This has been one of VOX’s (Far-right political party) slogans in its Andalusian campaign. “Common sense” is an ambiguous expression. A lion’s instinct (which is essentially the wild version of our common sense) dictates the most effective strategy for catching the graceful and defenseless gazelle and devouring it. The gazelle, for its part, will use all its instinct—its common sense—to evade danger and survive with its young for as long as possible. I, a teacher, have always felt more like a gazelle than a lion out in the open wilderness of this beautiful and harsh savannah we call life.
In Andalusia, the right wing has represented, since time immemorial, the interests of the most powerful: first the aristocracy of blood, and now, as always, the aristocracy of money. They are the strong ones, what in nature would be the lion, the eagle, and the big fish. Descartes wrote, not without irony, that common sense is the most evenly distributed thing in the world, since everyone believes they possess it. Judging by the election results this Sunday, we are not exactly overflowing with that faculty — at least not the 64.8% of us who turned out to vote.
Ah, if only one could be a little more gazelle and a little less common linnet (or gullible fool) !
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