英語検定ライティング準１級（第347回）

パンとサーカス「お好み焼きとカープ」

古代ローマの政治が腐敗した理由として一般市民が政治的アパシーだったと言われている。国民を支配する側が適度に食糧を分配すると同時に夢中になれる娯楽を提示していたのでそれなりに満足できる生活を送れていた。政治は悪事を続けられた。
Ancient Rome suffered from various political corruptions, whose reason was that something strategic conducted by the politicians was so successful that almost all the public were contaminated with something satisfactory.
A famous phrase “Bread and Circus” means that the situation where ordinary citizens aren’t hungry and are absorbed in something entertaining could enable the government to maintain the public order, in short, they succeeded in considering numerous ordinary citizens as someone politically apathetic, which forced them not to become someone hostile toward the government, at the same time, not to complain about the rulers, we assume.

私たちの地域では現総理大臣が次の総選挙で当選しないようにとの運動がある。お好み焼きとカープで支配されていない市民の運動だ。今はカープが首位にいるのでストレスが溜まりにくい。為政者の戦略は狡猾だ。今の風潮に必ずつけ込むはずだ。
In our neighborhood, there has been a little radical campaign that the current prime minister shouldn’t win the next general election, which means that numerous ordinary citizens haven’t been polluted with “Carp and Okonomiyaki,” and they keep something hostile toward the government party, in short, toward their kickbacks.
In recent months, we tend not to have something furious toward the notorious tax fraud committed by numerous malicious Diet members because our favorite baseball team has been in the leading position by a little gaps.
But the rulers’ vicious schemes cannot absolutely fail to take advantage of the current trend, an article says.

自民党は裏金を作って社会を支配してきた。だが悪事は明らかとなり逆風が吹いている。オリンピックで日本がもっと活躍したら改憲はスムーズにいってたはずだがフランスの姑息がそれを邪魔した。野党は踏ん張りどころなのだが頼りにならない。
Over seven decades, the notorious Liberal Democratic Party have produced a tremendously large amount of kickbacks, which has been helpful to maintain their ruling position, but in recent months, their continuous repulsive behaviors have been exposed to ordinary citizens in our society, and this public trend is against their policies.
They might wish that even more Japanese athletes had won even more medals in Paris, which might have been successful to produce the trend that the current Japan’ Constitution should be reformed toward the conscription.
Various unfair judgements by France became in the way.
Several opposition parties should have made efforts to eliminate the current government party from the center of the political business, which we cannot expect.