The Invisible Prison of Common Sense

Let's talk about that cosy little mental prison you're sitting in right now.

You know, the one with the invisible walls made of "that's just how things are done" and the bars forged from "well, everybody knows that."

Spoiler alert: you're not just the prisoner – you're the architect, contractor, and prison guard all rolled into one adorably oblivious package.

Welcome to the most effective prison ever built, where inmates not only lock themselves up but will fight to the death defending their right to stay imprisoned.

And yes, I'm talking about you, you beautiful fucking disaster, nodding along with what "everybody knows."

The Five-Way Circle Jerk of Common Sense

Common sense is about as common as a unicorn at a board meeting, and makes about as much sense as putting a screen door on a submarine. It's essentially a greatest hits album of shit people were too lazy to question, remixed for modern audiences who are too comfortable to hit pause.

"Everyone knows you need a college degree to be successful!"

*cough*

Tell that to Steve Jobs, you expensive-piece-of-paper-clutching cutie.

"Everyone knows you should buy a house instead of renting!" Ah yes, because nothing screams financial freedom like being chained to a mortgage in a city you might hate in three years.

"Everyone knows you need to work your way up the corporate ladder!"

Right, because the best way to reach the top is definitely to follow the exact same path as everyone else.

That's totally how innovation works. 👀

The Bullshit Factory: Now With 24/7 Production

Oh, you thought common sense just appeared naturally? That's adorable.

It's manufactured with the precision of a Swiss watch and the subtlety of a drag queen at a Mormon church service.

Here's how the magic really happens:

Take one slightly successful idea, add a pinch of oversimplification, throw in a bucket of peer pressure, and voilà! You've got yourself a piece of common sense that'll be passed around like a joint at Woodstock.

Let's talk about that 40-hour work week you're probably trapped in.

Spoiler alert: it wasn't handed down from the heavens on stone tablets. It was basically a "fuck it, this'll do" compromise between factory owners and unions back when the height of technology was being able to make cars in colours other than black.

Yet here we are, a century later, with computers in our pockets more powerful than the ones that sent humans to the moon, still organizing our entire lives around a work schedule designed for people who thought radios were basically magic.

Make it make sense, I dare you.

Want to feel better about your questionable life choices?
The let’s take a stroll down memory lane and look at some of history's greatest hits of common sense cock-ups.

Picture this: It's the 1800s, and some wild-eyed doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis has the absolute audacity to suggest that maybe – just maybe – doctors should wash their hands between cutting off limbs and delivering babies.

The medical establishment's response? They literally threw his ass in an asylum.

Because obviously, the crazy one was the guy suggesting that severed limb juice might not be great for women in childbirth.

Or let's talk about Alfred Wegener, who had the nerve to suggest that maybe continents move around. The scientific community treated him like he'd just proposed that the Earth was shaped like a giant rubber dick.

Fast forward a few decades, and oopsie! Turns out the continents do move, and every geologist who laughed at him had to eat a big ol' slice of humble pie.

My personal favorite?

Kodak, bless their soon-to-be-bankrupt hearts, invented the digital camera in 1975.

Then proceeded to bury it deeper than your high school emo phase because "film will never die." Well, weren’t they fucking surprised when film died harder than my will to live during Monday morning meetings.

The Global Clusterfuck of Contradictions

Here's where it gets really juicy.

What passes for common sense in one place is absolutely batshit crazy in another. It's like a global game of "Would You Rather," except everyone thinks their answers are the only sane ones.

In Japan, wearing shoes inside your house is about as socially acceptable as fingering your asshole during a job interview. Meanwhile, Americans are over here treating their carpets like the streets of New York, tracking in everything from dog shit to existential dread.

Some cultures think it's totally normal to have three generations living under one roof, while others consider it a failure if you haven't moved out by age 22 and started your own personal journey of crippling rental payments.

Of course, each group is absolutely convinced their way is the only logical way to live

It's like watching different sports fans argue about which game is better, except instead of sports, it's their entire worldview. And just like sports fans, they're all simultaneously right and ridiculously wrong.

