Pageants are STUPID.

Pageants are performances, in every meaning of the word. From beauty pageants to historical pageants to Christmas pageants, pageants are art. Some are easily recognized as members of the performing arts, and some are not. Beauty pageants, for example, are rarely referred to as "art", and most compare it to anything but theatre, but whether it is recognized as such by the public or not, public opinion can't change the facts. I am assuming, given the time of year and the lack of any further explanation of the topic, that the pageant in question is a Christmas pageant. Please redirect me if I am mistaken. I grew up in a strictly Catholic household, and today I consider myself as a non-denominational Christian. Pageants are a part of my life, and they have been ever since I was a child. I do not participate, I just watch. A great number of Americans and of people from various other places around the globe share the experience of watching yearly Christmas pageants, and while the audience members are predominantly Christian, people of any religion are allowed to, and do in fact attend. It's a religious experience for some, and "just another show" for others. Either way, both the religious and the artsy enjoy them. They're inspirational, and the gathering around the event of a pageant is one of joy, and even strangers can't help but to relate to each other as members of the human race. It's not just about the religion, or the actors, or the lines or the props and set, it's about understanding. It's about the not-at-all awkward exchange of smiles from one foreign face to another as all ears listen to the same story. It's about that very thing that makes us human, that has no true name to describe it in the English language, but the closest we have are a bundle of names. It's empathy, it's love, and it is emotion. Most who have actually attended a pageant will disagree with my opponent. They've felt that connection to people they don't even know, that commonality between every person on Earth that doesn't need to be consciously labelled to exist. Some, however, like my opponent, haven't felt that. Why do we even hold pageants? What's the point? And yes, there is a point. Art has a point. Every drawing, be it masterpiece or scribble, every piece of literature, be it novel or letter, and every performance, be it pageant or kindergarten class play has a purpose. It's not entertainment, though all three do just that. It's not financial prosperity, although great artists tend to be quite successful in that area, but it's the psychology of it. Show me a classic that does not give life to the words of Freud or his predecessors, and I will show you a composition that is not a classic. The words we write, say or put to vivid colors on a canvas are emotion. They're what you'd find if you took a figurative glance inside your vulnerable little human head, and they are, arguably, the point of life. Think about it. On your death bed, are you going to proudly grasp the hand of your fortune and thank God for giving you a four story mansion with gold pillars and pearls? Of course not. Whether you've got a billion bucks or you've hardly made a buck, you won't care once you're dead or dying. Things that will matter are things we care about, in more than a superficial, greedy attachment. We care about our family, those we love, and though love is not an emotion, as emotions come and go throughout the day while love does not, it certainly does take place in your mind, hence it is psychology; it is, more directly, philosophy--its most stereotypical topic. We care about our legacy, the songs, drawings, books, plays and pageants we've composed and that are floating about the world, and will do the same when we ourselves are gone. Most of you won't go so far to say that art is not the point of life, and it isn't; however, art is the child of our mind's creations and inner workings, which ARE the quite possible "points" of life, and so art is therefore directly related to it. If you don't share my opinion, you're not wrong. You're actually 100% correct, and so am I, because an opinion cannot be wrong. An opinion may conflict with opinions of morality, but then again, morality is an opinion too. And with all these opinions, we tend to defend our own, because we are CONVINCED it's right, above all the others. Well, it is right, but it's no better than that of the person next to you's opinion. That is where I'd like to point out my opponent's argument's hole. "Pageants are stupid". Congratulations, you're right" in your mind. Do I think pageants are stupid? No, I most certainly do not. Am I wrong? Yes" in your mind. In mine own and in everyone else's who shares my thoughts on this, I'm not wrong at all, which is why you cannot make such a broad and careless statement as, "pageants are stupid", on a debating site, whose debates run largely by objectivity and factual evidence. Opinion is not a fact, and disagreement with that statement is, in fact, wrong. Look, my point is that pageants have meaning to a lot of people, and to a lot of people they don't. Some enjoy it, some don't. Some think (key word: think) they're stupid, some don't. And all of those things are perfectly fine, they make you no less of a person, nor do they make you "wrong", but saying something so broad as my opponent has is assuming that the rest of the world agrees with you. I assure you, they do not. The stupid (or not) pageants are art--emotion expressed. They are gatherings of joy and love, entertainment and religious praise. They are tradition, innocent acts to lighten hearts, never to stir anger of any form, though I suppose that is also an opinion.