My common sense is not the same as yours

By Joshua Elmore:

My common sense is not the same as yours. Yet from birth humans have a general idea about right and wrong.

Children as young as six months have been observed to make moral judgments, but much of what they come to consider moral is shaped by their culture.

So here we are, living together with formal rules governed by law, along with education, which informs citizens of the ways they are expected to act.

However, this is changing.

There are two forces that contribute to culture which are intersecting today. The first is the way things have always been; real world interaction with those closest in proximity. The second is the way we are headed; experiences and opinions shaped by global ideologies.

Technology has introduced the globe to societal alternatives and is redefining the way people see themselves and those around them.

Take the civilian unrest many dictatorships are now experiencing. That is a product of their culture being influenced by nations like them who have since changed their own fate through revolution.

The common sense we understand to be ubiquitous throughout each culture may be expanding. Global values are now being adopted, and we all have a chance to influence its direction.

No longer are we trapped by manufactured information about what is happening in the world. We can access citizen forums in almost any country and read about their experiences first-hand.

One out of every four people in the world speaks English says the British Council, while demand for the language is increasing. This means that the only obstacle keeping us from meaningfully communicating with humans everywhere is disappearing.

The masses will dictate what is normal and what is not. Propaganda may take a subordinate role in the new world where online ads can be blocked and content is created by users.

There is a general movement toward increased interaction on a macro scale. Governments and economies have worked in this realm since before they were formalized and given names. But their access to central control mechanisms has been scattered by collectivist technologies.

Government will always play a central role in expansion; there is no other way for us to stay organized. What a global government looks like may be up for debate and there will be many opinions.

There will no doubt be interesting questions to answer about how we will adapt to a global environment, such as, what will be our cultural values and will be considered common sense?