Debate 1 Report

On Thursday December 11, 2008, at 1:35pm in room 204 a debate was held as to whether Miller’s definition of modern tragedy was appropriate to the modern age. The team arguing in the affirmative, composed of Dawson Lybbert, Justin Sweeney, and Ben Cousins, squared off against the team arguing for the negative, which consisted of Stephanie Boucher, Stephanie MacDonald, and Rebecca Ritchie. Presiding over the debate were Judge Seth Epps, Justice Colton Bissonette, and Keeper of the Peace Logan Lubuk.
The affirmative side opened up by stating what is essential in a tragedy and how a tragedy and a comedy are almost polar opposites. The negative side opened with an explanation of what a tragic character is according to Aristotle. Ms. Boucher also brought up the only relevant point found throughout the course of the debate. She brought up Millar’s definition of tragedy and how it applied more to Shakespearean times. Both rebuttals were more based on attacking the other teams format or way of presenting information and no real progress was made.
The second point for both teams continued on with the affirmative side suffering from a severe lack of points of interest. This resulted in attacks in the form of blonde jokes. The negative retaliated by quelling the attempted harassment of their arguments.
As the free-for-all started, mayhem ensued. It became a yelling match between the two apparent leaders, Mr. Lybbert and Ms. Boucher, of which tragedy was better and why. The rest of the debate continued in much the same fashion minus the yelling. Both teams resorted to insulting each other during the final rebuttals. The result from the judges, in the unanimous, was that the side arguing for the Shakespearean, the negative side, won by a landslide.