General Actions:
Tournament | Round | Opponent | Judge | Cites | Round Report | Open Source | Edit/Delete |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cyprus | 1 |
| |||||
Cyprus | 3 |
| |||||
Note | Finals | All | All |
| |||
Young Lawyers | 1 |
| |||||
Young Lawyers | 4 |
|
Tournament | Round | Report |
---|---|---|
Cyprus | 1 | Opponent: 2NR was Anthro |
Cyprus | 3 | Opponent: 2NR was t-gov-gov |
Note | Finals | Opponent: All | Judge: All I'm sorry that we've been bad about the round reports I have put up the 1NCs to everything that's been a 2NR at some point this year If you know there's something I've missed please let me know sashauchitel@rowlandhallorg |
Young Lawyers | 1 | Opponent: 2NR was Its==private sector |
Young Lawyers | 4 | Opponent: 2NR was EE conditional |
To modify or delete round reports, edit the associated round.
Entry | Date |
---|---|
1NC AnthroTournament: Cyprus | Round: 1 | Opponent:
Three most significant and pressing factors contributing to the environmental crisis are the ever increasing human population, the energy crisis, and the abuse and pollution of the earth’s natural systems. These and other factors contributing to the environmental crisis can be directly linked to anthropocentric views of the world. The perception that value is located in, and emanates from, humanity has resulted in understanding human life as an ultimate value, superior to all other beings. This has driven innovators in medicine and technology to ever improve our medical and material conditions, in an attempt to preserve human life, resulting in more people being born and living longer. In achieving this aim, they have indirectly contributed to increasing the human population. Perceptions of superiority, coupled with developing technologies have resulted in a social outlook that generally does not rest content with the basic necessities of life. Demands for more medical and social aid, more entertainment and more comfort translate into demands for improved standards of living. Increasing population numbers, together with the material demands of modern society, place ever increasing demands on energy supplies. While wanting a better life is not a bad thing, given the population explosion the current energy crisis is inevitable, which brings a whole host of environmental implications in tow. This is not to say that every improvement in the standard of living is necessarily wasteful of energy or polluting to the planet, but rather it is the cumulative effect of these improvements that is damaging to the environment. The abuses facing the natural environment as a result of the energy crisis and the food demand are clearly manifestations of anthropocentric views that treat the environment as a resource and instrument for human ends. The pollution and destruction of the non-human natural world is deemed acceptable, provided that it does not interfere with other human beings. It could be argued that there is nothing essentially wrong with anthropocentric assumptions, since it is natural, even instinctual, to favour one’s self and species over and above all other forms of life. However, it is problematic in that such perceptions influence our actions and dealings with the world to the extent that the well-being of life on this planet is threatened, making the continuance of a huge proportion of existing life forms "tenuous if not improbable" (Elliot 1995: 1). Denying the non-human world ethical consideration, it is evident that anthropocentric assumptions provide a rationale for the exploitation of the natural world and, therefore, have been largely responsible for the present environmental crisis (Des Jardins 1997: 93). Fox identifies three broad approaches to the environment informed by anthropocentric assumptions, which in reality are not distinct and separate, but occur in a variety of combinations. The "expansionist" approach is characterised by the recognition that nature has a purely instrumental value to humans. This value is accessed through the physical transformation of the non-human natural world, by farming, mining, damming etc. Such practices create an economic value, which tends to "equate the physical transformation of ‘resources’ with economic growth" (Fox 1990: 152). Legitimising continuous expansion and exploitation, this approach relies on the idea that there is an unending supply of resources. The "conservationist" approach, like the first, recognises the economic value of natural resources through their physical transformation, while at the same time accepting the fact that there are limits to these resources. It therefore emphasises the importance of conserving natural resources, while prioritising the importance of developing the non-human natural world in the quest for financial gain. The "preservationist" approach differs from the first two in that it recognises the enjoyment and aesthetic enrichment human beings receive from an undisturbed natural world. Focusing on the psychical nourishment value of the non-human natural world for humans, this approach stresses the importance of preserving resources in their natural states. All three approaches are informed by anthropocentric assumptions. This results in a one-sided understanding of the human-nature relationship. Nature is understood to have a singular role of serving humanity, while humanity is understood to have no obligations toward nature. Such a perception represents "not only a deluded but also a very dangerous orientation to the world" (Fox 1990: 13), as only the lives of human beings are recognised to have direct moral worth, while the moral consideration of non-human entities is entirely contingent upon the interests of human beings (Pierce and Van De Veer 1995: 9). Humanity is favoured as inherently valuable, while the non-human natural world counts only in terms of its use value to human beings. The "expansionist" and "conservationist" approaches recognise an economic value, while the "preservationist" approach recognises a hedonistic, aesthetic or spiritual value. They accept, without challenge, the assumption that the value of the non-human natural world is entirely dependent on human needs and interests. None attempt to move beyond the assumption that nature has any worth other than the value humans can derive