Progress comes with the freedom to think

Although common sense appears common, it is hardly common. Yet it is the basic element in running anything, countries included. Diplomatic Historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote in his book, ‘On grand strategy’ that common sense is like oxygen that diminishes as one rises to higher altitudes. In governance, people who climb into the socio-political stratosphere become dizzy with power.

When the socio-economic and political environments ignore common sense in favour of temporal might, society sinks deep into instability. When that happens, using common sense becomes an act of rebellion of the mind that questions the given. Questioning the given is a societal necessity, so argued Socrates the Athenian as he taught the youth to think. Unfortunately for Socrates, one of his best students, Plato, advocated the stunting of thinking with his “philosopher-king” prescription to governance. Since then, many tyrants, acquiring philosopher-king pretentions, have ravaged the world.