House of Eratosthenes

On March 24, 2014 at the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Championships at Indiana University, two Towson University students, Ameena Ruffin and Korey Johnson, became the first African-American women to win a national college debate tournament, for which the resolution asked whether the U.S. president’s war powers should be restricted. Rather than address the resolution straight on, Ruffin and Johnson, along with other teams of African-Americans, attacked its premise. The more pressing issue, they argued, is how the U.S. government is at war with poor black communities.

In the final round, Ruffin and Johnson squared off against Rashid Campbell and George Lee from the University of Oklahoma, two highly accomplished African-American debaters with distinctive dreadlocks and dashikis. Over four hours, the two teams engaged in a heated discussion of concepts like “nigga authenticity” and performed hip-hop and spoken-word poetry in the traditional timed format. At one point during Lee’s rebuttal, the clock ran out but he refused to yield the floor. “Fuck the time!” he yelled. His partner Campbell, who won the top speaker award at the National Debate Tournament two weeks later, had been unfairly targeted by the police at the debate venue just days before, and cited this personal trauma as evidence for his case against the government’s treatment of poor African-Americans.

This year wasn’t the first time this had happened. In the 2013 championship, two men from Emporia State University, Ryan Walsh and Elijah Smith, employed a similar style and became the first African-Americans to win two national debate tournaments. Many of their arguments, based on personal memoir and rap music, completely ignored the stated resolution, and instead asserted that the framework of collegiate debate has historically privileged straight, white, middle-class students.

Tournament participants from all backgrounds say they have found some of these debate strategies offensive. Even so, the new style has received mainstream acceptance, sympathy, and awards.

The beginning of the end of western civilization? Dunno. Depends on what sort of impact is had on civilization, by these debate teams. Not sure that that’s there. If it is, then this can’t be good.

I’ve now & then imposed a hypothetical of an alien from another planet renting space in our laundry room, experienced and competent in the realm of logic, reason, common sense, and maybe the English language, but entirely new to our culture, recent history and social customs. Like Mork From Ork or something — what sort of questions would such a visitor ask about this-or-that. In this situation, the curious alien would be transformed into a racist, and of the worst sort. But, this would be a reflection on us and not on him: He’d want to know, how come it is that debating a pressing issue coherently and rationally, has become a white thing?

I have also criticized the modern liberal movement for, among many other things, maintaining an ignorance of the concept of time. “They’re very often caught neglecting the refinement of the message that would be handed off to history, opting to focus their attentions on the emotional rapture of the moment. The Occupy Wall Street movement…is a perfect example of this.” The fuck-the-clock outburst is an even better example of it. The real tragedy is that entire lives are burned away, a year at a time, inside the hairpin turn of some glorious revolution. The time never seems to come to evaluate how it all went down, whether things have been made better. It requires less discipline, mentally at least, to endure the centripetal force of the turn. Everything is an outburst. Everything’s hyperbole. No cause-and-effect; no this, therefore that. “Fuck the time!” Outrage is always easier.

So the higher-ed institutions are cranking out more liberals. Well, that’s nothing new, is it. But this certainly can’t be good. And it isn’t fair to the students, not by a damn sight.

Liberals are addicted to definition-by-negatives. The aberrant psychology behind all this beats my pair of jacks, but in practice the easiest way to characterize any liberal position is to look at it like a photo negative — not who it’s designed to help, but who it’s designed to harm. Who is to be drug down. Which crab is to be hauled back into the pot, so that we all get boiled.

Unfortunately, a good 90% of the time, this negative standard is the White Male. Nobody at these debate meets actually cares about the outcome — Google Image “Detroit” to see how much liberals care about what happens to black people — but they all care intensely about dragging down the White Male bogeyman in their heads. One must eternally advance the cause of ~White Male, no matter the consequences.

