“Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.” This quote comes from former president Woodrow T. Wilson.
Good afternoon my name is James Apple and I will be the affirmative speaker for the following debate round. I would like to thank the judge, timer and the negative
speaker for being here today. My value for this round will be wisdom and for the purpose of upholding my value I stand resolved. that pragmatism
will cause horrible long term results. In this case I will demonstrate that my value of wisdom dictates that we affirm the resolution.
In order to provide clarity and mutual understanding in today’s debate round, I will define some of the key terms that are found within the resolution and that I will be using extensively throughout the following round.
First of all, Idealism is defined by Webster’s dictionary as the practice of forming ideals and living under their influence. Above is defined by Webster’s dictionary as a higher rank or number. Pragmatism is defined by Webster’s dictionary we a practical approach to problems and conflict is defined by Webster’s as a Contention, strife or contest.
Value and Criterion:
My value for this round, Wisdom, is the highest value in the hierarchy of values because wisdom is necessary to make wise long term decisions.
BURDENS:
In today’s debate round, I, the affirmative speaker, have the privilege of affirming the resolution, which states in times of conflict idealism should be valued above pragmatism. I must affirm the resolution through my three contentions for the purpose of achieving my value of wisdom. If I fulfill my burdens, I should be granted the win.
THESIS STATEMENT:
My thesis statement is that pragmatisms long term result can be horrible
CONTENTION 1:
My first contention is that action without thought of long term consequences will make us do things that will end in only pain and suffering for ourselves and our country. An example of which is the Ford Pinto. Released September 11th, 1970 the pinto was nicknamed by ford “the carefree car” had a fatal flaw The gas tank was in the back of the car behind the axel which means that whenever this car had a rear end collision the car would explode . Ford knew about this flaw but decided that it would be easier to let the car go into production… after all there aren’t that many rear end collisions.. Right? So to Ford with their pragmatic view thought that the consequence seemed to far away or miniscule to do anything but in the end many peoples lives were lost and ford was sued for over $125 million dollars and almost drove this huge company out of business.
CONTENTION 2:
If we accept policies of pragmatism we will act the way that seems best at that particular moment. An example of which is the current economic crisis. We are taking pragmatic actions such as investing public funds in private institutions with unknown consequences that we would never have considered doing in years gone by. It seems as though as a nation we seem willing to give up our liberties and principals we were founded on at every turn you’re in a crisis. Or another example is the pragmatic decision by our government to give mortgages to people that would be unable to repay them was good in the short term but has now come back to bite us badly.
REITERATION
I, the affirmative speaker, have the privilege of negating the resolution and being in favor of the idealistic way. Throughout my contentions, I have argued 2 main points.
CLOSING QUOTE:
I would like to close with a quote from Olive Wendell Holmes, who once proclaimed, “Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.”
VOTING ISSUES:
Thank you. I have fulfilled my burden and affirmed the resolution. I now respectfully urge the judge to affirm the resolution. Thank you and I now stand ready for cross-examination and further points of clarification.