from it, let alone search for a deeper value in nature. This ensures that human duties retain a purely human focus, thereby avoiding the possibility that humans may have duties that extend to non-humans. This can lead to viewing the non-human world, devoid of direct moral consideration, as a mere resource with a purely instrumental value of servitude. This gives rise to a principle of ‘total use’, whereby every natural area is seen for its potential cultivation value, to be used for human ends (Zimmerman 1998: 19). This provides limited means to criticise the behaviour of those who use nature purely as a warehouse of resources (Pierce and Van De Veer 1995: 184). It is clear that humanity has the capacity to transform and degrade the environment. Given the consequences inherent in having such capacities, "the need for a coherent, comprehensive, rationally persuasive environmental ethic is imperative" (Pierce and Van De Veer 1995: 2). The purpose of an environmental ethic would be to account for the moral relations that exist between humans and the environment, and to provide a rational basis from which to decide how we ought and ought not to treat the environment. The environment was defined as the world in which we are enveloped and immersed, constituted by both animate and inanimate objects. This includes both individual living creatures, such as plants and animals, as well as non-living, non-individual entities, such as rivers and oceans, forests and velds, essentially, the whole planet Earth. This constitutes a vast and all-inclusive sphere, and, for purposes of clarity, shall be referred to as the "greater environment". In order to account for the moral relations that exist between humans and the greater environment, an environmental ethic should have a significantly wide range of focus. I argue that anthropocentric value systems are not suitable to the task of developing a comprehensive environmental ethic. Firstly, anthropocentric assumptions have been shown to be largely responsible for the current environmental crisis. While this in itself does not provide strong support for the claim, it does cast a dim light on any theory that is informed by such assumptions. Secondly, an environmental ethic requires a significantly wide range of focus. As such, it should consider the interests of a wide range of beings. It has been shown that anthropocentric approaches do not entertain the notion that non-human entities can have interests independent of human interests. "Expansionist", "conservationist" and "preservationist" approaches only acknowledge a value in nature that is determined by the needs and interests of humans. Thirdly, because anthropocentric approaches provide a moral account for the interests of humans alone, while excluding non-humans from direct moral consideration, they are not sufficiently encompassing. An environmental ethic needs to be suitably encompassing to ensure that a moral account is provided for all entities that constitute the environment. It could be argued that the indirect moral concern for the environment arising out of an anthropocentric approach is sufficient to ensure the protection of the greater environment. In response, only those entities that are in the interest of humans will be morally considered, albeit indirectly, while those entities which fall outside of this realm will be seen to be morally irrelevant. Assuming that there are more entities on this planet that are not in the interest of humans than entities that are, it is safe to say that anthropocentric approaches are not adequately encompassing. Fourthly, the goals of an environmental ethic should protect and maintain the greater environment. It is clear that the expansionist approach, which is primarily concerned with the transformation of nature for economic return, does not meet these goals. Similarly, neither does the conservationist approach, which is arguably the same as the expansionist approach. The preservationist approach does, in principle satisfy this requirement. However, this is problematic for such preservation is based upon the needs and interests of humans, and "as human interests and needs change, so too would human uses for the environment" (Des Jardins 1997: 129). Non-human entities, held captive by the needs and interests of humans, are open to whatever fancies the interests of humans. In light of the above, it is my contention that anthropocentric value systems fail to provide a stable ground for the development of an environmental ethic. Existing research notes that philosophical anthropocentrism conceptually reinforces the movement towards rational choice methods of environmental governance (Halsey and White, 1998: 32). Both anthropocentrism and risk management only recognize the human- based value of objects because of their focus on the capitalist economic market (Hessing et al, 2005: 20; Snider, 1993: 74-75; White, 2008: 15). The “liberal-ecological” and human- centric outlook associated with anthropocentrism and risk management essentially describes the problem of environmental degradation as fixable using market forces (Halsey, 2006: 43). This research project found that neoliberal and risk-based approaches to enforcement are similar because they both rely on environmental regulation to stabilize and control the market (Snider, 1993: 99-100). For instance, Chapter 3 discussed overdeterrence and “undue hardship” to characterize the dominance of rational choice approaches in the content of the EEA. Although the changes in the EEA appear to increase the level of punishment for environmental offences, the additional enforcement tools reflect cost-benefit, utilitarian approaches to environmental offences. The implication is that if risk-based, utilitarian approaches are dominant in the content of the EEA, anthropocentrism is likely to be dominant as well. This research project defined anthropocentrism as the philosophical belief that humans are biologically, mentally, and morally superior to all other living and non-living beings (Halsey and White, 1998: 31). Anthropocentrism was expected to be dominant in the content of the EEA because alternative philosophies involve structural reconsiderations of the capitalist, market-based economy. The central problem that non-anthropocentric