Law Schools

Law School Hosts Dumb Debate Or The Dumbest Debate?

Pretty sure there is only one right answer.

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Like so many people who find themselves in law school largely out of a sense of resignation and ennui, I participated in debate as an undergraduate. It was fun, I got to travel to places I’d never been and I naively thought it was giving me a great background to become a lawyer. I coached a team after I graduated and even went on to be president of the largest intercollegiate policy debate association in the United States. So, I know a little something about crafting a good (or at least workable) debate topic. There should be a fair division of ground between both sides of the proposition and it should be linked to an active controversy in the literature.

This is none of those things.

An amused tipster drew our attention to a debate that UNC Law School is hosting next week: “Inequality: Fair or Unfair?”

You guys, am I missing something? It seems, definitionally, there is only one right answer. In fact, let’s go to an actual dictionary to check out this travesty of a debate topic.

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, inequality is defined as:

an unfair situation in which some people have more rights or better opportunities than other people

Full Definition of INEQUALITY

1 : the quality of being unequal or uneven: as
a : lack of evenness
b : social disparity
c : disparity of distribution or opportunity
d : the condition of being variable : changeableness
2 : an instance of being unequal
3 : a formal statement of inequality between two quantities usually separated by a sign of inequality (as <, >, or ≠ signifying respectively is less than, is greater than, or is not equal to)

So, right there, in the short definition we get the answer we are looking for. Inequality: fair or unfair? Answer: Unfair. Full stop. The only value add for the actual event is the free food.

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And I get the underlying issue this debate is trying to tap into, but it isn’t framed as “Inequality: Justified or Unjustified?” or “Inequality: Unavoidable or Avoidable?” which at least pose debatable questions. I mean, still a silly one, but it’d be an improvement.

Indeed, this event posits such an obvious tautology you have to wonder about the rejected topics:

Innovations: New or Old?
Water: Wet or Dry?
Evil: Moral or Immoral?

Of course there are actually two poor souls that actually have to go through the motions for this debate:

The debate will feature our own Professor William Marshall and Dr. Yaron Brook, Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

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Should have known, obviously the Objectivist will be arguing inequality is fair. Of course Brook also says global warming is “another in a line of failed scare stories,” so maybe take what he says with a grain of salt.

Inequality: Fair or Unfair? [UNC School of Law]

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