Zaradi's Prized Tournament Final: Food Security

Thank you bsh. It's certainly a pleasure to be up here standing next to bsh in this battle of eloquence and wits. I want to extend the same gracious thanks that bsh gave in his preface to the audience, to bsh himself and to Zaradi. Without further ado - Premise 1 - The Purpose of GovernmentI assert that a government exists to serve a purpose. In other words, each governmental state assumes inherent moral duties to those that it governs. The government acts as a functional, political agency in order to further justice. A just government is one which fulfills its duties of promoting, preserving and furthering justice. In other words, a just government is just. Fairly tautological really.Premise 2 - JusticeP2SP1 - What it Means to be Just.There are two general definitions of 'Just'. One definition pertains in particular to fairness while the other pertains to moral uprightness. Since governments exists with inherent moral duties, justice in the case of this debate can be reasonably assumed to pertain to the case of morality insofar as to justify interchanging the word 'just' with the word 'moral' in the resolution. P2SP2 - The Government's Moral Duties"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men"[2] These words were written by the founding leaders of the American government. It states that governmental institutions are created to secure basic moral values for its people, and further asserts the basic moral values to encompass the three tenets: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. While the American government doesn't necessarily represent the totality of the world's government, it provides a set of generally accepted values. Based on John Locke's tenets of Life, Liberty and Property, the values proposed in the Declaration of Independence are a manifestation of western moral philosophy. I assert that the western ideals centered around these utilitarian values of Life, Liberty, etc. are the ideals for which governments should strive to promote for all its citizens.P2SC1 - A Just Government Ensures the Right to LifeThis is the conclusion we draw from P2SP2. In order for it to be just, a government must fulfill its moral duties. One of these moral duties is to ensure the right to life of its citizens, and food security is a necessary precondition to fulfilling its obligations to this particular right.Conclusion:Premise 1 establishes that a government has moral duties. Premise 2 establishes that a government is just if it fulfills its moral duties. Premise 2 further establishes that these moral duties encompass some very specific set of values, and that among these values is the right to life. Premise 2 finally concludes that an obligation to securing the right to life implies an obligation to ensuring food security.And thus a just government is obligated to ensure food security for its citizens else it cannot be considered just: a just government ought to ensure food security for its citizens.In other words, a government which acts on this particular obligation is just.Post-hoc Musings:CON's case should argue that food security does not need to be achieved. In other words, he can either argue an absence of duty or the presence of a contrary duty. CON may also contend the qualifications for being just.CON could possibly argue that the right to life may be impossible to fulfill or that it may come at some cost. However, the affirmative does not need to show how to ensure food security. It only needs to affirm that food security ought to be ensured. The affirmative argues that the end result of food security ought to be achieved as a moral duty. The goal itself is just, and for a government to be just, it must seek to achieve this goal. The method by which to reach this goal isn't of concern to this debate. Given that the government knows how to provide food security to its citizens without incurring general net losses, a just government ought to provide food security for its citizens.[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com...[2] http://www.constitution.org...