philosophies focus on is the lack of emphasis in capitalist economics on the intrinsic value of the environment (O?Connor, 1994: 125-127). Non-anthropocentric philosophies threaten economic growth because they propose a reconsideration of the unlimited consumption of environmental resources (Snider, 2000: 177-178). This need to reconsider structural concerns means that most alternatives to anthropocentrism must present counter ideologies to problems such as neoliberalism, globalization, risk management and the political economic status quo (Gillespie, 2006; Seis, 1999). The implication is that structural reconsiderations of the capitalist economic structure are unlikely to be reflected in Canadian environmental enforcement legislation, especially considering the historical context of staples-based economic growth (Wellstead, 2008: 20). Here I will at least begin in agreement with Levinas. As he rejects an ethics proceeding on the basis of self-interest, so I believe the anthropocentric perspectives of conservation or liberal environmentalism cannot take us far enough. Our relations with nonhuman nature are poisoned and not just because we have set up feedback loops that already lead to mass starvations, skyrocketing environmental disease rates, and devastation of natural resources.¶ The problem with ecocide is not just that it hurts human beings. Our uncaring violence also violates the very ground of our being, our natural body, our home. Such violence is done not simply to the other -- as if the rainforest, the river, the atmosphere, the species made extinct are totally different from ourselves. Rather, we have crucified ourselves-in-relation-to-the-other, fracturing a mode of being in which self and other can no more be conceived as fully in isolation from each other than can a mother and a nursing child.¶ We are that child, and nonhuman nature is that mother. If this image seems too maudlin, let us remember that other lactating women can feed an infant, but we have only one earth mother.¶ What moral stance will be shaped by our personal sense that we are poisoning ourselves, our environment, and so many kindred spirits of the air, water, and forests?¶ To begin, we may see this tragic situation as setting the limits to Levinas's perspective. The other which is nonhuman nature is not simply known by a "trace," nor is it something of which all knowledge is necessarily instrumental. This other is inside us as well as outside us. We prove it with every breath we take, every bit of food we eat, every glass of water we drink. We do not have to find shadowy traces on or in the faces of trees or lakes, topsoil or air: we are made from them.¶ Levinas denies this sense of connection with nature. Our "natural" side represents for him a threat of simple consumption or use of the other, a spontaneous response which must be obliterated by the power of ethics in general (and, for him in particular, Jewish religious law(23) ). A "natural" response lacks discipline; without the capacity to heed the call of the other, unable to sublate the self's egoism. Worship of nature would ultimately result in an "everything-is-permitted" mentality, a close relative of Nazism itself. For Levinas, to think of people as "natural" beings is to assimilate them to a totality, a category or species which makes no room for the kind of individuality required by ethics.(24) He refers to the "elemental" or the "there is" as unmanaged, unaltered, "natural" conditions or forces that are essentially alien to the categories and conditions of moral life.(25)¶ One can only lament that Levinas has read nature -- as to some extent (despite his intentions) he has read selfhood -- through the lens of masculine culture. It is precisely our sense of belonging to nature as system, as interaction, as interdependence, which can provide the basis for an ethics appropriate to the trauma of ecocide. As cultural feminism sought to expand our sense of personal identity to a sense of inter-identification with the human other, so this ecological ethics would expand our personal and species sense of identity into an inter-identification with the natural world.¶ Such a realization can lead us to an ethics appropriate to our time, a dimension of which has come to be known as "deep ecology."(26) For this ethics, we do not begin from the uniqueness of our human selfhood, existing against a taken-for-granted background of earth and sky. Nor is our body somehow irrelevant to ethical relations, with knowledge of it reduced always to tactics of domination. Our knowledge does not assimilate the other to the same, but reveals and furthers the continuing dance of interdependence. And our ethical motivation is neither rationalist system nor individualistic self-interest, but a sense of connection to all of life.¶ The deep ecology sense of self-realization goes beyond the modern Western sense of "self" as an isolated ego striving for hedonistic gratification. . . . . Self, in this sense, is experienced as integrated with the whole of nature.(27)¶ Having gained distance and sophistication of perception from the development of science and political freedoms we can turn and recognize who we have been all along. . . . we are our world knowing itself. We can relinquish our separateness. We can come home again -- and participate in our world in a richer, more responsible and poignantly beautiful way.(28)¶ Ecological ways of knowing nature are necessarily participatory. This knowledge is ecological and plural, reflecting both the diversity of natural ecosystems and the diversity in cultures that nature-based living gives rise to.¶ The recovery of the feminine principle is based on inclusiveness. It is a recovery in nature, woman and man of creative forms of being and perceiving. In nature it implies seeing nature as a live organism. In woman it implies seeing women as productive and active. Finally, in men the recovery of the feminine principle implies a relocation of action and activity to create life-enhancing, not life-reducing and life-threatening societies.