So, I was invited to participate in a debate on the motion that “The European Union should accept more refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic”. I thought it was interesting, and I was happy to accept. But only subsequently was I told that I must argue against the motion!
Although mortified by the prospect of someone in the audience might take the rhetoric at face value, I was also unwilling to rescind my participation. I decided to make it obvious that my personal position had nothing to do with the arguments I presented. I wore a shabby little blond wig, à la Geert Wilders (a far-right politician in the Netherlands with bleached hair).
Something I had thought impossible - our team won. At the after-debate reception, a first-year student walked up to me and confessed that he was unsure before the debate, but my arguments had convinced about against the resolution (i.e., against the motion). Brand new to debates, he could be forgiven for being impressionable. But, oh the perils of outsourcing thought to orators!
No comments:
Post a Comment