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Lack of creative thinking & fear of civil rights

That's "collaboration," by the way, in the subject of the post by Grant
Denny, not "collaberation."

I constantly hear people say that they cannot think of enough solid negative
arguments on the civil rights topic, as Grant Denny mentions. This is usually
mentioned in terms of "ground" not existing. Not only on this resolution, but
on lots of them (like, every one we have had recently.... Mexico, pollution).
The fact that we cannot apply the basic arguments we know about already
(although untrue, I can do it) is not a reason to avoid a situation where we
will have to create NEW argumentative approaches. I believe this is a reason
we SHOULD pursue this topic area. People complain about the "same old
arguments" being run all the time from year to year and then they complain
that a topic area should be rejected because they can't think of a bunch of
positions on that topic area BEFORE they have really researched it.  Could it
be that we have been wedded to the geopolitical topics for so long that we
are losing touch with all but tenuous links to perception shifts which might
lead to nuclear war? Could it be that we disprove our devotion to
"understanding and arguments through research" (we constantly flaunt this as
a justification for the current style of policy debate) when we decide there
is "no negative ground" on a topic area we haven't researched and have been
avoiding for years?

And now we need a "collaberation" (sic) to make sure that everyone votes for
one of the geopolitical topics to avoid the disaster of having to come up
with some new approaches?

*Sheesh*

I think Grant Denny needs to be debating next year so that I can kid him in
person. When Grant Denny doesn't debate it is a great waste of debate talent
and potential. He should go to Sue Stanfield right now and say he is debating
in the Fall, and then he and I can work together on some exciting new
argumentative positions for whichever topic is adopted.

By the way, although I am speaking here mostly about the civil rights topic
area, I have not yet decided which one I will rank 1-2-3, etc. I'll have to
think about it and consult with my mentors, Jan and Sarah.

Tuna
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