When in conflict, Idealism should be valued above Pragmatism

A couple weeks ago, the radio in my car stopped working. Now, since I'm a guy, you can imagine that this was pretty much the end of the world for me because I really value being able to listen to music. The next day I took my car to a mechanic and he was able to fix the radio. Now, although the mechanic allowed me to achieve my goal of listening to my radio again, I don't value taking my car to the shop, rather I value being able to listen to music again. It's very much a similar scenario when we are faced with a conflict between Idealism and Pragmatism. While it is sometimes necessary to sometimes be Pragmatic about a situation, we must never let that pragmatism become the primary focus, we must always hold our ideals highest or we will never be able to achieve anything. It is for this reason that I stand solidly resolved that: When in conflict, Idealism should be valued above Pragmatism. To better help us understand this resolution and the terms provided I offer the following definitions: When two ideas come into Conflict, they "come into disagreement; [and are] contradictory, at variance, or in opposition" Idealism is defined as "the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc." (Random House Dictionary) Pragmatism, on the other hand, is defined as "a way of approaching situations or solving problems that emphasizes practical applications and consequences." (American Heritage Dictionary) And finally, to Value something is "to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance." Because this is such a vast topic I would like to present the value of Liberty as the scale to weigh the round. We can define Liberty as "freedom from arbitrary government or control" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language) Now let's go ahead and look at how Liberty is the most important value in… Contention 1: Liberty is the highest value Lord Acton once said "Liberty is not the means to a higher political end; it is the highest political end. It is not for the sake of good public administration that it is required, but for security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life" What this is saying is that without personal liberty it is impossible to achieve any other value. Great leaders from William Wallace to Patrick Henry recognized this fact and crafted their actions in a way that best upheld this standard. Because Liberty is the value from which all other values are derived, I strongly urge you to vote for Liberty at the end of today's debate round. Now that we've established the superiority of Liberty, let's look at how Pragmatism fails to give us true liberty in…. Contention 2: Pragmatism fails at Liberty During the Spanish conquest of South America the Catholic priests who ministered to the natives had a great opportunity to improve the native's liberty. However, despite having this goal, it wasn't long before they became bogged down in Old World style bureaucracy. They quickly traded their ideals for a more pragmatic outlook on the situation and as a result the natives suffered. Not only did the natives not gain the liberty they desperately needed, the same priests that began with such a noble goal actually became the facilitators of the injustices that allowed millions of the natives to die in the Spanish gold mines. Because Idealism was not valued over Pragmatism Liberty was destroyed for millions. Another example where we can see Pragmatism failing to deliver Liberty was in the Japanese Internment Camps during World War Two. For decades, America had valued Liberty above all else. But after the bombing of Perl Harbor, the American people, desperate for something to do, forgot about their ideals and turned to the most immediate solution: locking all the Japanese Americans in prison. While a small amount of safety may have been achieved, the cost was undeniable. Pragmatism cost thousands of people their liberty. Now that we've seen that Pragmatism fails to deliver liberty, let's look at how Idealism is capable of giving us true liberty in… Contention 3: Idealism succeeds where Pragmatism fails Now, there are a multitude of examples of places in history where Liberty was upheld through Idealism but for now I'd like to look at two related examples. Before America broke away from England the founding fathers came to understand how important liberty truly was. Not only that, these men understood that if they looked at the situation pragmatically they would never be able to achieve this goal. In fact, from a practical standpoint, the American Revolution appeared to be foolishly impossible. However, because the founding fathers valued the ideal of liberty so highly they launched a new nation and were able to achieve a great amount of liberty. The next example is the Civil Rights movement of the nineteen hundreds. The men and women who made a stand for civil liberties did so knowing that they were likely to be jailed or even, as was the case with Martin Luther King Junior, killed for their values. However, they refused to view their situation pragmatically, and as a result, a huge step towards true liberty was made. In conclusion I want to leave you with two thoughts: One, Liberty is the highest value we can seek to achieve and two, when there is a conflict between idealism and pragmatism in the pursuit of liberty, Idealism should always be valued first. For these reasons I strongly urge you to join with me in making a stand for liberty by affirming the resolution.