ricky

life is beauty, sublime, picaresque, a treasure. We are in a loop of irrationality predicated by internal coherence to closed systems/ideology and selective ignorance immune to revision. How did we (the West) go from the trajectory visible by the 1980s - formal equality under general rules and wider space for empirical correction, in contrast to protected moral premises and administrative filtering.

I guess i'd call it pathological irrationality.... The ordinary safeguards we rely on—intelligence, consistency, sincerity—turn out to be more vunerable than we like to assume. Most people treat “being rational” as something that automatically pulls toward reality and away from catastrophe. The history of closed systems shows the opposite can happen: once a belief is treated as non-negotiable, the same cognitive skills that normally correct error can be used to protect it, to recruit others, and to escalate costs. The people involved are applying reasoning inside a frame that has already excluded the considerations that would stop them. Most reasoning stays loosely tethered to ordinary costs, to contradictory evidence, and to other people’s resistance. The extreme cases usually require additional conditions: social isolation of the belief group, high emotional investment in the conclusion, and the absence of competing institutions that can still impose external checks. Those conditions are real, but they are not automatic.. The scariness is less that reason itself is dangerous and more that reason is only as good as the constraints it is willing to accept. When those constraints (evidence, proportionality, the survival of the thing one claims to value) are treated as optional, the same faculty that can correct error becomes unusually effective at multiplying it. That is a structural feature.

Nothing in the British constitution suggests that showing the national flag (the Union Flag/Union Jack, or the flags of the constituent nations such as the St George’s Cross) is unconstitutional. The opposite is true: it is a recognised national symbol, flying it is generally permitted, and official guidance encourages its use. gov.uk The UK constitution is uncodified. It comprises statutes, common law, conventions, prerogative powers, and practice rather than a single written document with an explicit bill of rights or flag provisions that could prohibit national symbols. There is no “Flag Act.” The Union Flag is the national flag by long-established custom and practice (dating to the 1801 Order in Council incorporating St Patrick’s Cross), not by a modern statute that could restrict private or public display. flaginstitute.org Official position and practical rules Government guidance states that the Union Flag is “a symbol of national unity and pride” and that “the government wants to see more flags flown, particularly the Union Flag.” Departments and local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales are encouraged to fly national flags daily. The Flag Institute and official sources confirm that no permission is needed to fly the Union Flag, St George’s Cross, Saltire, Welsh Dragon, or other listed national/local flags on private property (subject to ordinary conditions such as safety, good repair, and not obstructing highways or signs). They are generally exempt from advertising/planning consent requirements that apply to other flags. gov.uk Attaching any flag (or other material) to public highway infrastructure such as lamp-posts without the landowner’s (usually the highway authority’s) permission can breach highways or criminal damage rules and attract fines—this is about unauthorised use of public property, not the constitutional status of the national flag itself. Councils have applied for injunctions in some cases involving unauthorised street displays; these are enforcement actions against illegal attachment, not bans on the flag. reuters.com Relevant legal context • Freedom of expression is protected under the Human Rights Act 1998 (incorporating Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights). Displaying a national flag is a form of expression; any restriction must be prescribed by law and proportionate. • Public-order laws can apply if a flag (of any kind) is used in a threatening, abusive, or disorder-provoking manner, but mere display of the national flag does not meet that threshold. There is no specific offence of flying or even burning the Union Flag in public (unlike in some other countries); context matters for offences such as those under the Public Order Act 1986 or criminal damage. • Northern Ireland has specific regulations (e.g., Flags Regulations (NI) 2000) governing flags on certain government buildings due to political sensitivities; these do not prohibit private display of the Union Flag and in some cases require it on designated days. An older Northern Ireland law that restricted certain flags (while exempting the Union Flag) was repealed decades ago. In short, the constitution and statute law treat the national flag as a legitimate and encouraged symbol of the state and its constituent parts. Claims that displaying it is unconstitutional or inherently unlawful do not hold up; restrictions that exist are practical (planning, property, public order) and apply more broadly.