Common Sense: The Giant Panda of Our Society
Philippines just had it's national elections a few days ago. As expected, the results were mostly disappointing. People just voted candidates based on their popularity, not on their contributions to our country. They didn't care if those candidates let down our country once, if those were from show business, just as long as their names are well-known because their whole clan held positions since God knows when. Commercials, jingles, and "donations" are enough for them to deem the said candidate deserve their valuable votes. Then months after this, when people don't get what they want, they would rally and blame the corrupt government for their poverty when it is them who refuse to work for a living and just keep asking for help from different churches and other groups. Eventually when 3 years pass people are fooled again and vote for the same candidates.
Similar to the situation stated above, elections for class or student council officers ends up the same. Students vote for those people who belong to popular cliques despite knowing that those people wouldn't do their responsibilities and what's worse is that they don't really care if those people do their jobs or not. The only thing students really care about is their batch shirts and they would get mad at whoever the representative is when they are not provided with those shirts.
The country can be compared to a single class or school. Both the countrymen and students lack the ironically rare common sense, voting for popular people even if they are perfectly aware that they won't really do their jobs. They don't learn from their past experiences and still depend on others for things that only they can change(so much for independence and democracy). The difference they have is just that most of the country's elected want the position for their personal gain, while most of the students elected are just forced to run and lead and won't really do anything about the other students' wrongdoings.
Our common sense is important to the well-being of our society, in the same way a giant panda is important to our biodiversity. Sadly, we now live in a world where common sense has become a rare and vanishing commodity, that even the so-called smart or academically intelligent people seem to lack at times(yes, including me). Like the giant panda, our common sense has become endangered, mainly because of our actions and our ignorance. Likewise, it is because we don't use our common sense that we are ignorant.
Our society won't be saved from the injustices we see everyday if we continue to be ignorant and not use our common sense, in fact, these iniquities would get worse. One day we'll wake up and realize that we are not having a peaceful world, rather, a third world war would surface. Ignorance is not as hard to cure as my insecurities, trust issues and paranoia. People don't actually need expensive education to cure ignorance, even the underprivileged can just by knowing the difference on what is right or wrong and acting based on this awareness to make the world a better place. A great example is voting for the right people. By saving our common sense, we can also save other species who needs our help, like the adorable giant pandas.