Common Sense, anyone?

COMON SENSE, ANYONE?


    There I was, in the condiments section of Chowking (Colon), when I was faced with an unanswerable question "Which one is the ketchup?". common sense? Not applicable.
    There were two colors: red and yellow.
    Common sense would tell you that red is ketchup and yellow is mustard...
    But common sense would also tell you that chinese restaurants don't need mustards...
    Another thing common sense would tell you is that one of them is bound to be soy sauce and therefore, less sticky than the other.
    I mean... For goodness sake! If both were ketchup and the other one was spicy, one of them should be ORANGE not YELLOW!
    So I ask a waiter, "hi... which one's the ketchup?" He answers, "both of them." He was looking at me as if I was being ridiculous or I was just asking him to get his attention. So I ask again, "Which one's the 'not-spicy' ketchup?" Then he answers, "the red one." I could almost hear the 'duh'... I mean COME ON! Give your customer a break! OTHER restaurants keep the original container for the spicy ketchups to HELP customers identify them... Use your common sense!

    And what is up with that "common sense" thing? I used up all my "common sense" and yet had to still ask the waiter which one was which. Is there really a "standard" for common sense? Can common sense really dictate how a problem can be solved?
    First of all, common sense doesn't seem to be "common" (as not everyone seems to know how to use it) nor is it a sense (five senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. where's "common"?). And as I've noticed, culture comes into how you use your common sense. Should it be called "cultural sense" then?
    For example: you meet someone new. So you shake his hand. Brief and firm, which "mostly" stands for confidence and masculinity. But in Africa, it's common sense to shake someone's hand limply and usually it can last for more than just a few seconds (which in an American's common sense, would mean physical attraction or flirtation). So how can your "common sense" interpret something like cultural norms?
   
    The answer: I think there is no such thing as common sense... if there was, it doesn't count for much. There is intelligence, instinct, cultural bias, moral inclination, etc... and we make our decisions based on that. Ironically, common sense is referred to as "perception" and "impression". Isn't that the thing we're supposed to avoid when we're going to use our common sense? Aren't we supposed to be aiming for some kind of higher knowledge?
    Call me impatient or even crazy, but I've always been pissed every time a teacher answers a question with "use your common sense". I wanted to answer "and which one would that be? sight?" I'd rather have someone tell me to use my brain than imply that I haven't been using my "common sense" (whatever that may be).

    Try googling "common sense". You'll find philosophical arguments and definition, but none of them really answer anything.