Common sense is intelligence based on logic, simple observation, and trial and error. As such, it doesn’t require any book learning or access to special inside information, hence the name common. It is common to all reasonably intelligent people. It is non-elitist. Of course, it’s logic, unsuplemented with detailed or scientific knowledge can often be flawed. Common sense will tell you the earth is flat for instance. But it generally functions well for every day tasks such as working out that it’s better to put your leggings on before your army boots, lol.
I figure there are a few types f people who revel in the use of common sense and love to see common sense trump education and higher IQ.
The first type is someone who is not very smart, nor very educated. They might be more or less rational and logical. They enjoy the fact that for once they can one up the person who generally feels superior to them. Can you blame them? It sucks always being at the bottom of the pecking order. Besides, sometimes they are actually correct and for them, that is a red letter day!Of course, not being so smart, their logic is sometimes wrong. Still, it makes sense to them because they fail to see the errors in their logic. So to them, common sense has provided an airtight argument.
The second type of person is someone who is very smart but just doesn’t have much education. I think it’s important to differentiate between stupid and uneducated. This person sees the stupidity or some opinion or approach to a task that even smart people who are educated can be prone to. After all, being smart doesn’t mean being infallible.
The last type is someone who is street smart and people smart. Often they have a lot of emotional intelligence even though they are not very educated. They amuse themselves by watching all the silly things that other, seemingly more intelligent people say and do. Reminds me of the character in Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain. She is poor, uneducated and illiterate. Yet without her, Ada, the rich farm owner left to her own during the Civil War would not be able to survive. She teaches Ada her folk knowledge and what wisdom she’s picked up from her hard scabble existence and a real respect and love develops between the two women.