Vote

If you take Inshitemiru as a game, a rule of it is remarkable: All players vote to determine whether someone is guilty – and it doesn’t matter whether that someone did commit the crime or not. In fact, in the middle of the novel, it becomes clear, both to the readers and amongst all characters of the story, that the decision depends more on the immediate (social) need rather than the truth.

On the face of it, the regulation seems irrational. But, on a second thought, that’s what most of us are doing – even in the law court.

You may say: No. The jury does vote, but they do so according to the fact.

Alas, I would say: They make the decision according to the material being presented, which, as Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn long pointed out, may represent the truth, part of the truth, what we hope to be the truth, or what we hope the others think what we believe to be the truth.

And, after all, jury is a collection of human beings. By definition, they are laymen, and their judgment would easily be biased after being led (hopefully not misled) by the lawyers. (Well, if they are legal professionals, they are biased to start with!)

“Shouldn’t the judge be leading the jury to reach the reasonable solution?” You may ask.

Oh, don’t you realize that’s another source to introduce bias?

And, the worst bit is, rather than each member of the jury form their own conclusion, they may now all be led to a particular direction.

Like the lemmings?