Fiction and Common Sense

When I think about how things ought to be, I tend to become more philosophical. A work of fiction works in a similar way as the author tries to penetrate deeply into a reality that has not existed, although he very much thinks it's possible and civilization would be better for it.

The popular politician Robert Kennedy in one of his speeches, famously quoted George Bernard Shaw:

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

Today we still hear this sort of sentiment all the time, it's constantly reinforced in pop culture and has become a subtle cliché. When you dream you're going after the pursuit of perfection, the striving toward an ideal or vision that you believe is necessary for whatever reason.

Aristotle's classic Poetics, as one of the earliest records of literary criticism, made a critical distinction between history and poetry. History accounts for things as they are, a plain representation of facts; while poetry or fiction is about portraying an imaginable idea that needs to be envisioned, so in essence it's more philosophical.

Basic psychology nowadays uses a similar rhetoric when they discuss the differences in brain hemispheres and their effects in our cognitive abilities—right brain versus left brain. One is based on analysis, the other intuition; or you can say feeling and interpretation versus logic and sequence.

Both have its deserved spot in the humane life; and it's key to understand how they work hand in hand, balancing each other out.

Seeing how things are requires a more keen observing eye. If you rely on philosophizing too much you'll get fairly deep in analysis, but you'll start compensating for the broader view. At the same time, if you just focus solely on the facts, you'll get caught up in the details and pedantry at the expense of obscuring the general fundamentals which good ol' common sense is always are of.

Those who have taken the study of history seriously are well aware that in the nature of things there is always a cause and effect and while not everything repeat themselves exactly the same, there's always a consistent relationship or pattern through time. Memorization of dates, titles, names, events, and other factoids definitely assist in this study, though it's a secondary concern compared to having an accurate overview from sustained reading.

Knowing history is to become experienced; and like Cicero, I believe if you lack any knowledge about what came before, you will always remain a child. Caring only about imaginary worlds and idealistic fantasies leads to naiveness and the vulnerabilities associated with an immature teenager.

Learning has no limit besides time; and seeing what has happened previously saves a lot of that time for the more active observer.

Nevertheless, for those wanting to cultivate a sound ability for common sense, it's important to consider the explanatory power of fiction. Narratives and stories can provide a lot of introspective material to digest and to put into thinking about how things actually are. Before the Prussian model took control over the administration of learning, reading the great tragedies and epics were considered essential for being educated.

To know if an ideal is healthy or objective is an extreme difficulty if you are not aware of any depictions others have made in their fictional works. Certain individuals may find it easy to have an internal understanding, though without with any examples we have few directions mapped out.

Curiosity, for it's own sake, has led much of the youth to get acquainted with the mind of Jules Verne and Heinlein among others, inspiring many of them to become scientists and engineers creating the new which hadn't yet been done.

Science fiction can be seen as a proper illustration of how ideas ought to be, eventually becoming realized in the digital world including crypto innovations from the radical works of the cypherpunks. Matthew Arnold described this whole processes very well when he said:

The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

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