(29)¶ In this context, the knowing ego is not set against a world it seeks to control, but one of which it is a part. To continue the feminist perspective, the mother knows or seeks to know the child's needs. Does it make sense to think of her answering the call of the child in abstraction from such knowledge? Is such knowledge necessarily domination? Or is it essential to a project of care, respect and love, precisely because the knower has an intimate, emotional connection with the known?(30) Our ecological vision locates us in such close relation with our natural home that knowledge of it is knowledge of ourselves. And this is not, contrary to Levinas's fear, reducing the other to the same, but a celebration of a larger, more inclusive, and still complex and articulated self.(31) The noble and terrible burden of Levinas's individuated responsibility for sheer existence gives way to a different dream, a different prayer:¶ Being rock, being gas, being mist, being Mind,¶ Being the mesons traveling among the galaxies with the speed of light,¶ You have come here, my beloved one. . . . ¶ You have manifested yourself as trees, as grass, as butterflies, as single-celled beings, and as chrysanthemums;¶ but the eyes with which you looked at me this morning tell me you have never died.(32)¶ In this prayer, we are, quite simply, all in it together. And, although this new ecological Holocaust -- this creation of planet Auschwitz -- is under way, it is not yet final. We have time to step back from the brink, to repair our world. But only if we see that world not as an other across an irreducible gap of loneliness and unchosen obligation, but as a part of ourselves as we are part of it, to be redeemed not out of duty, but out of love; neither for our selves nor for the other, but for us all. The alternative is to undergo the thought experiment in order to embrace the global suicide of humanity. The alternative solves the anthropocentric ideology. For some, guided by the pressure of moral conscience or by a ¶ practice of harm minimisation, the appropriate response to historical ¶ and contemporary environmental destruction is that of action guided ¶ by abstention. For example, one way of reacting to mundane, ¶ everyday complicity is the attempt to abstain or opt-out of certain ¶ aspects of modern, industrial society: to no= eat non-human animals, ¶ to invest ethically, to buy organic produce, to not use cars and buses, ¶ to live in an environmentally conscious commune. Ranging from small ¶ personal decisions to the establishment of parallel economies (think of ¶ organic and fair trade products as an attempt to set up a quasi-parallel ¶ economy), a typical modern form of action is that of a refusal to be ¶ complicit in human practices that are violent and destructive. Again, ¶ however, at a practical level, to what extent are such acts of nonparticipation rendered banal by their complicity in other actions? In a ¶ grand register of violence and harm the individual who abstains from ¶ eating non-human animals but still uses the bus or an airplane or ¶ electricity has only opted out of some harm causing practices and ¶ remains fully complicit with others. One response, however, which ¶ bypasses the problem of complicity and the banality of action is to ¶ take the non-participation solution to its most extreme level. In this ¶ instance, the only way to truly be non-complicit in the violence of the ¶ human heritage would be to opt-out altogether. Here, then, the ¶ modern discourse of reflection, responsibility and action runs to its ¶ logical conclusion – the global suicide of humanity – as a free-willed ¶ and ‘final solution’.¶ While we are not interested in the discussion of the ‘method’ of the ¶ global suicide of humanity per se, one method that would be the least ¶ violent is that of humans choosing to no longer reproduce. 10 The ¶ case at point here is that the global suicide of humanity would be a ¶ moral act; it would take humanity out of the equation of life on this ¶ earth and remake the calculation for the benefit of everything nonhuman. While suicide in certain forms of religious thinking is normally ¶ condemned as something which is selfish and inflicts harm upon borderlands 7:3¶ 17¶ loved ones, the global suicide of humanity would be the highest act of ¶ altruism. That is, global suicide would involve the taking of ¶ responsibility for the destructive actions of the human species. By ¶ eradicating ourselves we end the long process of inflicting harm upon ¶ other species and offer a human-free world. If there is a form of divine ¶ intelligence then surely the human act of global suicide will be seen ¶ for what it is: a profound moral gesture aimed at redeeming humanity. ¶ Such an act is an offer of sacrifice to pay for past wrongs that would ¶ usher in a new future. Through the death of our species we will give ¶ the gift of life to others. ¶ It should be noted nonetheless that our proposal for the global suicide ¶ of humanity is based upon the notion that such a radical action needs ¶ to be voluntary and not forced. In this sense, and given the likelihood ¶ of such an action not being agreed upon, it operates as a thought ¶ experiment which may help humans to radically rethink what it means ¶ to participate in modern, moral life within the natural world. In other ¶ words, whether or not the act of global suicide takes place might well ¶ be irrelevant. What is more important is the form of critical reflection ¶ that an individual needs to go through before coming to the conclusion ¶ that the global suicide of humanity is an action that would be ¶ worthwhile. The point then of a thought experiment that considers the ¶ argument for the global suicide of humanity is the attempt to outline ¶ an anti-humanist, or non-human-centric ethics. Such an ethics ¶ attempts to take into account both sides of the human heritage: the ¶ capacity to carry out violence and inflict harm and the capacity to use ¶ moral reflection and creative social organisation to minimise violence ¶ and harm. Through the idea of global suicide such an ethics reintroduces a central question to the heart of moral reflection: To what ¶ extent is the value of the continuation of human life worth the total ¶ harm inflicted upon the life of all others? Regardless of whether an ¶ individual finds the idea of global suicide abhorrent or ridiculous, this ¶ question remains valid and relevant and will not go away, no matter ¶ how hard we try to forget, suppress or repress it. | 10/28/13 |
