Current location:Culture Channels news portal > politics
VOX POPULI: LDP lawmakers’ remarks about political funds create a paradox
Culture Channels news portal2024-04-30 02:32:02【politics】9People have gathered around
IntroductionThere exists a famous paradox involving a Cretan who claims, “Cretans always lie.”If we assume this
There exists a famous paradox involving a Cretan who claims, “Cretans always lie.”
If we assume this statement to be true, it implies that the speaker, being a Cretan, must also always lie.
Consequently, the statement “Cretans always lie” cannot be true, creating a contradiction with the initial assumption.
I remember hearing this paradox in junior high school and being utterly confused by it.
Now, let us shift our focus from the Cretan’s statement to the statements of certain lawmakers, who are often called “sensei,” and assume they are true.
Senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party’s faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe uniformly made a claim at a recent session of the Lower House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics.
They claimed they were not aware that so-called “kanpukin” funds--part of the money raised for the faction through fund-raising parties that exceeded the quota of individual politicians and was returned to them--were not declared in the political fund income and expenditure reports.
The Abe faction members said they believed everything was being properly handled.
In 2022, it seems, they apparently paid no attention to the words of then faction Chairman Shinzo Abe about this matter.
At the time, Abe reportedly decided to stop the practice of refunds, calling it an “opaque" scheme that could “raise doubts.”
It’s hard to imagine that these politicians did not ask Abe what he meant by “opaque” given that the boss’s decision would reduce the political funds they desperately wanted.
Subsequently, the faction’s policy concerning this matter flipped back to continuing the dubious practice.
If these politicians still claim they were unaware that the funds were not being duly reported, that would mean all the blame falls on the faction’s clerical staff responsible for accounting.
If the politicians are telling the truth, it means that despite knowing the practice to be illegal, such staff kept completely silent, informing none of these senior members of the faction.
However, this whole scenario seems implausible.
Instead, it seems likely the initial assumption that the faction leaders told the truth at the council session is incorrect.
The statements of these sensei lawmakers lead to contradictions.
Far from dispelling political distrust, it seems their remarks have only deepened the feeling.
Are Cretans always liars?
We can enjoy such a paradox because it is an intriguing play on logic.
Politicians’ claims, however, are part of the real world.
We cannot afford to be merely bewildered by their words.
--The Asahi Shimbun, March 3
* *
*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Address of this article:http://reunion.whetstonetavern.com/news-60d199936.html
Very good!(4)
Related articles
- Global tourism revenue to total $5.8 trillion this year: Report
- Blinken begins key China visit as tensions rise over new US foreign aid bill
- New Clemson coach Poppie adds former Alabama starting point guard McQueen to his program
- Doctors combine a pig kidney transplant and a heart device in a bid to extend woman's life
- Data security in focus for safe AI use
- Arizona lands Oakland star forward Trey Townsend out of transfer portal
- Married couple are charged with fraud after 'dine
- Ohio lawmakers negotiate to assure Biden makes the state's fall ballot
- Search continues for 6 missing after Taiwan's 7.3
- With lawsuits in rearview mirror, Disney World government gets back to being boring
Popular articles
- Antiques Roadshow guest shocked by astonishing value of medieval stone head she found in her DRAIN
- Zoe Ball announces death of her 'dear mama' Julia following short battle with pancreatic cancer
- Veteran DEA agent sentenced to 4 years for leaking intelligence in Miami bribery conspiracy
- Austria coach Ralf Rangnick confirms Bayern Munich contact
Recommended
Charlotte Dawson puts on a VERY leggy display in a thigh
Biden signs a $95 billion war aid measure with assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
Doctors combine a pig kidney transplant and a heart device in a bid to extend woman's life
America's best public high school is revealed, as judges of prestige survey hail students' college
LeBron James EXPLODES on Lakers coach Darvin Ham for not challenging out
Poland's prosecutor general says previous government used spyware against hundreds of people
Our £600,000 new
The summer after Barbenheimer and the strikes, Hollywood charts a new course
Links
- Country presses the accelerator on rail development
- Xi Stresses Striving for Full Revitalization of Northeast China
- Country presses the accelerator on rail development
- Xi Extends Condolences to Libya's Presidential Council Chairman over Deadly Storm
- Xi Sends Congratulatory Message to China
- Shanghai swoons over Federer again as legend holds court
- Development of nation's central region in focus
- Elementary school students participated in after
- Xi Story: Assessing Losses for Flood
- Chinese police take back 130 gambling, scam suspects from Cambodia