Carl's Negative Case

Imagine that you have fifty people all wishing to trade with you. Eventually, you get don’t want to trade. So you walk into a room and lock the door. Everyone still wants to trade with you. So, soon, they break down the door.

Greetings, my name is Carl Colglazier and I will have the privilege of negating the resolution which states that the United States of America ought to more highly value isolationism.

Definitions

United States of America is defined by Ultra Lingua English Dictionary as “A nation in North America occupying the space between Canada and Mexico.”

Ought is defined by Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition Cambridge International Dictionary of English as “To be bound in duty or by moral obligation.”

More is defined by Cambridge International Dictionary of English as “a larger or extra number or amount.”

Highly is defined by Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition as “in or to a high place, level, or rank.”

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language defines value as “to regard highly; esteem.”

Isolationism is defined by Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition as "A policy of national abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations."

Value

My value, security, is defined by Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition as “the quality or state of being secure: as a: freedom from danger.” Security is the highest value because without security, we will not feel safe enough to do anything.


My thesis is that isolationism will cause invasion and that it will cause our knowledge to decline.

C1-Closing the door is pointless because it will soon be forced open.

This ended up happening to nineteenth century Japan. They closed up almost completely to foreigners. Only one dutch ship was allowed in, and that was only once a year. Eventually, the United States forced the door open. Other countries soon followed.

C2-Isolationism will slow us down from stopping invaders.

This happened during the time of World War II. Since the United States had an isolationist policy, they didn’t enter World War II. This may have caused the war to have ended sooner.

C3-Isolationism will cause our state of relations to decline.

Our national intelligence will decline. We will lose the opportunities to make friends with other countries and learn about our enemies. Without being able to learn about our enemies, we will have trouble learning how to stop them.

C4-Our knowledge of other countries and their technology will decline with isolationism.

If we don’t converse with other nations and learn about them we will not be able to understand them. And we won’t know about their technology. Imagine with me that you are an inventor. If you can’t figure out how to do some thing, you can look at a similar invention and figure it out. Without seeing the invention, you can not figure it out. We will not be able to improve our technology without seeing other technologies.


Thank you. I have fulfilled my burden and upheld the resolution by three main points, which state that:

1. Closing the door is pointless because it will soon be forced open
   
   
2. Isolationism will slow us down from stopping invaders.
   
   
3. Isolationism will cause our state of relations and our learning to decline.

I now urge the judge to affirm the resolution. Thank you and I now stand ready for cross-examination and further points of clarification.


I hope that you enjoyed my case. Please feel free to comment on anything that you think is a problem.

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Imagine that you have fifty people all wishing to trade with you. Eventually, you get don’t want to trade. So you walk into a room and lock the door. Everyone still wants to trade with you. So, soon, they break down the door.

I like this introduction. One thing that I have noticed throughout the other cases that have been posted is that this group does an outstanding job with the introductions. That is simply probably one of the most critical things you can do in a round and you/yall do it very well. You want to grab the judges attention and if you do this and look at the judges reaction after this introduction, you will probably see her smile. Good job Carl.

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United States of America is defined by Ultra Lingua English Dictionary as “A nation in North America occupying the space between Canada and Mexico.”
More is defined by Cambridge International Dictionary of English as “a larger or extra number or amount.”

I probably wouldnt waste my time defining these two terms. These two probably will never be challenged by anybody so just to save time(which you will see in the end is critical) I would cut them out and just keep them in your folder in case your opponent asks you for a definition.

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My value, security, is defined by Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition as “the quality or state of being secure: as a: freedom from danger.” Security is the highest value because without security, we will not feel safe enough to do anything.

I like the choice of value. Nothing wrong with it at all. I personally would make it "National Security" just because it sounds stronger and inadvertantly seems to add something more tangible to the judges mind. But again, its up to you.

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C1-Closing the door is pointless because it will soon be forced open.

While this may be true, we do a lot of pointless things in America. But keep in mind that "pointless" doesnt mean "wrong." That is the biggest thing that jumps to mind when I read this. Since the resolution says that "US OUGHT to more highly value isolationism, and you define OUGHT as having a moral obligation. Because of this you need to show that "Closing the door" is WRONG, not pointless. And also remember that just because it will be forced open doesnt mean that it is wrong either. It could be a good thing that doors are forced open. Just some food for thought.

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C2-Isolationism will slow us down from stopping invaders.

This is a REALLY good thesis statement. I like it alot especially since youre value is Security/National Security. The only thing is you need to provide evidence of this. You did say that if the US wasnt isolated during WWII it would of ended sooner, but that isnt really proof. Its more of a hypothetical conjecture. It shouldnt be too hard to find evidence somewhere of an isolated country that has been insecure. Look more for evidence like that. But again, great tagline!

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C4-Our knowledge of other countries and their technology will decline with isolationism.

I might would mess with the wording of this tagline if not just get rid of it because I dont see that it helps you at this state very much. The reason is because of your definition of isolationism.

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Isolationism is defined by Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 10th Edition as "A policy of national abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations."

Just because a nation is isolated doesnt mean that we dont have any knowledge of them. It just means that we arent involved with any alliances or other political and economic relations. We can still know about them.

I also might would add a little more quotes at the begginning and the end.
I hope all this information doesnt discourage you at all, this case has a lot of potential! Great job Carl!
If you need any other ideas just PM me.