1NC Debt CeilingTournament: Note | Round: Finals | Opponent: All | Judge: All
Before President Obama speaks to the nation about Syria tonight, take a look at what this fall will look like inside America. There are 49 million people in the country who suffered inadequate access to food in 2012, leaving the percentage of "food-insecure" Americans at about one-sixth of the US population. At the same time, Congress refused to pass food-stamp legislation this summer, pushing it off again and threatening draconian cuts. The country will crash into the debt ceiling in mid-October, which would be an economic disaster, especially with a government shutdown looming at the same time. These are deadlines that Congress already learned two years ago not to toy with, but memories appear to be preciously short. The Federal Reserve needs a new chief in three months, someone who will help the country confront its raging unemployment crisis that has left 12 million people without jobs. The president has promised to choose a warm body within the next three weeks, despite the fact that his top pick, Larry Summers, would likely spark an ugly confirmation battle – the "fight of the century," according to some – with a Congress already unwilling to do the President's bidding. Congress was supposed to pass a farm bill this summer, but declined to do so even though the task is already two years late. As a result, the country has no farm bill, leaving agricultural subsidies up in the air, farmers uncertain about what their financial picture looks like, and a potential food crisis on the horizon. The two main housing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been in limbo for four years and are desperately in need of reform that should start this fall, but there is scant attention to the problem. These are the problems going unattended by the Obama administration while his aides and cabinet members have been wasting the nation's time making the rounds on television and Capitol Hill stumping for a profoundly unpopular war. The fact that all this chest-beating was for naught, and an easy solution seems on the horizon, belies the single-minded intensity that the Obama White House brought to its insistence on bombing Syria. More than one wag has suggested, with the utmost reason, that if Obama had brought this kind of passion to domestic initiatives, the country would be in better condition right now. As it is, public policy is embarrassingly in shambles at home while the administration throws all of its resources and political capital behind a widely hated plan to get involved in a civil war overseas. The upshot for the president may be that it's easier to wage war with a foreign power than go head-to-head with the US Congress, even as America suffers from neglect. This is the paradox that President Obama is facing this fall, as he appears to turn his back on a number of crucial and urgent domestic initiatives in order to spend all of his meager political capital on striking Syria. Syria does present a significant humanitarian crisis, which has been true for the past two years that the Obama administration has completely ignored the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad. Two years is also roughly the same amount of time that key domestic initiatives have also gone ignored as Obama and Congress engage in petty battles for dominance and leave the country to run itself on a starvation diet imposed by sequestration cuts. Leon Panetta tells the story of how he tried to lobby against sequestration only to be told: Leon, you don't understand. The Congress is resigned to failure. Similarly, those on Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, those working at government agencies, and voters themselves have become all too practiced at ignoring the determined incompetence of those in Washington. Political capital – the ability to horse-trade and win political favors from a receptive audience – is a finite resource in Washington. Pursuing misguided policies takes up time, but it also eats up credibility in asking for the next favor. It's fair to say that congressional Republicans, particularly in the House, have no love for Obama and are likely to oppose anything he supports. That's exactly the reason the White House should stop proposing policies as if it is scattering buckshot and focus with intensity on the domestic tasks it wants to accomplish, one at a time. The president is scheduled to speak six times this week, mostly about Syria. That includes evening news interviews, an address to the nation, and numerous other speeches. Behind the scenes, he is calling members of Congress to get them to fall into line. Secretary of State John Kerry is omnipresent, so ubiquitous on TV that it may be easier just to get him his own talk show called Syria Today. It would be a treat to see White House aides lobbying as aggressively – and on as many talk shows – for a better food stamp bill, an end to the debt-ceiling drama, or a solution to the senseless sequestration cuts, as it is on what is clearly a useless boondoggle in Syria. There's no reason to believe that Congress can have an all-consuming debate about Syria and then, somehow refreshed, return to a domestic agenda that has been as chaotic and urgent as any in recent memory. The President should have judged his options better. As it is, he should now judge his actions better. C. Impacts:
