DEBSOC-1 9/10/2021

I. “This House Believes that candidates should not be allowed to appeal to voters on the basis
of religion, race, caste, language or community”
 OPENING: -
Why do people or parties seek votes and win elections? Why do voters exist? Why does this
entire democratic set-up where we elect those who will govern us exist at all? What is its
purpose?
Electoral politics and governance that emerges from it is the process of making policies and
laws that create a society that is fair. It is the pursuit of enacting laws and policies that one
by one or in big swoops, correct certain errors or injustices that have crept into the social
order over our history. The idea of governance is to create an environment where each of us
can pursue our full potential in a fair and free political climate and above all get justice if we
are denied those opportunities. Absolute justice is the final frontier of governance. Justice is
the aim of politics.
That brings us to justice, the aim of politics. The very concept of justice has a human context.
It is not arithmetic where two plus two is four whether any human is there to witness the
miracle of math or not. Justice exists only because we exist. Injustice too exists only because
of us. The canvas of justice is human involvement. Human societies have always consisted of
and will always consist of individuals who band together to form tribes. Ancient tribes were
based on which god we worshipped, what color we were or language we spoke. Urban tribes
cling together based on which college we went to, what socio-economic bracket we are,
where we like to party, where we live or how we dress, among others. But urban tribes are
newer concepts in the larger civilizational timeline. The most cohesive, influential and
important tribes in human existence have been formed on the basis of language, race, caste
and language that grew into religions or sects. We conduct our lives with those identities as
our primary influencers. We conduct our happiest life experiences based on those
identities. We also carry out the most horrific and disgusting acts and injustices with those
identities as the primary drivers.
Our primary identities are still primitive and will be for the foreseeable future.
Some may say that this is in the past but if from 2000 years ago to a couple years ago
injustices have been occurring based on caste and race it is kind of presumptuous and
arrogant to assume we the humans of 2017 have achieved the pinnacle of societal evolution
and individual enlightenment to claim that no more community-or caste-based injustices can
exist that need to fixed. They will only be fixed if those most impacted can create a political
movement by banding together into a critical mass that exerts pressure on politics.
You can’t have it any other way – yet. To disallow seeking votes on the basis of ethnic or
religious identity is to not just disallow democracy. It is dismissing the very concept of
human evolution.
I might accept the proposition that “This House Believes that candidates should not be
allowed to appeal to voters on the basis of religion, race, caste, language or community”.
But on the condition that you have to wipe out every injustice ever committed in the name
of religion, caste, community, race or language. For that you’re going to have to invent a
time machine and go back to stop the first banding together of the first Homo Sapiens under
one group identity and them harming someone outside it. Because it all started and grew
from there to where we are today. It is what has made us who we are. Good or bad? A bit of
both but that is who we are. You won’t be able to undo 200,000 years of our species having
 existed to create this complex society. And unless you can undo that, you can’t do this. It
can’t work.

II. This house believes that Gotham would be safer if Batman abandoned his 'No Killing' rule

Against this argument

But then one day, as Batman is roaming through Gotham on his war on crime, he would kill
another thug. But this time, the goon he kills has a young son, who in the morning will have to
bear the news that his father/mother was brutally shot dead by an armed assailant.

He would have created another orphan.

That young boy would then grow a seething hatred of The Bat, and maybe even become a
vigilant himself. Roaming the streets at night. Killing others. Creating even more monsters.

At which point, that orphan would have essentially become another Batman. And that, is why
Batman refuses to go to that extreme.

Not only does he refuse to commit murder because of his belief in the justice system, Wayne
also doesn’t kill these people because he knows the collateral damage it could cause. He would
inevitably become what he is trying to put a stop to.

And he doesn’t want others to suffer through what he did.

Batman does not kill people because he does not want anyone to experience the same thing
that happened to him. What if he just murders a robber…. but that robber was robbing things to
take care of his family?

What sense does it make for a traumatized victim to unleash that same trauma on other people?

You see Two Face, Bane, Penguin, Poison Ivy, or Riddler running around in the streets and
commiting crime? Have Batman murder them and crime will disappear…. but there wouldnt be
good stories to tell

I remember reading that Batman learned all the best ways to kill someone so that he could avoid
them. That is the true essence of Batman.

What makes Batman special is that he makes the hard choices that no one would make. It is very
easy to murder people, but Batman does not make the easy choice so he does not kill.

I think the scene that perfectly sums up Batman for me is in Justice League Unlimited where
Batman sees a young girl name Ace who has the ability to warp reality to the point where it
could destroy cities and a government official tells Batman to just shoot her in the head.

But what does Batman do? He listens to her story and learns that she is doing this
uncontrollably, is dying very painfully and is scared of death.

So what does Batman do? He throws the gun away, sits with that girl and comforts her until she
passes away peacefully.
This is why Batman is arguably the greatest superhero of all time, because it would have been so
EASY to just shoot Ace in the head and call it a day and not think about it. But the fact that
Batman was able to understand her pain and feel empathy for an innocent little girl when none
of the other superheroes could just proves how worthy he is.

"If you can't see your Batman comfort a child, you didn't write Batman, you just wrote Punisher
in a silly hat" It's his humanity that makes him special. Without it, he's just a crazy guy in a cape.

In conclusion, Batman must never kill (unless its necessary) because he would be just as bad as
the man who murdered his parents and it would be easier for him to pass judgement and
murder every single criminal for a petty crime.