R: Man is Made to Work

Step back from laborious study this week and join the Federalist Party to discuss the value of all those hours of toil and exertion invested in your studies. Are all those hours of drudgery simply disciplining you and allowing you to flourish in accordance with your human nature? Man is a creature with a great capacity for reason and creativity, able to produce and innovate to build new economic orders and reshape society. But is man a purposed creature, requiring labor to fulfill it's own humanity or are we simply investing our sweat and tears now so that someday the world reaches an economic order where labor is limited, voluntary, or even rare? 

Come this Thursday, October 25th at at 7:30 p.m. to the Berkeley Mendenhall Room for Resolved: Man is Made to Work. All are welcome!

R: Ban the Lottery

POWERBALL! MEGA MILLIONS! LUCKY FOR LIFE! Thelottery as an institution has been used since early American history to fund public education, raise revenue, and catch the public eye with flashy advertising for quick rewards. At times like the Panic of 1837, lotteries have been made illegal due to associations with corruption, scandal or vice. But overcoming the legal turmoil of it's history, the lottery remains firmly stationed as the government endorsed 'get rich quick' scheme for the American people.

Why do people play the lottery? For the gamesmanship? For the titillating risk? Or far more likely, because it provides the only real hope to lower income Americans that they can pay off debts, start saving, and someday ascertain the elusive American Dream. But should it be the role of thelottery in society to endow the citizenry with hope of a better financial future? What should the government's role be in the lottery and should there be a lottery at all?

Come one, come all and debate with the Federalist Party this Wednesday, October 3rd at at 7:30 p.m.. in theBerkeley Mendenhall Room to answer the age old question: will we, the Federalist Party, shoot our 1 in 175,223,510 shot in hopes of quickly ascending the Yale Extracurricular Hierarchy of Economic Power, or shall we join the less than lucky masses and acquiesce to long term savings, fundraising, and stacks of grant proposals?  

R: Avoid Death

Death is the great human fascination. Inspiring novels, fantasy, film, art, philosophy, and religion, grappling with death leads to common expressions of our humanity and poses questions about the very essence of our existence on earth. Temporal limits restrain us to single lifetimes, forcing us to constrain our hope for the future eternity or the fleeting present. But the modern era offers unprecedented tools for the destruction of the human person and the radical extension of life. Technology grows exponentially and we combine medicine and machine, policy and pills, to gain further control over the conception and death of every individual in society. As transhumanism, euthanasia, and cryonics, increasingly enter the cultural narrative of the twenty-first century, we must attempt to reconcile or reject them with considerations of history, ethics, religion, the purpose of life, and what it means to be truly human. 

Do we freeze our heads, bottle our genes, and plug into machines? Or do we give in to the grave, foregoing advances in lifesaving technology altogether? Is the struggle against the inevitable end futile or the very essence of the human existence? When should we live, when should we die, and who should decide?

Please join us this Thursday, September 27th at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room for Resolved: Avoid Death. All are welcome!  

R: The Government Should Fund the Arts

Grand public arts projects stand as testaments to great projects of history. The arts have served to communicate narrative and feeling to illiterate audiences, to expand the purposes of religion, history, and philosophy. Nations have funded Operas, massive Cathedrals, literature, television programs, humanities research, and even rock and roll. The NEH claims government funded arts "strengthen our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans." But is there a timeless wisdom to the folk lyrics "Who takes the king's shilling, takes the king's song?"

As Trump threatens to cut back on sources of funding for the arts, we must ask, what is the role of art in our society? Who should hold the pursestrings for each paint-stroke? Shall we call for a separation of Art and State or will we claim the humanities are so fundamental it is better to risk propaganda than privatization? 

Please join us this Thursday, September 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room for Resolved: The Government Should Fund The Arts. All are welcome!  

R: Have Enemies

Criminals are decried as "Public Enemies," revolutionaries and traitors as "Enemies of the State," and those who advocate for the status quo as "Enemies of Progress." Nations, families, individuals, and ideas are wrought with adversaries. But is this necessary? The phenomena of rivalry exists everywhere from Tolstoy's War and Peace to the texts of world religions to modern geopolitical discourse to the Socratic dialogues. As history, literature, politics, and philosophy all try to reconcile the role of enemies in the public and personal spheres, we must ask: can we stand for anything, as people or as a nation, if there are not things we stand against? Is it requisite of a good life to forge enemies along the way? Are adversaries a natural part of the human condition, or are they an externality of social competition, poor interpersonal skills, or intolerance? 

All are welcome, friend or foe, to join us this Thursday, September 13th at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room for Resolved: Have Enemies.