This is the definition of a deficit, and it illustrates why the government needs to borrow money almost every day to pay its bills. Of course, all that daily borrowing adds up, and we are rapidly approaching what is called the X-Date — the day, somewhere in the next six weeks, when the government, by law, cannot borrow another penny. Congress has imposed a strict limit on how much debt the federal government can accumulate, but for nearly 90 years, it has raised the ceiling well before it was reached. But since a large number of Tea Party-aligned Republicans entered the House of Representatives, in 2011, raising that debt ceiling has become a matter of fierce debate. This summer, House Republicans have promised, in Speaker John Boehner’s words, “a whale of a fight” before they raise the debt ceiling — if they even raise it at all. If the debt ceiling isn’t lifted again this fall, some serious financial decisions will have to be made. Perhaps the government can skimp on its foreign aid or furlough all of NASA, but eventually the big-ticket items, like Social Security and Medicare, will have to be cut. At some point, the government won’t be able to pay interest on its bonds and will enter what’s known as sovereign default, the ultimate national financial disaster achieved by countries like Zimbabwe, Ecuador and Argentina (and now Greece). In the case of the United States, though, it won’t be an isolated national crisis. If the American government can’t stand behind the dollar, the world’s benchmark currency, then the global financial system will very likely enter a new era in which there is much less trade and much less economic growth. It would be, by most accounts, the largest self-imposed financial disaster in history. Nearly everyone involved predicts that someone will blink before this disaster occurs. Yet a small number of House Republicans (one political analyst told me it’s no more than 20) appear willing to see what happens if the debt ceiling isn’t raised — at least for a bit. This could be used as leverage to force Democrats to drastically cut government spending and eliminate President Obama’s signature health-care-reform plan. In fact, Representative Tom Price, a Georgia Republican, told me that the whole problem could be avoided if the president agreed to drastically cut spending and lower taxes. Still, it is hard to put this act of game theory into historic context. Plenty of countries — and some cities, like Detroit — have defaulted on their financial obligations, but only because their governments ran out of money to pay their bills. No wealthy country has ever voluntarily decided — in the middle of an economic recovery, no less — to default. And there’s certainly no record of that happening to the country that controls the global reserve currency. Like many, I assumed a self-imposed U.S. debt crisis might unfold like most involuntary ones. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised by X-Day, I figured, the world’s investors would begin to see America as an unstable investment and rush to sell their Treasury bonds. The U.S. government, desperate to hold on to investment, would then raise interest rates far higher, hurtling up rates on credit cards, student loans, mortgages and corporate borrowing — which would effectively put a clamp on all trade and spending. The U.S. economy would collapse far worse than anything we’ve seen in the past several years. Instead, Robert Auwaerter, head of bond investing for Vanguard, the world’s largest mutual-fund company, told me that the collapse might be more insidious. “You know what happens when the market gets upset?” he said. “There’s a flight to quality. Investors buy Treasury bonds. It’s a bit perverse.” In other words, if the U.S. comes within shouting distance of a default (which Auwaerter is confident won’t happen), the world’s investors — absent a safer alternative, given the recent fates of the euro and the yen — might actually buy even more Treasury bonds. Indeed, interest rates would fall and the bond markets would soar. While this possibility might not sound so bad, it’s really far more damaging than the apocalyptic one I imagined. Rather than resulting in a sudden crisis, failure to raise the debt ceiling would lead to a slow bleed. Scott Mather, head of the global portfolio at Pimco, the world’s largest private bond fund, explained that while governments and institutions might go on a U.S.-bond buying frenzy in the wake of a debt-ceiling panic, they would eventually recognize that the U.S. government was not going through an odd, temporary bit of insanity. They would eventually conclude that it had become permanently less reliable. Mather imagines institutional investors and governments turning to a basket of currencies, putting their savings in a mix of U.S., European, Canadian, Australian and Japanese bonds. Over the course of decades, the U.S. would lose its unique role in the global economy. The U.S. benefits enormously from its status as global reserve currency and safe haven. Our interest and mortgage rates are lower; companies are able to borrow money to finance their new products more cheaply. As a result, there is much more economic activity and more wealth in America than there would be otherwise. If that status erodes, the U.S. economy’s peaks will be lower and recessions deeper; future generations will have fewer job opportunities and suffer more when the economy falters. And, Mather points out, no other country would benefit from America’s diminished status. When you make the base risk-free asset more risky, the entire global economy becomes riskier and costlier. With the global financial system in serious trouble, is America's geostrategic dominance likely to diminish? If so, what would that mean? One immediate implication of the crisis that began on Wall Street and spread across the world is that the primary instruments of U.S. foreign policy will be crimped. The next president will face an entirely new and adverse fiscal position. Estimates of this year's federal budget deficit already show that it has jumped $237 billion from last year, to $407 billion. With families and businesses hurting, there will be calls for various and expensive domestic relief programs. In the face of this onrushing river of red ink, both Barack Obama and John McCain have been reluctant to lay out what portions of their programmatic wish list they might defer or delete. Only Joe Biden has suggested a possible reduction -- foreign aid. This would be one of the few popular cuts, but in budgetary terms it is a mere grain of sand. Still, Sen. Biden's comment hints at where we may be headed: toward a major reduction in America's world role, and perhaps even a new era of financially-induced isolationism. Pressures to cut defense spending, and to dodge the cost of waging two wars, already intense before this crisis, are likely to mount. Despite the success of the surge, the war in Iraq remains deeply unpopular. Precipitous withdrawal -- attractive to a sizable swath of the electorate before the financial implosion -- might well become even more popular with annual war bills running in the hundreds of