When the Facade Starts Cracking

That gorgeous moment when your common sense starts falling apart like a Jenga tower after six shots of tequila. It usually starts with something small, like questioning why you're spending half your life paying for a house you're barely at because you're too busy working to pay for the house you're barely at.

Take the whole "renting is throwing money away" argument. This little gem has convinced more people to make terrible financial decisions than a pyramid scheme convention.

Meanwhile, some clever bastards figured out that they could rent gorgeous places in different cities throughout the year, invest the money they saved on maintenance and property taxes, and end up richer both financially and experientially. But sure, Karen, tell me more about how your 30-year mortgage is "building equity."

Or this piece of common sense fuckery: "Greater Education = More Success."

This philosophical turd has convinced millions of people to trade their financial freedom for a piece of paper that, in many cases, has less real-world value than a roll of premium toilet paper.

Don't get me wrong—education is fantastic.

But thinking you need to spend $200,000 and four years of your life to learn in an age when you can access virtually all human knowledge from your goddamn pocket?

That's some premium grade-A bullshit right there.

The Price of Freedom (Spoiler: It's Worth It)

Here's the thing about breaking free from the common sense prison: it's about as comfortable as dry humping a cactus, without any lube in sight.

When you start questioning this stuff, you're not just challenging ideas – you're basically walking into people's mental living rooms and taking a massive dump on their favourite beliefs. Often from a great height.

Turns out, people get really pissy when you tell them there’s another way to live

"What do you mean I didn't have to spend 30 years at a job I hate? Shut your whore mouth and let me enjoy my damned quiet desperation in peace while I continue to pay of my stupid house!"

Living outside the common sense bubble means constantly swimming upstream while everyone else is floating along with the current, posting inspirational bullshit on LinkedIn about "going with the flow."

The psychological toll is real, folks.
It's lonely. It's uncomfortable. It's sometimes scary as fuck.

That discomfort is actually your bullshit detector getting stronger. If you're not at least a little uncomfortable, you're probably not pushing hard enough and just trading one set of unexamined beliefs for another, like switching from Coke to Pepsi for your ‘health’.

Technology: The Ultimate Common Sense Wrecking Ball

Technology today is basically running around like a toddler on Red Bull, smashing our common sense to pieces faster than we can rebuild it.

Twenty years ago, people thought you were crazy if you suggested buying shoes without trying them on first. Now we're all out here buying entire wardrobes on our phones while sitting on the shitter.

Remember when it was "common sense" that you shouldn't get into cars with strangers? We literally have an app for that. Or when sleeping in a weird house was the beginning of a horror movie plot? Airbnb turned that into a business model.

Each of these "obvious truths" didn't just turn out to be wrong – they turned out to be hilariously, spectacularly, catastrophically wrong.

Breaking Free (Without Breaking Yourself)

Here's the real tea: breaking free from common sense prison isn't about becoming some contrarian wanker who disagrees with everything just to be different.

That's just becoming a dick with extra steps.

It's about developing your own ability to think, to question, and to not accept "because that's how it's done" as a valid fucking answer to anything.

Some common sense will sitll turn out to be valid – even a broken clock is right twice a day. But you'll know why it's valid, instead of just nodding along like a dashboard bobblehead.

The real power move isn't rejection – it's examination. It's about developing your own mental bullshit detector that works better than following the crowd's greatest hits of unexamined beliefs.

Your Jailbreak Starts Now

The most dangerous prison isn't the one with bars and guards – it's the one where the inmates are convinced they're free. Your common sense prison is probably the comfiest cage you've ever been in, but it's still a cage.

The good news? The door has always been unlocked. The bad news? You're going to have to walk through it yourself, and the world outside is wild, uncomfortable, and full of possibilities that your common sense says are impossible.

Start questioning. Start examining. Start asking "why" until people get uncomfortable. Because in a world that's changing faster than a chameleon in a disco, yesterday's common sense is tomorrow's cautionary tale.

Remember: The only truly common sense is knowing that most common sense is uncommon nonsense. Now get out there and start breaking some mental walls.

Just try not to be too smug about it .