EWU AUDC 2009 Motions

AUDC 2009 Motions

Round 1
"Action speak louder than words but not nearly as often" - MARK TWAIN

SYMBOLISM: These debates analyse the importance of actions and their symbolic impacts. Debaters would do well to try and quantify the role of symbolism in these contexts and whether the price is worth paying.

- This house believes that entertainment awards should not be bestowed on individuals who have committed acts of domestic violence in their private lives
- This house will not allow being labelled a homosexual as grounds for defamation claims
- This house wants politicians convicted of corruption to resign even when the political fallout is minimal

Round 2
"It ain't over until ...well ... its over" - YOGI BERRA

INTRACTABLE CONFLICTS: These are the evergreen debates because they deal with seemingly unsolvable problems. Here we end up trying something creative in order to achieve that elusive end-game.

- This house would let Iran have its nukes ... if its wants them
- This house thinks that the two state solution is not going to work .. and thinks three states is more like it
- This house wants Obama to lift the embargo on Cuba without any pre-conditions

Round 3
"One day soon the gillette company will announce the development of a razor that, thanks to a microchip, will travel ahead in time & shave beards that don't even exist yet" - DAVE BARRY

BRAVE NEW WORLD: Technology changes the rules of the game so fast that these debates are about age-old principles reincarnating in a technological context.

- This house would scrap copyright laws in the internet age
- This house would tax virtual commerce such as in Second Life
- This house believe that genetically modified foods should be embraced without reservation

Round 4
"Human rights are a Western invention" - MAHATHIR MOHAMMED

RIGHTS: Often, claiming that someone has a right to do something is the end of an argument. These debates explore the limits of fundamental rights and test if fancier rights are a natural extrapolation of the unquestionable ones.

- This house believes that an individual's right to free speech includes his right to defame religions.
- This house believes life is sacred but you can end it if it is yours
- This house would allow people to experiment and experience psychotropic drugs

Round 5
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others we have tried" - SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

DEMOCRACY DEBATES: These debates explore when a show of hands is the best way to make a decision.

- THBT gay marriages should be left to the courts (ala Iowa) and not referenda (ala California)
- THBT third world nations with large, poor, illiterate populations are right in seeking the stability of technocratic elite-driven governments
- THBT votes in supranational organisations should be assigned on the basis of population and not 'one-nation-one-vote'

Round 6
"We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." - BARACK OBAMA

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Deciding on how best to use the bounty that nature has blessed us with is a challenge for the brightest minds.

- This house would commercialise regulated hunting of large fauna to protect them
- This house would subsidise every electric car purchase
- This house would nationalize mineral resources

Round 7
"The sad truth is that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong" - JEREMY BENTHAM

UTILITARIANISM: When is the cold hard calculus of utilitarianism acceptable for deciding what society can and cannot do?

- This house would force beggars, street urchins, and the homeless off the streets
- This house would use convict labour for national projects
- This house believes that child labour should be incorporated as a poverty alleviation mechanism in third world nations

Octo Finals
"Government should be a place where people come together and no one gets left behind. A force for good." - TOBY ZIEGLER, West Wing

BIG STATE, SMALL STATE: How can government do its best without over-reaching? What is over-reaching anyway?

- This house would make medical insurance mandatory for all citizens
- This house believes that the state should fund faith-based services
- This house believes that the state should finance movies that promote desirable social messages

Quater Finals
"The president knows Chinese political prisoners are going to be sewing soccer balls with their teeth whether we sell them cheeseburgers or not, so let's sell them cheeseburgers." - Character in West Wing

PRAGMATISM v IDEALISM: These are typically foreign policy debates where doing the right thing is often compromised by having to settle for whats more practical. Damage minimisation is a yardstick that is often used.

- THW not sell arms to or include in military alliances any non-democracies
- THW prioritise ending of bloodshed over the punishment of genocidaires.
- THW violate the sovereignty of states unable to control global mal-contents within their territory

Semi Finals
"I know porn when I see it!" - Supreme Court Justice POTTER STEWART

UNMENTIONABLES: In these debates one team is made to defend something conventionally disapproved or considered repulsive in society. But the other team struggles to articulate why that is wrong.

- THBT the social sanction against nudity is a feudal restraint on our personal choices
- THW allow polygamous unions
- THBT paedophilia can be allowed where an adolescent's parent consents to the relationship

EFL Semi Finals
"It's my life, its now or never" - JON BON JOVI

LIFESTYLE CHOICES: These debates explore whether living a certain way is acceptable or not.

- THW allow individuals to spoil their good health in their pursuit to look good
- THW allow teenagers to obtain the morning-after pill without parental consent
- THBT vegetarianism is the smarter lifestyle

EFL Final
"All is fair in love and war" - JOHN LYLY

LESSER of TWO EVILS: Often, we have no choice but pick between a bad option and a worse option. The question is which is which.

- This House would not prosecute government staffs who commit torture during the Bush era
- This House believes that the "don't ask don't tell" policy is crucial to national security
- This House would disallow couples with severe genetic disability to give birth to children

Final
" An economist is one who sees something happen in practice and wonders if it does in theory " - US PRES RONALD REAGAN

TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT : In these series of debates the teams asses the accuracy of these statements by appealing to the cold hard barometers of economics, history or science

- This House believes that the emigration of the best and the brightest from poor countries to the first world profits both countries
- This House feels that the Catholic Church should waive celibacy requirements for its priests
- This House believes that nuclear energy is a bad way to replace fossil fuels