billions. Protectionist sentiments are sure to grow stronger as jobs disappear in the coming slowdown. Even before our current woes, calls to save jobs by restricting imports had begun to gather support among many Democrats and some Republicans. In a prolonged recession, gale-force winds of protectionism will blow. Then there are the dolorous consequences of a potential collapse of the world's financial architecture. For decades now, Americans have enjoyed the advantages of being at the center of that system. The worldwide use of the dollar, and the stability of our economy, among other things, made it easier for us to run huge budget deficits, as we counted on foreigners to pick up the tab by buying dollar-denominated assets as a safe haven. Will this be possible in the future? Meanwhile, traditional foreign-policy challenges are multiplying. The threat from al Qaeda and Islamic terrorist affiliates has not been extinguished. Iran and North Korea are continuing on their bellicose paths, while Pakistan and Afghanistan are progressing smartly down the road to chaos. Russia's new militancy and China's seemingly relentless rise also give cause for concern. If America now tries to pull back from the world stage, it will leave a dangerous power vacuum. The stabilizing effects of our presence in Asia, our continuing commitment to Europe, and our position as defender of last resort for Middle East energy sources and supply lines could all be placed at risk. In such a scenario there are shades of the 1930s, when global trade and finance ground nearly to a halt, the peaceful democracies failed to cooperate, and aggressive powers led by the remorseless fanatics who rose up on the crest of economic disaster exploited their divisions. Today we run the risk that rogue states may choose to become ever more reckless with their nuclear toys, just at our moment of maximum vulnerability. The aftershocks of the financial crisis will almost certainly rock our principal strategic competitors even harder than they will rock us. The dramatic free fall of the Russian stock market has demonstrated the fragility of a state whose economic performance hinges on high oil prices, now driven down by the global slowdown. China is perhaps even more fragile, its economic growth depending heavily on foreign investment and access to foreign markets. Both will now be constricted, inflicting economic pain and perhaps even sparking unrest in a country where political legitimacy rests on progress in the long march to prosperity. None of this is good news if the authoritarian leaders of these countries seek to divert attention from internal travails with external adventures. As for our democratic friends, the present crisis comes when many European nations are struggling to deal with decades of anemic growth, sclerotic governance and an impending demographic crisis. Despite its past dynamism, Japan faces similar challenges. India is still in the early stages of its emergence as a world economic and geopolitical power. What does this all mean? There is no substitute for America on the world stage. The choice we have before us is between the potentially disastrous effects of disengagement and the stiff price tag of continued American leadership. | 10/28/13 |
1NC EE conditionalTournament: Young Lawyers | Round: 4 | Opponent: The term ‘engagement’ was popularised in the early 1980s amid controversy about the Reagan administration’s policy of ‘constructive engagement’ towards South Africa. However, the term itself remains a source of confusion. Except in the few instances where the US has sought to isolate a regime or country, America arguably ‘engages’ states and actors all the time simply by interacting with them. To be a meaningful subject of analysis, the term ‘engagement’ must refer to something more specific than a policy of ‘non-isolation’. As used in this article, ‘engagement’ refers to a foreign-policy strategy which depends to a significant degree on positive incentives to achieve its objectives. Certainly, it does not preclude the simultaneous use of other foreign-policy instruments such as sanctions or military force: in practice, there is often considerable overlap of strategies, particularly when the termination or lifting of sanctions is used as a positive inducement. Yet the distinguishing feature of American engagement strategies is their reliance on the extension or provision of incentives to shape the behaviour of countries with which the US has important disagreements. B. Violation: The plan is simply offers their assistance unconditionally – this is economic appeasement which is distinct from engagement. Our knowledge of the workings of economic engagement is still at a fairly preliminary stage. What we do know thus far leads, at best, to an assessment of cautious optimism. A recent series of case studies suggests that economic engagement can be effective as in instrument of statecraft. States have managed in certain situations to use economic relations to influence the foreign policies even of potential adversaries. Economic engagement is not simply synonymous with economic appeasement. Yet we must also appreciate the difficult conditions that must be met for economic-engagement strategist to succeed. Success requires the precise manipulation of domestic political forces in the target state. It requires some ability to control the effects of interdependence. It requires that domestic politics and foreign policy of a target state be linked in predictable and desirable ways. And the success of this strategy requires the effective management of domestic political constraints in the sanctioning state. These conditions, outlined subsequently, are difficult to meet individually and all the more so cumulatively. Vote Negative:
| 10/28/13 |
1NC T gov-govTournament: Cyprus | Round: 3 | Opponent: Economic engagement – a policy of deliberately expanding economic ties with an adversary in order to change the behavior of the target state and improve bilateral political relations – is a subject of growing interest in international relations. Violation: The aff engages with private groups or non-governmental organizations in Cuba, Mexico, or Venezuela, not the target country’s government. C. Vote Negative:
| 10/28/13 |
