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Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

nytimes.com

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Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#141

Post by thaumasiotes »

sangnoir wrote: post #140
hristov wrote: post #53

One interesting factoid that the new york times did not mention is that while it was common for emperors to resign before the meiji restoration, a lot of those resignations probably were not voluntary. The Japanese emperors are the longest reigning royal dynasty in the world, having reigned for the entire known history of the nation. But perhaps heir secret is that they did not have much power most of the time. Durin…

> One interesting factoid that the new york times did not mention is that while it was common for emperors to resign before the meiji restoration It's right there in the article, you might have missed it (or it was added after you read it): “Historically, it was extremely common for emperors to abdicate,” said Takeshi Hara, an authority on the imperial family at the Open University of Japan. More than half of Japan’s…

Selectively quoting an accurate sentence so you can pretend it's inaccurate is not a good way to do things. Take a look at the "while" in the portion you've quoted.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#142

Post by bluejekyll »

cheiVia0 wrote: post #129
cgriswald wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your little factoid is an example of the definition of factoid you're describing. But there are other definitions of factoid and I suspect the most common one is along the lines "small tidbit of information".

Actually, that's the factoid. According to Wikipedia [1]: > The term was coined originally in 1973 as a neologism by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a "piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it’s not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print." Since its creation in 1973 the term has evolved from its original meaning, in common usage, and has ass…

Perhaps we should disambiguate the two: factoid, brief fact. Infactoid, brief seemingly true fact that is not due to repeated use.

It's not literally as bad as the figuritive misuse of literally, where literally has come to mean figuratively and literally... This one I fight all day long.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#143

Post by bluejekyll »

ajuc wrote: post #113
afandian wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only have consequences because enough people imbue the symbol with significance.

He's a CEO of an organization with more than 400 000 people in middle management (priests) alone (and they have to listen to his orders or lose their status or even be sued before a special court). He can make state decisions (small state, but still). Not comparable to strictly ceremonial function of Japan's emperor.

It's not that small if you think of all the property they own around the world. In San Francisco we have quite a few old churches that are basically shuttered.

I'd love to see these sold. Their blemishes on a city that could use them for things like housing for our homeless/low income issues.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#144

Post by whamlastxmas »

philovivero wrote: post #93
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't find it so bizarre Women have made up 50% of the population of Homo Sapiens for the entire age of our species. Literally for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. And it is literally in our lifetimes (give or take maybe 30 years) that the first woman is made the elected leader of a country? I wrote my reply with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, but when you get right down to it, it is phenomenall…

Le sigh. Here comes some greytext. Is it so insanely improbable that, on the whole, men strive toward power and women don't? That there is some slim evidence that there is a gender difference, and women are happy not to be the number one dog everyone is looking to for guidance? This seems to be the exact same argument as "women only get 70c on the dollar compared to men." Well, right, because men pick challenging job…

Don't bitch about greytext. It will always result in greytext and is against the site guidelines.

You're also incorrect about the reasons for pay gap, and also incorrect it's due to different jobs. The pay gap occurs at people doing the same job with the same skills. The reason has to do with things like taking leave from work (gaps in employment) and being less likely to negotiate salary as aggressively.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#145

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

gkya wrote: post #91
TeMPOraL wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I visited there in 2010, I left with a feeling that I visited a sleeping country/culture that was literally missing some polarizing goal to reignite it. Isn't this similar to the whole Western world? I mean, my impression of modern democracies I know is they're similar to headless chickens - running around without a point or a goal, but oh how fast they run. EDIT: to be clear, I'm not criticizing democracy her…

Plato's Politicus has an interesting comparison of different political systems in 302b-303c, putting democracy as basically ineffective, saying a corrupt democracy is the least harmful among corrupt systems, and a good, working democracy is the worst among good, working systems. See the text, starting from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Stat.+302...

In my interpretation of Western democracies, it is the job of the private sector to make life better for people (if a bit unevenly), whereas it is the job of the state to keep lives from getting worse.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#147

Post by DomBlack »

sverige wrote: post #117
daemin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would only occur if Prince Charles was dead.

Not true. He divorced and remarried which makes him ineligible for the crown.

Source? I'm interested into reading why - given Henry VIII.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#148

Post by andrewla »

sverige wrote: post #117
daemin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would only occur if Prince Charles was dead.

Not true. He divorced and remarried which makes him ineligible for the crown.

This is specifically untrue in regards to parallels to Edward VIII; there the issue was that Wallis Simpson was divorced with ex-husbands still living, which at the time, the Church of England did not allow. Charles remarried long after Diana had died, and so is not subject to this restriction.

I'm not intimately familiar with British law, and there may be other reasons why his divorce would make him ineligible, but it would not be for the same reasons that Edward was considered controversial.

Also, as regards Henry VIII and divorce, apparently he used the power of the newly created Church of England to annul his marriages, rather than actually get divorced.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#149

Post by gonvaled »

ptaipale wrote: post #121
gonvaled wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stalin was probably undervaluing religious zealotry.

Yes, though zealotry is perhaps the wrong word here - zealots were a Judean movement that rebelled against the Roman Empire and sought to expel it by force of arms; zealots are associated with violence. Pope's influence has over the recent centuries come over non-violent conviction of followers. Daesh has lots of zealotry, Catholics less so.

I meant potential zealotry: Catholics seem to be quite peaceful nowadays, but my opinion is that this is a temporary state of affairs.

Religions are totalitarian, since they are the holders of the One Truth.

Re: Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne

#150

Post by PeterisP »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #67
ptaipale wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it so bizarre. The emergence of women to major political roles is a thing of the past 1-2 generations in almost all of the world (with the exception of some monarchs). (I guess it would be almost safe to count Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988-90 and 93-96, as a monarch...)

> I don't find it so bizarre Women have made up 50% of the population of Homo Sapiens for the entire age of our species. Literally for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. And it is literally in our lifetimes (give or take maybe 30 years) that the first woman is made the elected leader of a country? I wrote my reply with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, but when you get right down to it, it is phenomenall…

It's just a few generations ago, my grandmother's lifetime, that women started to have any say whatsoever in who is the elected leader of the country, much less getting elected themselves.
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