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Coolness, etc.

I had a great time at my own tournament this weekend.  I saw many people 
I knew, met some great people I didn't know before (hi CEU!) and had 
fun being half of a 3-3 team in semis.  

There were a few rounds that I heard about (and one that I was in) where 
the competitors didn't have much fun.  These rounds typically were in 
high brackets, involved great debaters, and upset many people.  The 
reason?  Rudeness, I guess.  Not being cool.  Discourtesy.  I suppose I'm 
beginning to think like Steve Hunt in that I think there really isn't any 
excuse for having a round where you don't have any fun and are rude to 
your competition.  

I'll be the first to admit that in the past I have not always followed 
this line of thinking.  I've been a pretty intense debater at times in my 
career.  I just know that this type of in-round intensity is really bad 
for the activity.  

What also bugs me is that outside of rounds, everybody feels like they 
can be cool again.  It's like the cartoon where the sheepdog and the wolf 
show up in the morning, punch their timecards, beat the shit out of each 
other, and when the horn blows, they're friends again.  I'm just not sure 
how sincere friendships on the circuit can be if we insult, belittle, and 
harass those friends for an hour and a half and then we're cool again.  

Sometimes people don't understand what they're doing, and that sometimes 
comments made in rounds can actually offend others.  In times like those, 
we need to think about what we're doing and not let the adrenaline take 
over.  

I'm all for personal responsibility. I don't want a "rule" to 
prohibit rudeness.  I don't REALLY even want judges dropping people 
because they're rude (unless we pull out the courtesy kritik :).  What 
I'd really like to see is teams acting like they like each other and 
realizing that we're in an educational, intellectual activity and not an 
insult contest.  I recognize that intensity in rounds will never go away, 
and I'm not even saying it should.  I just think we should be cool.

Well, thanks for reading my thoughts.  I realize it was very much 
nonlinear and not "eloquent" at all (sorry, Steve!).  

Norm
LC "deez nutz" debate
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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