Why is the answer important?
Common sense is a shape shifter. Defined as actions that conform to standards of morality or respect, the term has been used to justify everything from violence and colonialism to food aid and fair housing. Certainly, contradictory opinions, changing attitudes, political differences, and historical experiences demonstrate their decency in ways that are hardly comprehensible from the century to the next.
For those seeking principled guidance on decent behavior today, this fluidity could be crazy. For others, it is a trivial concern when compared to the messy and unpredictable state of the modern world. But George Orwell knew well. Words and terms are what he claimed, regardless of the year or decade. “Language can corrupt thoughts,” Orwell writes, “The smoothness of our language makes it easier to think stupid.”
The definition of decency moves and changes with the times, so when the era itself is corrupted, decency and all other moral terms (from tolerance, integrity, generosity to accountability, respect, conscience) are strengthened. Just as Alice kept silent in Wonderland, if these moral terms were debated, erased or simply ignored, “everything becomes nonsense.” “There’s nothing what it is, as everything isn’t.”
Source: Stories by Jeff Miller on Medium – jeffmiller-50455.medium.com
