Here's my new Affirmative case PLEASE REPLY
QUOTE:
Carl Schurz once said,“Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny.”
PREVIEW:
Good afternoon. My name is Nicolas Cuany and I will be the affirmative speaker for the following debate round. I would like to thank the judge, timer, and negative speaker for being here today. My value for this round will be justice, and for the purpose of upholding my value I stand resolved “When in conflict, idealism ought to be valued above pragmatism” because idealism brings happiness. In this case I will demonstrate that my value of justice dictates that we affirm the resolution as Aristotle well said “It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.”
DEFINITIONS:
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 as “The property of having high ideals” by AllWords.com.
Pragmatism: is defined as “character or conduct that emphasizes practicality” by Infoplease Dictionary.
Conflict is defined as “A fighting; combat” by Webster's 1828 Dictionary
VALUE AND CRITERION:
My value for this round, justice, is defined by Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed as “to treat fitly or fairly.” Justice is the highest value in the hierarchy of values because without justice, people would not be motivated to get things done and our nation would be ruined.
BURDENS:
In today’s debate round, I, the affirmative speaker, have the privilege of proving the truth of the resolution, which states,“When in conflict, idealism ought to be valued above pragmatism.” I must uphold the resolution through my three contentions for the purpose of achieving my value of justice. If I fulfill my burdens, I should be granted the win.
THESIS STATEMENT: My thesis statement is: Valuing idealism enables us to support and value justice
CONTENTION #1: Idealism has better long term results: Blaise Pascal once said “Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.” I would now like to tell you two stories
1st: I would like to talk about the Japanese internment camps. The United States decided that all people of Japanese descent were a threat to our national security so we came up with a very practical solution. We put the Japanese Americans in Internment Camps until the end of the war. We were unjust to he Japanese-Americans by buting them in internment camps instead of being fair to them. In doing so we lost our ultimate goal of Justice.
2nd: I would like to communicate to you about the Spanish Catholic priests who tried to convert Central America. They had the opportunity of doing a lot of good bringing people to Christianity. But instead they lost the the ideal of Justice for the pragmatic solution of Old World political problems. As a result, millions of people died, a society of tyranny was created that would thrive on injustice and death for years to come. And finally, a racial and social hate was created that would ensure that masses of indians would never experience true justice.
CONTENTION 2: The convenient way isn't always the best way: I would now like to talk about Marion Jones. She was said to be “The world’s fastest mom.” But she was using Steroids, and lost all her medals and brought disgrace to her team and America. At first she had a great ideal of becoming the fastest woman in the world. But she lost sight of the goal. She started taking Steroids, and got addicted to them. She won many gold medals in the 2000 Olympics. But she lost sight of her goal of being an honorable runner and winning the title of being the fastest runner, for a pragmatic decision of using steroids to get there. She was tried and justice was upheld. She was stripped of her medals and resigned from running on the U.S.A. team. She took the convenient way to get to her goal through steroids, and lost sight of her ideal.
CONTENTION 3: The convenient way causes us to loses our goals: C S Lewis once said “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” The Catholic Priests who came to spread the gospel lost their ideal of converting people to Christianity. And instead created a tyrannical government. The priests came to do a good deed in the sight of the Lord, but lost their sight when they got caught up with politics, and created a tyrannical government.
REITERATION:
I, the affirmative speaker, have the privilege of affirming the resolution. Throughout my contentions, I have argued three main points: 1) Idealism has better long term results 2) The convenient way isn't always the best way 3) The convenient way loses our goals
CLOSING QUOTE:
I would like to close with a quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero, who once proclaimed, “Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.”
VOTING ISSUES:
Thank you. I have fulfilled my burden and upheld 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.
