IAC
We begin this discussion with the following words of a man who was tortured as a result of the Syrian Army monitoring his facebook post, arresting him and torturing him. He eventually escaped but others have not been so lucky. We ask you to listen to these words not as a reason to vote affirmative but in an attempt to picture yourself in this person’s position. It should not be that hard as you likely share many things in common…He was married, had children, He was a student and a scholar. He posted on facebook. However, the life the he has lived is likely very different than anything you may of experienced. The following is his story posted on The Socialist Worker Online website on August 30, 2011.
“A Syrian who was tortured at the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime tells his story”
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=25882
“I was a scholar, ……
….. We must win.”
I share this story because I have been to many practice sessions and couple of tournaments but have yet to hear of any such atrocities. I have heard a lot about the Muslim Brotherhood and Israel and whether or not US hegemony prevents nuclear war, but never heard the stories of the torture within Syria.
Admittedly, when I read the story I first thought to myself, I wonder how I can use this story to win debates. Then I decided that it probably wasn’t the best option for an affirmative – Hard to outweigh nuclear weapons, Any topical plan would have a hard time finding a US key warrant.
Some may feel that this makes the discussion of these atrocities irrelevant. In fact, most probably feel that way as few, if any teams have chosen to discuss these atrocities as part of a IAC.
In many ways, this is the problem. We see these events on the news or read about them on the web and then think about how this benefits us or how that impacts the arguments in this hypothetical world of debate without being able to feel the empathy for those who are experiencing a daily horror in the countries that we interact with.
Thus we defend the following plan: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase technical support for circumvention technologies for individuals in Syria to anonymously access the Internet
The Role of the Ballot – The reason to vote affirmative is not because the plan would eliminate the role that torture in Syria takes place. In some ways that is irrelevant because no affirmative being read in a classroom in a college debate will have any effect on the actual conditions that are being experienced in Arab Spring Countries.
What might have an effect at least on the people in this room is a constant questioning of how we interpret arguments. Do we constantly focus on the experiences of the people in the arab spring and what they do for us or do we try to create an empathetic relationship to their existence.
We believe the IAC has value in the context of creating an empathetic relationship with those who are experiencing torture in Syria.
Empathy is possible if we remove ourselves from the small, selfish cocoons that prevent us from engaging and understanding the world. Debate is a place where those cocoons manifest themselves – As we often see a War on the News and wonder what that means for our uniqueness on a disad then what it means for the people who are dying in that war.
Jensen in 2010
Jeffrey, Arnett is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. During 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research, the top journal on adolescent development. 'The Empathic Civilization': The Young Pioneers Of The Empathic Generation, Huffington Post. February 9, 2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-jensen-arnett/the-empathic-civilization_b_454211.html
They could also be ….
……contacts and connections.
Voting affirmative is not some radically unique way to view the world. Empathy is soft-wired into each of us. The question is if we can let our experiences enhance our empathy or whether we do things within those experiences to limit our empathy. Voting affirmative is a quest to inject empathy into traditional debate practices. Each act has an inevitable spillover effect with how we view the world
Restak in 2010 is the author of 20 books on the human brain, former president of the Richard American Neuropsychiatric Association, and clinical professor of Neurology at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington DC. 'Empathic Civilization': Our Brains Were Built For Feeling Each Other's Pain, Huffington Post. February 15, 2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-restak/empathic-civilization-our_b_460845.html
In our culture …..
…… an "Empathic Civilization".
