Pub Signs

The Hand In Hand Pub on Wimbledon Common, London, UK

I've always enjoyed different pub names and their signs outside. Above, The Hand In Hand pub on Wimbledon Common always struck me as both a nice name and an appealing sign outside too. From yesterday's blog I thought to myself, The Knight 'N Knave might be a good name and a good sign too, for a pub, if "We The People" win the Referendum vote?

According to Historic UK, under their article Pub Signs Of Britain:-

"The origin of inn signs goes back to the Romans. The 'Tabernae' would hang vine leaves outside to show that they sold wine - in Britain, as vine leaves are rare (due to the climate!), small evergreen bushes were substituted. One of the first Roman tavern signs was the 'Bush'. Early pubs hung long poles or ale stakes, which might have been used to stir the ale, outside their doors. If both wine and ale were sold, then both bush and pole would be hung outside."

"The naming of inns and pubs became common by the 12th century. With pub names came pub signs - as the majority of the population could not read or write. In 1393, King Richard II passed an Act making it compulsory for pubs and inns to have a sign (his own emblem the 'White Hart' in London) in order to identify them to the official Ale Taster. Ever since then, inn names and signs have reflected, and followed, British life at that time."

Old Coffee House, Soho, London

 

Looking at the above public house in Soho, London, The Old Coffee House, the similar public place for people to meet and chat and talk as per Coffee Houses:-

The 17th-century French traveler and writer Jean Chardin gave a lively description of the Persian coffeehouse scene:

"People engage in conversation, for it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being fearful, since the government does not heed what the people say. Innocent games... resembling checkers, hopscotch, and chess, are played. In addition, mollas, dervishes, and poets take turns telling stories in verse or in prose."

In Argument Abstraction the idea of "sticking" to the central point of the argument would promote superior quality arguments and ways with which we resolve our disagreements and hence promote quality democracy on a greater scale. The problem of actually achieving this basic state was considered in The Knight 'N Knave and how the increase in complexity (fragility), in magnitude (fear) and in unpredictability (uncertainty) were effectively weapons of discouragement to people making decisions based on their risk vs pay-off perception.

looking at the Pub Signs, and their practical reasons under conditions when most people were simply "illiterate" in their origins for public use, it is possibly instructive to compare today's "Political illiteracy" and lack of political knowledge across the public, aka "The 90 Fools" as per Argument Abstraction. It seems to me that FLEXCIT acts as another major Concept Shift:-

The Referendum Question = Time Point = Fixed Event = Brexit as Threshold Defined

Both our present Frame Of Reference = Supranational Membership for >40yrs and our possible/potential future, Frame Of Reference = Intergovernmentalism are both Complex. Arguments will easily become bogged down in details, and that makes the work of "The Nine Knaves" that much easier than of that of the "One Knight" to educate and inform "The Ninety Fools" (The People and yes that's what the Knaves really think of their people for letting them in charge: Derision!). What FLEXCIT does is:-

 

FLEXCIT: Light-Years ahead of all other Brexit plans

• Identify the link between the pre-Referendum ie the Campaign (reduce uncertainty loops)
• The minimization of Risk on the decision itself Quadrant 1 tendency as much as possible (reduce magnitude and hence over-promising also!)
• Understand that processes work more superior if they are "iterative" as opposed to all the other Brexit plans which are "declarative" fallacies" (reduce fallacies via minimizing assumptions)

 This is an attempt to abstract the essential qualities of FLEXCIT itself; let alone actually analyse in detail it's sheer complexity on policy and strategy and conceptual power. And hence returning to the idea of pub signs, the actual decision itself if accepting that the Central Point of the Argument is Disagreeing absolutely with Supranational Membership and replacing it with Intergovernmentalism leads to the Pub Sign Equivalent for people to use, of FLEXCIT on the Referendum Day:-

 Arguing The Central Point + Using a Pub Sign "to go with the words"!

I've laboured in thinking how could I possibly provide the shortest, simplest answer to being asked why I think people should vote "LEAVE" supposing a TV Crew and all the crassness of that context was put to me. And I think the idea of The Pub Sign as a means of communicating to a politically illiterate people (thanks to the Knaves who have seen to this result being sustained for decades, bear in mind) then if they complain that's "over-simplifying" the decision, they have only themselves to blame. What all arguments hinge on whether or not their quality is the zenith of the nadir of the "pyramid of Argument Hierarchy Quality" is Honesty and Truth with which hence to make an informed and free decision on. Take that away and you take peoples' real political freedom from them.

Given we do have FLEXCIT, we can use that promote the idea of The Referendum Question as a Pub Sign with which to act as a guide for people who just want a good drink of democracy on their life's travels without the lies of politicians depriving them of that one simple demand!