An Ideology of Common Sense is a new way of thinking and a new way of talking to one another, a new framework for rational discourse, based on the proposition that even in our fractured world there exists a core set of principles which are universal in their scope, and which have universal appeal. Common sense may be the only gift we were given to bring order to our lives. In our fractured world, common sense is the common denominator!

If the world is beginning to come together technologically and economically, shouldn't we at least try to bring the world together ideologically? Try to imagine what could happen for the betterment of man if Common Sense could somehow become Ideology. Since the dawn of human civilization, there have been scores of religious, political, social, and economic ideologies which ended up on the ash heap of bad ideas. The trouble is that the bloody conflicts over bad ideas have left behind millions of corpses in their wake.

As a species, can we afford to continue believing in what we want to believe, or should we begin to believe in what makes sense? It could well be argued that Common Sense must be conferred ideological status because doing so may well be the only sensible way of bringing a semblance of order to this fragile and often volatile world.

We find ourselves trapped in a room that is so full of B.S. that we only have about two inches of air left near the ceiling. Isn’t it high time to cut through all the nonsense, to get back to core truths, to find common ground, and to bridge the ideological divide? By the way, just for the heck of it, try defining "common sense" in one sentence. What if our survival as a species depended on it?

When the President of the United States speaks, he usually stands at a podium that has the Presidential Seal affixed to it. The Seal of the President of the United States features the American Eagle holding two things with her talons: a cluster of arrows and an olive branch. The message is clear - while America is prepared to wage war whenever necessary, she remains eager to make peace whenever possible.

As a nation, we have plenty of arrows out there, but not much of an olive branch, and yet we may well need both to win the war against ideological extremism. In today’s globalized world, an olive branch means nothing less than Selling a Vision of Hope. Give the man on the street a sense of hope, and you will have turned the corner on world peace. Nothing less will suffice and nothing more is needed.

Our dream is to start a grass roots movement to sell a Vision of Hope in our time. Stranger things have happened. Granted, all this may seem a bit naive at first glance. But don’t you think that not doing anything, and hoping things will work out, may be even more naive? Everything of great import begins with a vision. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and suddenly the dream of civil rights was no longer just a dream. Start with a big vision, give it some substance on the ground, and soon enough the reality will become as big as the vision itself.

Such is the dynamic of change in the world, and such is the prescription for change in the Middle East. It is high time to think out of the box that is us - to get over ourselves and beyond our differences. This may well be the time, before time runs out, to dream the impossible and to make the impossible come true.

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