Law and magic - a thread

(I have tweeted this before, but the 'lockdown' prohibitions have reminded me)

1.

You may think that magical thinking was something only our ancestors did, in silly hats and before black and white photographs

But all sorts of magical thinking have survived to modern times

And one of these sorts is how some (many?) think about law and legal prohibitions

2.

The magical thought is that by 'banning' something you actually get rid of it, as if you have pointed a wand and said aloud some spell of prohibition

And puff the 'banned' thing disappears, because you did the right action and said the right spell

3.

The only difference between this form of magical thinking and the older sort is that instead of wands and spells we have legal instruments and legal text on the page

But the thought (or lack of thought) is exactly the same

Regulations as enchantments, SIs as charms or curses

4

But when you 'ban' a thing, you do nothing directly to extinguish that thing

It is just that occurrences of that thing may now be attended by different legal consequences.

5.

The now 'banned' thing may just go on as before

Or people may now be deterred by the consequences

Or the police may be able to (literally) arrest the thing

Or the underlying reason for the 'ban' may concur with people's own normative views and they will not do it anyway

6.

But just 'banning' a thing will not by itself prevent it

And this is why many prohibitions fail - the words on the legal page are not enough to prevent the thing from happening

7.

Broken spell, I mean thread

Continues here https://twitter.com/davidallengreen/status/1312776651277774848