The Moderator’s Paradox (a barber’s paraphrase)

Suppose there is an Internet Community with just one moderator; and that every person in the community keeps himself moderated: some by moderating themselves, some by obeying the (one and only) moderator.

It seems reasonable to imagine that the moderator obeys the following rule:

• He moderates all and only those members of the community who do not moderate themselves.

Under this scenario, we can ask the following question:

- Does the moderator moderate himself?

Asking this, however, we discover that the situation presented is in fact impossible:

• If the moderator does not moderate himself, he must abide by the rule and moderate himself.

• If he does moderate himself, according to the rule he will not moderate himself.

• (To see a Greek discussion about a recent attempt of censorship in GREEK TELEVISION, only remotely relevant to the original paradox, click here).
• To see the original (Barber’s) Paradox, which is derived from Russsell’s paradox, click here.