"Common Sense" in Politics

[chris_gerrib]

So, jaylake had some thoughts about the calls for "common sense" in American politics. It's short and worth a read, but here's an excerpt:

I don't want my airline pilot to use common sense. I have common sense, and I couldn't land a plane with a scorecard and a map. I want my pilot to use Special Pilot Knowledge, experience, and a strong understanding of her well-maintained aircraft to bring me safely back to ground. Which amounts to common sense for pilots, but has nothing to do with me, no matter that I've flown something like two million air miles in my life as a passenger.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague a number of years ago. I had made a remark about how i would like to come to work in a T-shirt and jeans instead of a suit.

His reply was, what would you think if you got on an airplane and the pilot was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans instead of a pilot's uniform?

I said, I don't care what he is wearing as long as he knows how to fly the plane.

His reply -- But how would you know?

Jerry Critter
critterscrap.blogspot.com

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I've always seen this in the same way I see the Creation/Evolution "debate" - a lack of understanding in the way that specialists think and use language for things.

You see it a lot in the Climate Change "debate" too.

I'm not sure there's an easy way of ensuring that politicians are fit for purpose, Brunning springs to mind today, but elections are the best tool we've currently got for that.

I've had this argument ad nauseum with David Friedman and others where they maintain in thinking that people acting in what they think is in their best interests is always going to result in the best outcome. The shear weight of evidence against that position doesn't seem to be a barrier to holding it :(

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Two problems with people thinking in their best interest:

1) Their individual best interests may not be the best collective interest.

2) Determining what your best interest is may not be clear.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Item 1 is a non-starter with a lot of libertarian right leaning types as they pretty out of hand reject the notion of collective interest...

Item 2 is interesting to me because a lot of people really struggle with the concept of what's in their best interest isn't always what they think it is. Terry Pratchett put it well in Witches Abroad, where the good fairy godmother is the one that gives you what you need, not what you want...