Prometheus 6

No wonder the concepts of clear thought and expression have died. 

In college tournaments, the longtime weapon of choice is speed-talking. The idea is to cram so many arguments into a speech that rival teams run out of time to rebut everything. To untrained ears, the rapid-fire verbiage sounds like an auctioneer on amphetamines.

Does this debase debate?
College forensics once stuck strictly to words. Now it can come off the page -- way off.
By Roy Rivenburg
Times Staff Writer
December 12, 200

IMAGINE a presidential debate in which John McCain answers Hillary Clinton's arguments by stripping down to his underwear or breaking into a rap song.

Strange as it might sound, such tactics are gaining cachet — and victories — in a top breeding ground for future politicians: America's college debate circuit.

In recent years, renegade rhetoricians from Cal State Fullerton and other underdog schools have clobbered debate kingpins from Harvard and UC Berkeley with a hodgepodge of unorthodox methods known as "performance debating."

Instead of relying on scholarly research to foil opponents, the teams employ guerrilla tactics such as reading from Dr. Seuss, impersonating pirates or ballroom dancing with a chair.

"People call us the terrorists of debate," says Fullerton student Brenda Montes.

The goal of performance debate is threefold: Knock rivals off stride, impress judges with creative forms of argument and open the heavily white-male field to new voices.

The methods have sparked an uproar. Purists say the gimmicks are wrecking a noble tradition. But supporters insist the techniques are returning the art of persuasion to its roots.

"Debate is the greatest educational experience you've never heard about," said Jon Bruschke, who coaches Cal State Fullerton's team. "We're trying to make it available to everyone."

From Plato to Lincoln-Douglas to Reagan-Mondale, debaters have always searched for ways to outwit their adversaries.

In college tournaments, the longtime weapon of choice is speed-talking. The idea is to cram so many arguments into a speech that rival teams run out of time to rebut everything. To untrained ears, the rapid-fire verbiage sounds like an auctioneer on amphetamines.

But the research-saturated spiels stack the deck against small debate squads, said Bill Neesen, who coaches a performance team at Long Beach State.

Whereas a big-budget school like Northwestern or USC can steamroll into a tournament with a dozen people who do nothing but scout opponents and plot counterarguments, Long Beach has no backup.

"The big schools outstrip us on research," Neesen said.

So Long Beach borrows from a playbook devised by a former mortician, a Grateful Dead fanatic and a guy with a penchant for Hawaiian shirts and sandals with socks. The rebels' bag of tricks hinges on a simple rule: Everything in debate is debatable, including the rules of debate.