1NC TPrivate sectorTournament: Young Lawyers | Round: 1 | Opponent: Mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs are the possessive pronouns used to substitute a noun and to show possession or ownership. EG. This is your disk and that's mine. (Mine substitutes the word disk and shows that it belongs to me.)
| 10/28/13 |
Filename | Date | Uploaded By | Delete |
---|
Abernathy (TX)
ACORN Community (NY)
Agape Leaders Prep (NY)
Airline (TX)
Alpharetta (GA)
Alpine (UT)
Alta (UT)
Anderson (TX)
Appleton East (WI)
Appleton (MD)
Arcadia (CA)
Ashland (OR)
Athens (TX)
Atholton (MD)
Austin SFA (TX)
Ballard (WA)
Baltimore City College (MD)
Barbers Hill (TX)
Barstow (MO)
Bellarmine (CA)
Bentonville (AR)
Berkeley Prep (FL)
Berkner High School (TX)
Bexley (OH)
Bingham (UT)
Bishop Guertin (NH)
Bishop Loughlin (NY)
Blake (MN)
Bloomington (MN)
Blue Valley North (KS)
Blue Valley Northwest (KS)
Blue Valley Southwest (KS)
Blue Valley West (KS)
Briar Woods (VA)
Broad Run (VA)
Bronx Law (NY)
Bronx Science (NY)
Brooklyn Technical (NY)
Brophy College Prep (AZ)
Brown (KY)
Buhler (KS)
Byron Nelson (TX)
C.E. Byrd (LA)
Caddo Magnet (LA)
Cairo (GA)
Calhoun (GA)
Cambridge (GA)
Cambridge Rindge (MA)
Campus (KS)
Canyon Springs (NV)
Capitol Debate (MD)
Carrollton (GA)
Carrollton Sacred Heart (FL)
Casady (OK)
Cascia Hall (OK)
Cathedral Prep (PA)
Cedar Rapids Wash. (IA)
Cedar Ridge (TX)
Centennial (ID)
Centennial (MD)
Chamblee Charter (GA)
Chaminade Prep (CA)
Chandler (AZ)
Charles Page (OK)
Charlotte Catholic (NC)
Chattahoochee (GA)
Chesterton (IN)
CK McClatchy (CA)
Clackamas (OR)
Claremont (CA)
Classical Davies (RI)
Clear Lake (TX)
Clifton (TX)
Clovis North (CA)
College Prep (CA)
Colleyville Heritage (TX)
Coppell (TX)
Copper Hills (UT)
Corona Del Sol (AZ)
Coronado (NV)
Crenshaw (CA)
Crosby (TX)
Crossings Christian (OK)
Cypress Bay (FL)
Damien (CA)
Debate Rhode Island (RI)
Denver Arts (CO)
Denver Center For Int'l Studies (CO)
Denver East (CO)
Derby (KS)
Des Moines Roosevelt (IA)
Desert Vista (AZ)
Detroit Country Day (MI)
Dexter (MI)
Dominion (VA)
Dougherty Valley (CA)
Dowling Catholic (IA)
Downtown Magnets (CA)
Dunwoody (GA)
Eagan (MN)
Eagle (ID)
East Chapel Hill (NC)
East Kentwood (MI)
East Side HS (NJ)
Eden Prairie (MN)
Edgemont (NY)
Edina (MN)
Edmond North (OK)
Edmond Santa Fe (OK)
El Cerrito (CA)
Evanston (IL)
Fayetteville (AR)
Field Kindley (KS)
Fort Lauderdale (FL)
Fort Osage (MO)
Fremont (NE)
Friendswood (TX)
Gabrielino (CA)
George Washington (CO)
Georgetown Day (DC)
Glenbrook North (IL)
Glenbrook South (IL)
Gonzaga Prep (WA)
Grapevine (TX)
Green Valley (NV)
Greenhill (TX)
Greenwood (AR)
Greenwood Lab (MO)
Groves (MI)
Gulliver Prep (FL)
Guymon (OK)
Hallsville (TX)
Hamilton (AZ)
Hamilton (MT)
Harker (CA)
Harrisonburg (VA)
Hawken (OH)
Head Royce (CA)
Hebron (TX)
Hendrickson (TX)
Henry W. Grady (GA)
Heritage Hall (OK)
Highland (UT)
Highland Park (MN)
Highland Park (TX)
Homestead (WI)
Homewood Flossmoor (IL)
Houston Academy for Int'l Studies (TX)
Houston County (GA)
Houston Memorial (TX)
Hutchinson (KS)
Ingraham (WA)
Interlake (WA)
Iowa City High (IA)
Iowa City West (IA)
Isidore Newman (LA)
James Logan (CA)
Jenks (OK)
Jesuit Dallas (TX)
Johns Creek (GA)
JSEC LaSalle (RI)
Juan Diego (UT)
Kapaun Mount Carmel (KS)
Katy Taylor (TX)
Kent Denver (CO)
Kermit (TX)
Kingfisher (OK)
Kinkaid (TX)
Kudos College (CA)
La Costa Canyon (CA)
La Salle College (PA)
Lafayette High School (LA)
Lake City (ID)
Lake Oswego (OR)
Lakeland (NY)
Law Magnet (TX)
Lee's Summit West (MO)
Leland (CA)
Leucadia Independent (CA)
Lexington (MA)
Liberal Arts & Science Academy (TX)
Lincoln College (KS)
Lincoln HS (NE)
Lindale (TX)
Lindblom Math&Science (IL)
Little Rock Central (AR)
Little Rock Hall (AR)
Lowell (CA)
Loyola (CA)
Lynbrook (CA)
Maine East (IL)
Maize South (KS)
Marist (GA)
Marquette (WI)
Marriotts Ridge (MD)
Marshfield (MO)
MLK Jr Early College (CO)
McClintock (AZ)
McDonogh (MD)
McDowell (PA)
Meadows (NV)
Midway (TX)
Millard North (NE)
Millard South (NE)
Millard West (NE)
Milton (GA)
Minneapolis South (MN)
Monsignor Kelly (TX)
Montgomery Bell (TN)
Moore (OK)
Mount Vernon Presbyterian (GA)
Mountain Brook (AL)
Mt Hebron (MD)
National Cathedral (DC)
Nevada Union (CA)
New Mission Boston Community Leadership (MA)
New Trier (IL)
Newark Science (NJ)
Newburgh Free Academy (NY)
Newton (KS)
Niles North (IL)
Niles West (IL)
Norfolk (NE)
North Houston (TX)
Northside (IL)
Northview (GA)
Northwood (CA)
Notre Dame (CA)
Oakwood (CA)
Olathe Northwest (KS)
Omaha Westside (NE)
Pace Academy (GA)
Paideia (GA)
Palo Verde (NV)
Palos Verdes (CA)
Park Hill (MO)
Parkway West (MO)
Peak to Peak (CO)
Pembroke Hill (MO)
Peninsula (CA)
Perry High school (OH)
Pine Crest (FL)
Pittsburgh Central (PA)
Plano East (TX)
Polytechnic (CA)
Portage Northern (MI)
Puget Sound Community (WA)
Puyallup (WA)
Ransom Everglades (FL)
Reagan (TX)
Redmond (WA)
Reservoir (MD)
Richardson (TX)
River Hill (MD)
Rogers Heritage (AR)
Rosemount (MN)
Roseville (MN)
Roswell (GA)
Round Rock (TX)
Rowland Hall (UT)
Rufus King (WI)
Sage Ridge (NV)
Saginaw (TX)
Saint Mary's Hall (TX)
Salpointe Catholic (AZ)
San Dieguito Academy (CA)
San Marino (CA)
Santa Margarita (CA)
Saratoga (CA)
Seaholm (MI)
Shawnee Mission East (KS)
Shawnee Mission South (KS)
Sheboygan North (WI)
Sioux Falls Roosevelt (SD)
Sioux Falls Washington (SD)
Skiatook (OK)
Skyview (UT)
Small Schools Debate Coalition (CA)
South East (CA)
SPASH (WI)
St Francis (CA)
St Georges (WA)
St Ignatius (OH)
St James (AL)
St Johns College (DC)
St Marks (TX)
St Marys Hall (TX)
St Paul Central (MN)
St Paul Como Park (MN)
St Petersburg (FL)
St Vincent de Paul (CA)
Stern MASS (CA)
Stratford (GA)
Strath Haven (PA)
Stuyvesant (NY)
Sunset (TX)
Taravella (FL)
Thomas Jefferson (VA)
Thorndale (TX)
Timberline (ID)
Torrey Pines (CA)
Traverse City Central (MI)
Trinity Valley (TX)
Tualatin (OR)
Tulsa (OK)
Tulsa Union (OK)
University (CA)
University (NJ)
University (TN)
U. Chicago Lab (IL)
University Prep (MI)
Vashon High School (WA)
Veritas Prep. (AZ)
Wakeland (TX)
Walter Payton (IL)
Washburn (MN)
Washburn Rural (KS)
Washington Technology Magnet (MN)
Wayzata (MN)
West (UT)
West Bloomfield (MI)
West Des Moines Valley (IA)
Westinghouse (IL)
Westlake (TX)
Weston (MA)
Westminster Schools (GA)
Westwood (TX)
Wheeler (GA)
Whitney Young (IL)
Wichita East (KS)
Wilson (DC)
Winston Churchill (TX)
Woodward Academy (GA)
Wooster (OH)