Sadly, common sense is not at all common in this day and age.  Even the "commonest" of sense is lacking.  Take bad behavior.  When I was a kid, anything "fresh" toward my parents was hastily squelched.  Once, my mom overheard me utter a remark geared toward her to a neighborhood playmate.  "What she doesn't know won't hurt her" was voiced secretively in regard to spending lunch money allocations on something other than lunch.  Well, by my mother's reaction, one would think I had committed high treason.  Punishment was both swift and harsh enough to produce its objective.  That was, in this case, respect for your mother.

Fast-forward to around 1990 or so.  I was a new teacher, just having completed my Master's in education.  Teaching jobs were hard to find, but I was able to snag a temporary assignment in a school where I had survived my student teaching.

None of the students behaved, but one in particular was evil incarnate.  The only thing I could hold over him as incentive to behave was a class trip the last week of school.  That worked pretty well, up until the end, when he could not control his dark side and decided to throw a chair out of the 3rd-story classroom window.  There was nothing else I could do at that point but take him to the principal and explain why he was being barred from the trip.  I was satisfied that the principal agreed, and a plan was made to bring the boy to his office the morning of the outing.

The day arrived, and I brought the little mischief-maker back to the principal.  I was absolutely floored when this horror show of a headmaster made a 180-degree turnaround and, without regard to safety or consequences, allowed the student to board the bus.

Now, we are living in a time in which those committing crimes will not likely face up to consequences befitting their transgressions.  In California, it appears that homelessness and petty crime go together.  All kinds of offenses are occurring with little or no accountability for those involved.  New York is suspending bond and bail for criminality, including assault, arson, bribery, resisting arrest, and so much more.  Radical mobs are outright intimidating and assaulting those who don't agree with their philosophy and are mostly getting away with their heinous behavior and actions.

The tiniest bit of common sense would indicate that bad behavior and disregard for law cannot be corrected with inaction.  In other words, bad behavior without consequences begets more bad behavior.  This is elementary stuff, right?

The 19th-century American humorist Josh Billings penned the following: "Common sense is the ability to see things as they are without prejudice and do things as they ought to be done without influence of any kind."  Herein lies the big problem.  Hardly any of the lenient attitudes regarding consequences for criminal behavior is devoid of the influence of identity politics or blaming everything but the perpetrator.  According to Billings, this is not seeing things without prejudice and preconceived notions, meaning there is no ability for common sense to factor in to the equation.

Only when we take off the woke glasses and cease to blame bad behavior on anything other than what it is will we make a return to what was always more common and sensical.  For those of us who see things through a mostly clear and unobstructed lens, it may be a very long wait.