And alas, the White Male invented things like logic, history, and math, so those things have to go. If that means your best-of-the-best college debaters’ “arguments” are functionally equivalent to a chimpanzee screaming and throwing feces at the crowd, well, too bad for civilization, but at least we all get the consolation prize of “nigga authenticity.”
- Severian | 04/20/2014 @ 14:00
I’ve now & then imposed a hypothetical of an alien from another planet renting space in our laundry room, experienced and competent in the realm of logic, reason, common sense, and maybe the English language, but entirely new to our culture, recent history and social customs. …In this situation, the curious alien would be transformed into a racist, and of the worst sort.

You just described multiple episodes of the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, which is based on exactly that premise. If you haven’t ever seen it, I recommend it — it’s a hoot. John Lithgow proves he can do comedy as well as creepy Dexter villains.
- Stephen J. | 04/21/2014 @ 07:28
Another way the alien metaphor is appropriate: “evidence-based reasoning” and “rule-governed behavior” are literally what make us human. Without those two, we’d still be swinging from the fucking trees.

They aren’t “male,” let alone “white;” they’re human. If you reject them in favor of “nigga authenticity,” or to fight “The Patriarchy,” or whatever, you might as well move back into a cave and start bashing your prey with a rock.
- Severian | 04/21/2014 @ 08:18
You just described multiple episodes of the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, which is based on exactly that premise. If you haven’t ever seen it, I recommend it — it’s a hoot.

Yeah, others have suggested that to me as well. I actually have a list in mind: My Favorite Martian, Mork and Mindy, Alf, maybe even I Dream of Jeannie. And anything else comedy-based with some kind of “alien” does touch on the gag, at least now & then: “Mork buys bread, hilarity ensues.”

But not lately, since the whole point of it is a reminder that our culture doesn’t really make sense. We live in such a strange time right now: We’re not supposed to take ourselves, as individuals, seriously; but the culture is never to be questioned. No Mork-From-Ork comedy for us. When it would be most fitting.
- mkfreeberg | 04/22/2014 @ 05:43
We’re not supposed to take ourselves, as individuals, seriously; but the culture is never to be questioned.

If the first part’s true (and I’m not sure it is; Obama voters, to take one prominent example, seem to take themselves very seriously indeed), I think there’s a causal relationship here. We’re all supposed to have super-high “self esteem,” but nobody who has it has actually done anything worth esteeming. (If anything, “self-esteem” is inversely proportional to accomplishment). If you get a gold star and a cookie just for rolling out of bed in the morning, then the culture must be of paramount importance; it’s the only thing that validates your existence. The only way I can claim distinction is by knowing which Kardashian is dating which rapper faster than you do.
- Severian | 04/22/2014 @ 08:47
Had a feeling when I jotted that one down that it was too big and rich of a bite, perhaps a point better served by a post dedicated to it & nothing else. That might’ve been a better way to go.

At any rate, I don’t think we disagree, since to me this doesn’t qualify as taking oneself seriously:

The only way I can claim distinction is by knowing which Kardashian is dating which rapper faster than you do.

To me, that is actually giving up on claiming distinction. That’s embracing mediocrity.
- mkfreeberg | 04/22/2014 @ 19:03
Ah, I see it now. And you’re right. I was using “take yourself seriously” in the sense of “being self-involved.” You know, like Obama voters. You were using it in the sense of “taking one’s personal integrity seriously.”

I do think there’s a reciprocal relationship between “being self-involved,” “self-esteem,” and the fatwa about never questioning the culture. I can’t think of anything esteem-worthy that isn’t also some species of badthink. Business success? You didn’t build that. You’re a good family man? Patriarchy. Pillar of the church? Pffft — of the Flying Spaghetti Monster you mean. Academic honors? Logic, math, and science are just covers for white male privilege.

And yet we can’t just deem ourselves esteemed, like Democrats with a healthcare bill. We’re wired to look for something we can call an accomplishment, however small. So we pride ourselves on the correctness of our opinions. Yeah yeah, everybody hates Taylor Swift now, but I hated her before it was cool.
- Severian | 04/22/2014 @ 20:10

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