The youth of the country have often been labelled as lacking in common sense. Misreading an entire generation on purpose is a strategy used by society in an attempt to control them.
“You people misbehave in every situation. You don’t know what to say, where to say it, or how to speak to people; you have no common sense at all.”
Most of us have heard some version of this sentence before we were old enough to argue back. In classrooms. At dinner tables.
It’s always delivered as a reprimand, but it functions as a verdict. No explanation follows. No discussion is invited. The accusation, in itself, is intended to put an end to the discussion. The phrase is a shortcut; a dismissal. It is a way to avoid engaging with unfamiliar logic by pretending it doesn’t exist.
Perhaps, that’s exactly how “common sense” is perceived, as a construct of how to behave, how to speak; a monologue for all our actions from dusk to dawn. Who to speak to. How. When. And maybe most importantly, when not to speak at all.
When older generations use this argument, they are rarely pointing to a universal principle. They are pointing to familiarity: ways of speaking, deferring, and enduring that once kept the world predictable for them. Those patterns hardened into instinct, then into morality. Over time, obedience came to be read as maturity, silence as wisdom, and questioning as beyadobi.
Dismissing an entire generation as “lacking common sense” is not an honest assessment but a strategic misreading on their part. It reframes difference as deficiency and adaptation as arrogance, helping to frame our logic as disrespect. A weapon to control our minds and voices. By labeling the unfamiliar as ill-mannered, their power avoids having to justify itself.
But, is common sense timeless? What was true a century ago, is it true in today’s time? No. Common sense has never been absolute, and it has always been contextual, but uncommon sense has created this rigid perception of what common sense is supposed to be. What makes sense in a slower economy, under stable hierarchies and limited platforms, does not translate cleanly into a world shaped by precarity, speed, and permanent visibility. And a refusal to accept that the world has changed faster than inherited instincts can keep up, is what we could call a lack of common sense.
From another perspective, what feels like common sense is also a social contract. Families, schools, workplaces, entire societies codify it: ways of interacting, responding, deferring, negotiating. It’s invisible, but it’s everywhere.
The younger generations are growing up in overlapping crises such as climate threats, pandemics, economic precariousness, political instability. Their instincts, as a result, vary vastly from their elder generation.
Now, both perspectives are valid in context. The older generation navigates systems that reward predictability. The younger generation navigates systems that reward adaptation. They both have logic. They just aren’t always compatible.
Common sense hasn’t disappeared. It’s just shifted. And it’s time we relearn.