CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE
AC A DEMICS
E C E H P S & DEBATE By Brad Thew
Speech, Debate, and Rhetoric Chair
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BEST OF SAAS
VOL. 19 | 2020
O
n one Thursday evening in December 2003, I found myself sitting on the living room floor in my parents’ house, surrounded by a collection of notes and research articles, several philosophy books, and a notebook in which arguments I hoped were brilliant had been synthesized. Like thousands of debate students across the county that night, my goal was to create the cases that would both stump and mystify my opponents, but also move judges and audiences alike. Considering the contemporary political climate and global tensions of the time, the topic on “The morality of US involvement in international conflicts” was especially prescient. By the end of that night, I had created cases that explicated the ethics of the value proposition, meandering between Kierkegaard in one case and Kant in the other. That evening was a seminal time for me, although it didn’t feel it back then. As a teenager, it felt as if I were preparing for a tournament just like any other school activity I would attend. In reality, my experience that weekend sparked an interest
