Introduction

This article is written by BerkOp's English Columnist Kyu Park.

Common Sense Not So Common: Introduction

The irony of common sense is that although the knowledge of the sense is common, the execution of it is rare. As I have been reading many books in the army, I have come to encounter the Koreans’ favorite genre: self-development. Most of these books’ lessons overlap and even worse, are cliché. This, however, tells us that all one needs to succeed is common sense indeed. But we are oblivious. We all know yet forget common sense in our lives. As a result, people are commonly full of uncommon sense. Although I’m not a famed writer with a successful story to back me up, I would like to write a series to remind myself as well as others of some common sense. Honestly, we don’t need a genius to write about common sense, do we?

The motivation for this series comes from my current experience in the military. The values that we define to be good and just are treated as mere theories and are seldom practiced in life. What hurts the most in the army is that everyone - inside and outside of the army - consider the military experience as wasted youth. It is as if it is ‘common sense’ that the army is an undeniably frustrating place to be at. I admit that the army isn’t my favorite place to be, but the role and importance of the army is crucial. How people have so much faith that South Korea would not go into war with North Korea is proof of how well the military is doing its job. With some deliberation, it is easy to make this necessary experience positive. Beyond the physical limitations, the mindset is what changes everything. And mindsets can be changed with common sense.

A healthy mindset is useful everywhere. That is why I want to share these articles not only to soldiers but to everyone out there. It is to remind myself, my comrades, and everyone around me about how common sense could enrich life. Let us take this chance to think once again about obvious things and how they affect our lifestyles. I must admit that my own common sense isn’t perfectly unbiased; therefore, I will welcome challenges through comments since there is no guarantee that mine is the singular, or even correct, commonality. Also, I do appreciate that every individual is different and special. Nevertheless, I still believe that there are some things that most people would generally agree to, and that is what I would define as common sense in this series.