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Short short with English summary    

携帯電話
近頃、地下鉄車内での携帯没入の姿が、さらに増えてきている感じがします。 スポーツ紙・週刊誌・漫画本の時代には仲間入りしていなかった、高校生・中学生が、携帯族となったからでしょうか。 もっとも、声高に話しているよりもメール、どうもメールよりも、ゲームに夢中という例が多いようです。
周りを見回すゆとりのある車内で、ひと目で眺められる人数は、8人位ですが、そこに一人は必ず誰かがという時には、携帯族が多いなあと思うのです。 二人いると、もう、そこら中で携帯が活躍している気がしますね。 8人中四人となると、車内が完全に携帯族に占領されてしまった気分になります。
8人中4人が携帯を取り出しているという車内の場面を想定して、「車内での携帯使用を禁止しよう」という提言をして、民主主義の基本原理に従って、投票したらどうなるでしょう。 そのとき、携帯を取り出していない人々のポケット・鞄の中には携帯が入っていることは相当に確かなので、圧倒的多数の「禁止不賛成」となるでしょうか。 それとも、携帯使用中の人々も、言われてみれば、という気持ちになって、「禁止」ということになるでしょうか。  微妙ですね。
世界の民主的国家では、投票・多数決が基本的大原則なのですが、最近の投票・選挙では、反対・賛成のつばぜり合いとなる例が多いようです。 過半数となる党派がなく、極く少数の第三の党派が決定権を握ることも、発生しています。 我々は、多年にわたって繰り返した、大失敗・悲惨な不幸の経験から、優秀な独裁者国家よりは、回り道・無駄が多くても、衆愚・民主主義国家を選んでいます。  携帯・ゲーム機の楽しみは、衆愚的生活の典型です。 いずれにせよ、1回のみの、限られた人生・一日・一時間をどう消費するか、なかなか難しいですね。


Mobile phone
So many passengers in cars of Tokyo’s subways are eagerly handling with their mobile phone. It seems the numbers of them are increasing day by day. There was a period when many passengers used to read sports or evening newspapers with rather indecent topics, then a period of weekly magazines of the same sorts and then a period of Manga magazines. Those papers and magazines often were left on the overhead shelf since gentlemen dare not take them office or home. There were men who collected those papers to resell them. We can still observe these professional paper collectors today. School children and students were not among those readers. It is rather natural. Today the mobile phone lovers are over the all boarders, sex or age. Therefore we meet so many passengers using mobile phones in the subway cars. But if you observe them closer, not so many of them are actually talking or sending mails. They are playing games.
In Tokyo’s subway car, you can catch 8persons in one perspective. When you very often find one person using a mobile phone, you get a sense that so many people are with m.p. If you find two persons with m.p. you feel the car is full of m.p. users. And, if there are four persons using m.p. the car is totally occupied by the m.p. troop.
Supposing if I am in a subway car, 4 of 8 persons are fully occupied by mobile phone operations, and if I make a motion that the usage of mobile phone shall be banned. And according to our democratic rule, I insist on voting. Would my motion one-sidedly be rejected? Most of the passengers certainly have a mobile phone in their pocket. Or, could my motion be approved? Since there are some even those who are playing with their mobile phone might be feeling perhaps sometimes without mobile phone are not so bad. Delicate situation.
Today in our world, most of the nations are democratic. Their fundamental rule is based on the vote and the decisions follow the majority. Recently we observe the result of vote, pro / anti balance are getting very close. It isn’t unusual that no side could get the majority and a tiny third party takes the casting vote. Through our big fatal miserable mistakes, we have learned that the democracy, the populism, the ochlocracy, even if there are detours and a lot of waste, is better political system than the dictatorship lead by a hyper intelligent person. It is typically populist life style that consists of pleasures given by mobile phone and Nintendo. Any way, we have one and unrepeatable life with a day of 24 hours. How should we consume days and hours?
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