debate

Today I sat and critiqued debate rounds at a high school tournament where the most coherent argument for a 2040 government mandate that vehicles must be altern-energy was that we’re going to run out of oil.

I was underwhelmed to say the least. I did hear an underdeveloped argument over economic theory and philosophy. The con (anti-mandate) team claimed that the United States is a capitalist country, and therefore we should let the market decide. I won’t even delve into how wrong and more importantly, misinformed that claim is, but the aff (pro-mandate) team did a decent job of explaining and presenting some evidence pointing to the fact that the market is deceiving because of oil subsidies and other government regulations, not to mention the monopoly/collusion that oil companies hold over the energy sector.

It was nice to hear, but unfortunately the girls who argued this didn’t advance to nationals because they used a laptop in a prior round which is prohibited. But they didn’t know that. I looked for them after the awards ceremony to tell them how much I enjoyed watching them in action, but to no avail.

Somehow I think they know they are great. Aren’t all high school debaters?