Warning: contains no humour
As a purely topical observation, I tend to equate "common" with "has no interest in the outside world". It has nothing to do with manners, or parentage and only a little to do with eduction.

Example - my partner has a friend who, when asked whether she believed in God replied "Don't know. I've never really thought about it". Never thought about it? For fucks sake, how can you have "never thought" about one of the great divisive issues of modern times? So, in spite of being a well-educated woman with a senior level admin job and a rich-as-croesus project manager for a husband, in my book she's common as dirt.

We know someone else who does routine caravan maintenance for a living and yet will discourse happily on current affairs or morals or any number of other esoteric topics over a pint of beer in the evening. The person doesn't know much about economics or politics or philosophy or anything like that, but you don't need that - just an enquiring enough mind to have read something in the paper and wondered ... what does that mean in a wider context?

It's depressing how many apparently well-educated people fail this test.

It should also be patently obvious that 99% of Americans would probably fail.
(MattDP (Squiggle), Mon 20 Oct 2008, 16:02, 8 replies)

Up until the age of about 22 I would have agreed with you
but then I realised that the more you think about stuff the more miserable you get. If you think too much you really do go mad.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 20 Oct 2008, 16:15, closed)

I wouldn't say that.
What you've described is not so much common as boring. And while I know that this applies to the majority of my country's people, I would say it also likely applies to the majority of the rest of the people as well.

Dull people are everywhere, and it goes beyond socio-economics or nationality.

My own observation is that about 80% of humanity are idiots. This doesn't apply to IQ as much as attitude- most people would prefer not to think. I know engineers and lawyers and doctors who prefer to stay within their little comfort zone of familiarity, listening to the same music they listened to in their 20s and eating the same foods and watching TV in the evenings, rather than trying something new and different and discussing things outside of their immediate lives. I also know bricklayers and travel agents and secretaries who can tell you about things from Norse mythology to gardening to obscure bits of British history. There is no hard and fast rule.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 20 Oct 2008, 16:36, closed)

You really are the voice of reason for B3ta
now go and run for president. I would vote for you, unfortunately i'm a convicted felon British citizen so can't.

You have 2 weeks.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 20 Oct 2008, 16:55, closed)

Hell no!
I'd probably end up firing 80% of the government and causing wars by telling people to pull their heads out of their asses and think. I would be a terrible president, because I'd make them do their jobs properly.

The real irony in this is that I'm the voice of reason, yet I call myself a loon...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 20 Oct 2008, 17:16, closed)

"dunno haven't really thought about it"
might be code for "fuck off you nosey bastard. I wrestle with the big questions as much as anyone but I really don't want to have to discuss them with you right now."
( cupboardy, Mon 20 Oct 2008, 17:45, closed)

But *why* do you feel we all need to think about it?
Just because everybody else does? Just so they can join in with being confused and people having arguments with them and so they can take a side and join in with the wars and misery?

I don't understand why everyone feels the need to know *fucking everything*. I'm here, I am really enjoying life, I'm experiencing- what does it matter where I came from or if there's a great big bastard in the sky? It doesn't matter, what matters is I am here.

So I'll side with her, even if I have thought about it in the past. There are far more important and enjoyable topics to think about.
( vix0r was not Matthew on, Mon 20 Oct 2008, 20:37, closed)

The subject of deism isn't the question, per se.
That was just an example. Another might be whether or not there's other life in the universe, or how life here started, or whether or not ghosts exist. Other possibilities might be the real purpose of Stonehenge, how birds navigate when migrating, ideas for alternative energy, or if dolphins are as intelligent as humans.

The point is that there are loads of people who never look beyond their immediate world, and are consequently rather boring to talk to. They can tell you all about baseball scores or what engine was in the 1959 Lincoln Continental, but discussing and debating the big questions of life? Not a chance. They won't express an opinion because they've never thought about it. They can memorize, but actually think? No.

The most interesting people I've met are the ones who like to think, whose minds are active and like to play with ideas. They're the ones who have the interesting insights into most things. Sadly they're a small minority of the population.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 20 Oct 2008, 20:54, closed)

Well...
Between having a family, keeping my job ticking over and looking for the next, in amongst the hobbies, the writing and painting, etc, I don't have that much time to consider whether various deities had much to do with it.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Mon 20 Oct 2008, 20:43, closed)