Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

- Boring Boring Boring K ( ) Talking about Nuclear Weapons is boring Stein '46
[Gertrude Stein. 1946. Reflections on the Atomic Bomb JCOOK]

They asked me what I thought of the atomic bomb. I said I had not been able to take any interest in it. I like to read detective and mystery stories. I never get enough of them but whenever one of them is or was about death rays and atomic bombs I never could read them. What is the use, if they are really as destructive as all that there is nothing left and if there is nothing there nobody to be interested and nothing to be interested about. If they are not as destructive as all that then they are just a little more or less destructive than other things and that means that in spite of all destruction there are always lots left on this earth to be interested or to be willing and the thing that destroys is just one of the things that concerns the people inventing it or the people starting it off, but really nobody else can do anything about it so you have to just live along like always, so you see the atomic [bomb] is not at all interesting, not any more interesting than any other machine, and machines are only interesting in being invented or in what they do, so why be interested. I never could take any interest in the atomic bomb, I just couldn't any more than in everybody's secret weapon. That it has to be secret makes it dull and meaningless. Sure it will destroy a lot and kill a lot, but it's the living that are interesting not the way of killing them, because if there were not a lot left living how could there be any interest in destruction. Alright, that
is the way I feel about it. They think they are interested about the atomic bomb but they really are not not any more than I am. Really not. They may be a little scared, I am not so scared, there is so much to be scared of so what is the use of bothering to be scared, and if you are not scared the atomic bomb is not interesting.

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. They listen so much that they forget to be natural. This is a nice story.

Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

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Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

- Boring Boring Boring K ( ) Boredom is the root of all evil-doers Kierkegaard '
[Kierkegaard. Cool Guy. From Either/Or. JCOOK] People with experience maintain that proceeding from a basic principle is supposed to be very reasonable; I yield to them and proceed from the basic principle that all people are boring. Or is there anyone who would be boring enough to contradict me in this regard? This basic principle has to the highest degree the repelling force always required in the negative, which is actually the principle of motion. It is not merely repelling but infinitely repulsive, and whoever has the basic principle behind him must necessarily have infinite momentum for making discoveries. If, then, my thesis is true, a person needs only to ponder how corrupting boredom is for people, tempering his reflections more or less according to his desire to diminish or increase his impetus, and if he wants to press the speed of the motion to the highest point, almost with danger to the locomotive, he needs only to say to himself: Boredom is the root of all evil. It is very curious that

The effect that boredom brings about is absolutely magical, but this effect is one not of attraction but of repulsion. How corrupting boredom is, everyone recognizes also with regard to children. As long as children are having a good time, they are always good. This can be said in the strictest sense, for if they at times become unmanageable even while playing, it is really because they are beginning to be bored; boredom is already coming on, but in a different way. Therefore, when selecting a
boredom, which itself has such a calm and sedate nature, can have such a capacity to initiate motion.

nursemaid, one always considers essentially not only that she is sober, trustworthy, and good-natured but also takes into esthetic consideration whether she knows how to entertain children. Even if she had all other excellent virtues, one would not hesitate to give her the sack if she lacked this qualification. Here, indeed, the principle is clearly acknowledged, but things go on so curiously in the world, habit and boredom have gained the upper hand to such a degree, that justice is done to esthetics only in the conduct of the nursemaid. It would be quite impossible to prevail if one wanted to demand a divorce because one's wife is boring, or demand that a king be dethroned because he is boring to behold, or that a clergyman be exiled because he is boring to listen to, or that a cabinet minister be dismissed or a journalist be executed because he is frightfully boring. Since boredom advances and

boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. Adam was bored because he was alone; therefore Eve was created. Since that moment, boredom entered the world and grew in quantity in exact proportion to the growth of population. Adam was bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored en famille. After that, the population of the world increased and the nations were bored en masse. To amuse themselves, they hit upon the notion of building a tower so high that it would reach the sky. This notion is just as boring as the tower was high and is a terrible demonstration of how boredom had gained the upper hand. Then they were dispersed around the world, just as people now travel abroad, but they continued to be bored. And what consequences this boredom had: humankind stood tall and fell far, first through Eve, then from the Babylonian tower.

Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

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Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

- Boring Boring Boring K ( ) EVIL IS INHERENTLY IMMORAL, PREVENTING ANY MORAL ACTION Conte '10
[Ronald L. Conte Jr. Roman Catholic theologian May 13, 2010 http://www.catechism.cc/articles/moral-object.htm] The moral species of an act is determined by the moral object. The moral object (or simply the object) is the end, in terms of morality, toward which the chosen act is inherently directed. This intrinsic ordering of an act toward its moral object (a good or evil end) constitues the essential moral nature of the act. An act that is inherently ordered toward an evil end is, by the very nature of the act, immoral. An act that is inherently ordered toward only good in its object is good by its very nature. But all three fonts must be good for the overall act to be moral. When the moral object is evil, the act is called intrinsically evil. Every intrinsically evil act is inherently directed toward an evil moral object. Intrinsically evil acts are inherently immoral; therefore, nothing can cause an intrinsically evil act to become moral. Such an act is, in and of itself, evil. Intrinsically evil acts are always immoral. In order to avoid sin, a person must choose a different type of act, an act with a good moral object rather than an evil moral object.The moral object is the end, in terms of morality, toward which a knowingly chosen act is inherently directed. This intrinsic ordering of the act itself toward the moral object constitutes the moral nature, also called the moral species, of the act. An act with an evil moral object is intrinsically directed toward an immoral end. Any act with an evil moral object is inherently immoral, because the act, by its very nature, is ordered toward moral evil; it is an intrinsically disordered act. Every act with an evil moral object is intrinsically evil, and therefore always immoral, regardless of intention or circumstances. Nothing can cause an intrinsically evil act to become moral because the act is evil by its very nature.

( ) WE MUST ACT MORALLY, EVEN IF IT MEANS OUR OWN DEATH Watson '77
[Watson, philosophy professor, Washington University, WORLD HUNGER AND MORAL OBLIGATION, 1977, pp. 118-9.] One may even have to sacrifice ones life or ones nation to be moral in situations where practical behavior would preserve it. For example, if a prisoner of war undergoing torture is to be a (perhaps dead) patriot even when reason tells him that collaboration will hurt no one, he remains silent. Similarly, if one is to be moral, one distributes available food in equal shares even if everyone dies. That an action is necessary to save ones life is no excuse for behaving unpatriotically or immorally if one wishes to be a patriot or moral. No principle of morality absolves one of behaving immorally simply to save ones life or nation. There is a strict analogy here between adhering to moral principles for the sake of being moral, and adhering to Christian principles for the sake of being Christian. The moral world contains pits and lions, but one looks always to the highest light. The ultimate test always harks back to the highest principle recant or die. The ultimate test always harks back to the highest principle recant or die and it is pathetic to profess morality if one quits when the going gets rough.

Sheboygan North Debate

Jon Cook

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