Southern Libya Is A Nice Vacation Destination

To conclude this debate, I will answer all of my Opponents objections and show who they are invalid, but before I do that there are some things I must point out about this debate. I. As the Pro, I only have to show a single example where Southern Libya could be considered a nice vacation. My Opponent challenged this in his second speech, and I refuted his objection. In his final speech he said nothing against it, thus dropping my argument that I only have to give one example of a nice vacation in Southern Libya to affirm this resolution. Since my Opponent agrees with me on this (shown by how he dropped it) then even if you, judges, do not personally agree with my observation about the wording of the resolution since my Opponent agrees with me, for the purposes of this round my observation is valid. II. In debate rounds, dictionary definitions are more important than the social context behind words. This becomes obvious through experience, I'm sure we've all experienced a round we either we or our Opponent did not give a definition and that seriously harmed their case. Even if they claim to accurately represent the "social context" behind words, without a proper source proving their claim it is invalid! My Opponent has not backed up his claim of the social context of resolutions with any evidence and so, for the purpose of this debate, it must be considered invalid. III. This resolution is subjective. If you look at other debate resolutions, they are never subjective. Countless examples of this exist such as "the United states SHOULD..." "Cyberbullying SHOULD..." "Capital Punishment SHOULD..." ect. They all have an action involved, thus both sides can have ground to state why this action should or should not be done. The few that don't have phrases such as "on balance" or "in general" in front of them (to prevent what is happening in this debate from happening, that is, if they did not have those phrases which this resolution does not the affirmative would only have to give one example where the resolved is true.) one example is "On balance violent revolution is a just response to political oppression.". No true resolution is worded like this one is, again like I've stated (and my Opponent agreed with) I must only prove ONE example where Southern Libya can be considered a nice vacation destination and thus this resolution cannot be negated. IV. While I understand that one of the terms of accepting this debate was that I had the burden of proof, I still feel the need to point out that in all three rounds my Opponent has only given a single source, as opposed to my 10. Now, to my Opponents objections. 1. The Context of the words "vacation" and "nice". My Opponent contends that the everyday use of words and the dictionary definition can be different. I completely agree. He also contends that the social context is more important. On this, I completely disagree. I believe that we could argue all day about the importance social context v. definition of words, however in a debate round the dictionary definition is by far more important. Indeed in this Introduction to Lincoln-Douglas debate[1] is states "take a look through some dictionaries and define the words or phrases in the resolution". Notice, it explicitly mentions DICTIONARIES for definitions, saying nothing about the social context. Another example can be found in this Guide to Public Forum debate[2] "If the topic were "Resolved: Free Trade benefits all nations." it would be vital to understand the concept of free trade. A definition from an economics or legal dictionary, or an encyclopedia would be preferable to a standard definition." notice, again NO mention of social context. Thus in a debate round the dictionary definition of words is supreme. Since all of my examples of "nice vacations" fit with my definitions, and definitions from dictionaries outweigh social context in debate rounds, they still stand and I win this round. 2. The topicality of the civil war. In the rules stated in the first round, my Opponent stated "Pro must convincingly argue that southern Libya as it is right now is a nice vacation destination." The keyword in this is "right now". This means that the civil war (which has not yet reached the South) is non-topical. My Opponent contends that "If you are vacationing somewhere and there's no civil war there but there is elsewhere in the country that fact alone would make you worried." In reality, yes but since we are debating about Southern Libya "right now" that means that the future does not have any relevance in this round. Since we're debating about Southern Libya "right now" it would be as if the condition stabilized to as it was when this resolution was created. Thus my Opponents objections about the civil war are invalid. 3. Gaddafi has no motivation to harm tourists. I've stated before (and my Opponent even agreed that it was a strong case) that Gaddafi has no motivation to harm tourists. Indeed he doesn't have the soldiers or supplies to target innocents, nor the credibility. Already there's a strong possibility that he will be tried for war crimes if he loses the war (which is very likely) and in killing innocents he is just writing the Prosecutions case against him! And as my Opponent has stated, the world remains strongly in favor of the rebels, however if Gaddafi treats tourists kindly he could possibly weaken that favor, and even weaken the Coalition efforts against him! In Conclusion: The Pro side has won this round because I have shown many specific examples of where a trip to Southern Libya could be considered, by definition, a "nice vacation". My Opponents main objections to this revolved around the social context of the words in the resolution, and I have adequately refute this argument. In judging this round, please take into consideration my Observation I made in the first round (that my Opponent dropped, showing his agreement)I only have to prove that Southern Libya can be a "nice vacation" in ANY situation. If even one of my examples still stands, then the Pro side wins. Please do not vote on this round based on whether you personally would vacation to Southern Libya. I'd like to thank my Opponent for instigating this round (and I'm not saying that for "conduct" points, this was by far the most enjoyable debate I've done on this website so far, so thanks) and thank the judges for ruling in whoever truly won this debate. Sources: 1. http://debate.uvm.edu...(NFL).pdf 2. http://debate.uvm.edu...