and silence by the loudest, and often wealthy and least common, voices.
Four in five Australians want a total ban on gambling advertisements; 72% of Australians support a flat tax on gas exports; and up to seven in ten Australians want laws that make it harder to access a gun.
But we don’t hear about that (unless you read Deepcut News or other independent outlets). We don’t hear from the Australians who just want Israel’s genocide of Palestinians to stop. We don’t hear about the dissent regarding the adoption of artificial intelligence. We don’t hear about the concerns Australians have with lobbying and the influence of vested interest groups in our politics. We don’t hear about the concerns of the silenced majority – we hear from the rich who are only concerned with their wealth, and we’re told it’s ‘common sense’ to ignore ‘noisy activists’ who push back.
The warped politicisation of ‘common sense’ is drowning democracy. And it’s about time we pushed back.
It is always confected to sound so reasonable as the knife of authoritarianism is held to democracy’s throat. Only problem is, in Dave Hughe’s case, all I can hear is an incredibly irritating incessant whine. Our democracy is under grave threat from those who are uncomfortable hearing the truth if it counters their interests. AHPRA has just caved to the interests that don’t want discussion about the appalling situation in Gaza, even threatening, I believe, to trawl health professionals social media proactively in a bid to enforce silence. A health society thrives in the light. I feel the darkness descending and the irritating whine getting louder.
So true. The trouble is that it all goes back to the mainstream media which is owned by the rich. We don't hear about reality because the media aren't broadcasting it. Anyone who just reads mainstream media is a captured audience.