The World Needs More Good Old Fashioned Debates

Correct me if I am wrong, but I feel like what the world is in major need of is more good old fashioned debates. I feel like lately, whether it be in person or in the Lush forums, what used to be debates has now become straight up arguments. When two people of different opinions meet there is no longer the process of taking turns to present what you believe and why you believe what you believe, then allowing the other side to present their beliefs. I feel like each time I see or hear a debate beginning, it somehow becomes extremely personal as people get pissed off and take it extremely personal as each side begins to insult the other side. In a true debate, there would be no blatant personal attacks aimed at those who do not believe what you believe.

I feel that if a true debate were to happen, regardless of the topic (religion, politics, NFL, best TV show, etc), there are only two possible outcomes that would occur.

1) When presented the beliefs of the opposite side, your existing personal beliefs will only seem truer to you as a result of seeing why you don't believe/agree with the opposite side

or

2) When presented the beliefs of the opposite side, your eyes/heart/mind will be opened and you will see that your existing personal beliefs were way off.

Personally, I feel that if either of those options to you then one is better off as a human being. But this can only happen in a healthy debate. If the debate gets personal and becomes an argument, each side will only become pissed off and will feel that their beliefs are stronger and truer to them but that is only because they are so angry at the opposite side that they will do anything in their power to not associate with them.

I believe that debate is one of the purest forms of education. Debate is truly meant to elevate and enlighten us.

My Favorite Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes that I have come across over my 22 year of living:


"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison


"Good habits formed at youth make all the difference." - Aristotle



 "The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness..." -Thomas Edison


"You're familiar with the phrase "man's reach exceeds his grasp"? It's a lie: man's grasp exceeds his nerve" - Nikolas Tesla


"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing." - Socrates



"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes." - John Wooden (Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach)


"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." - C.S. Lewis


"Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence." - Vince Lambardi (Hall of Fame NFL coach of the Green Bay Packers)
 

"You can learn a lot from a dummy." - My own father


"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it" - Nelson Mandela


"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln (hmmmm.....)