Seán Moncrieff: People love a bit of common sense, but there’s not a lot of it about

July 22nd is auspicious from an astrological point of view. It is the last day assigned to the star sign Cancer. Tomorrow, the star sign is Leo. That means that if you are born around this time, you could be sensitive and quiet, or not so sensitive, and mouthy. It’s astonishing how accurate these things can be.Here we go: how could I be so closed-minded? How dare I sneer at a belief held by millions of people around the world? Astrology is complex, thousands of years old, blah blah blah.Yeah, grand. I’m not going to argue the point. Mostly because I’m not too pushed about it. I don’t think a belief in astrology, casual or fervent, does any great harm. And, of course, people are entitled to believe what they believe. It’s just when I hear an otherwise intelligent person say: “Oh, I’m a typical Libra”, I do have to put some effort into stuffing my judgment back in my mouth. Because, you know, it’s nonsense.The idea that a star, the light from which can take a century to reach here, can influence the personality of a child born today defies common sense. Yet the idea is routinely trotted out as if it’s generally accepted. As one of the American founding fathers Thomas Paine wrote: a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. READ MOREI’m quoting Paine not just to appear clever, but because it came from a pamphlet he wrote called Common Sense. He didn’t invent the phrase – it goes back as far as Aristotle – but he did seem to make it popular. [ Climate change should dwarf every other issue yet momentum is stallingOpens in new window ]Centuries later, that’s still the case. People love a bit of common sense. You’d be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn’t know what it is, or doesn’t think that they possess it. Yet it’s also a highly weaponised form of words, often included in the bios of social media accounts run by cranky old men. I have common sense. But there’s not a lot of it about.That sentiment dates back to Mark Twain, and it implies an inherent contradiction. If common sense isn’t “common”, then perhaps there’s no such thing. Rationally, people should be freaking out about this, should be screaming for our governments to take drastic and immediate action on climate changeThe phrase is regularly used to bypass complexity or expertise. What’s the best way to build a children’s hospital or come up with a fair migration system? Just use common sense: that basic set of beliefs that the vast majority of us agree upon. But if there’s one thing that addictive doomscrolling should have taught us, it is that no such basic set of beliefs exists. Humans will disagree with each other about everything. Common sense is based on false consensus, an individual’s view of themselves as sensible and an assumption that most other people will see the world the same way as them. But they don’t.Equally, we are not nearly as rational as we like to think. We make false equivalences. We ascribe motives to each other when we have no way of knowing what’s going on in another person’s mind. We fall victim to confirmation bias or retrospective justification. In the ways we shop, we vote, we dress or even choose partners, we rarely weigh up all the pros and cons and make a considered choice. As often as not, we go with our gut and come up with the reasons later.[ Boris Johnson tells UK to live ‘fearlessly but with common sense’Opens in new window ]This summer has been unnaturally hot in Ireland. Across Europe – again – there have been fatal wildfires, people stuck in their homes for weeks on end. Parts of our Continent are, for the summer months, edging towards being uninhabitable. It’s a clear pattern, and it’s terrifying. Rationally, people should be freaking out about this, should be screaming for our governments to take drastic and immediate action on climate change.But that’s just my version of common sense. Perhaps there’s an astrologer who can come up with a better idea.