“The responsibility for our most basic knowledge of ‘reality’ (as defined by
the ‘language of the day’ in a particular culture) we call common sense.
Common sense is a set of shared cultural rules for making sense of the world.”
(OK370)

Autistic folks seem pretty much left out of that...

...and there is no small frustration at the frequent illogic of this so-called common sense. It’s like, “What is wrong with these people? Can’t they see how stupid the stuff they’re doing is?”

Yet someone who feels that way is seen as lacking common sense, if not actually locked up (ref. the discussion of “insanity” in Robert Pirsig’s “Lila”).

The definition of “basic” seems culturally determined, too. Some of what is evidently considered “common sense” can be quite nuanced; some (as with taboos) is so starkly defined that acting counter to this “basic knowledge of reality” is intended to be literally unthinkable. A built-in censor is established. Somehow I don’t believe I have one of those, as a lot of what I have to sift through in my stream-of-thought seems pretty unfiltered; there is a conscious “I shouldn’t be thinking this”, but that is after the thought has begun. What I end up doing is weeding out inappropriate thoughts as they germinate rather than having this nice, orderly garden where only “nice things” grow in the first place.

Last revised: June 20, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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