"long habit makes a wrong thing seem reasonable and time makes more converts than reason"

Is that a definition of common sense, VT? It sounds like one to me...

Most 'common sense' arguments I hear are whatever the right wing press are saying at any given time. And, interestingly, definitions of 'common sense' on resources such as Urban Dictionary define it negatively as something lacking in 'liberals, socialists and communists' (I guess lumping that disparate group together is another example of the 'common sense' approach at work). Which fuels my belief that 'common sense' in 21st Century Britain is a reactionary, right wing construct.

I also notice that appeals to 'common sense' are most often made when someone is losing an argument... especially if the person they are arguing with is using logic, rationality and other post-enlightenment tools...