The only time I can think of where I was forced to behave in a way that I personally did not agree with was in a debate assignment for a school. I was taking a summer class at a college, and in the second week of the class we were all assigned different sides of debates, in which we had to research and argue whichever side we were given. In this assignment, I was forced to argue, or debate, in favor of torture. I had to arge for the sanction of prisoners held by the United States, in hopes of gaining information or anything else that might be gained. This was hard for me, because that was not a topic which I agreed with. Even after doing some research into this topic, reading many arguements for torture, I found that I still could not bring myself to agree with it.
This became a challenge for me, to actually prepare and compose arguements for something that I in my heart did not agree with. While we were not expected to relate to our topics, we were still required to prepare the arguements for them, and then have an actual debate about it with the opposing party. But I found it was quite a learning experience for me, I had to force myself to look at a topic that I did not see favorably, and do my best to understand it. I had to put myself in the shoes of someone who I did not see eye to eye with, and do my best to relate to them, to understand why they felt the way they did, and to do my best to agree with them, even if our agreement would not be permanent.
When I look back now, this is an assignment that I am so very thankful for. It taught me that there is always another side to every story, that no matter how I feel, there are other perspectives out there that I must respect. Now obviously this was not a very easy thing for me to do, but I learned so much in the process of it. Since then I have been able to put this into practice more and more, in many different ways. It continues to be a challenge for me, to remember that no matter how strongly I feel, how strong my opinions are, that there will be an opposing side who feels just as strongly as I do. There is nothing wrong with this, it is the right of everyone to make decisions of this sort for themselves. We cannot force our opinions on anyone else, we can only present our side, listen to their side, and basically just agree to disagree.
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First of all, I think your title really fits this issue very well. In situations like this, we have to put our own personal beliefs behind us and act in a professional manner. I think any time someone is put in this kind of situation, it’s such a great learning experience. It seems like there are more and more assignments for students to put themselves in debates to argue things we wouldn’t normally argue for. I was in a similar situation myself in high school, a few group members and I had to argue in favor of slavery. Now I don’t think anyone would want to argue for slavery, I actually felt a little guilty for winning the debate, but that experience taught me the importance of seeing the other side of the story. I think that there are so many people out there that are the way they are just because they don’t completely understand their own point of view against the opposing view. It’s likely that once they understand both sides, we wouldn’t have so many prejudices in our society. I know when it comes to my family, everyone just kind of believes in what everyone else believes in without really knowing why or even taking the time to understand both sides of an issue and taking their own stand. I think this conformity is what is getting us into trouble as a society; we need to take initiative and be more independent in our decisions and more importantly as you said, agree to disagree.
ReplyDeleteDang! I would hate to write in favor of something so crude as torture. That must have been tough. It must have taken a lot of courage to put down your beliefs for a couple of minutes and focus on something so crazy. I would have problems with the assignment. I wonder if people were having problems? Or if they complained to the teacher at all... I might be to sarcastic with this but it seems to be extremely hard to believe that you didn't struggle or you struggled a little bit being christian and agreeing with torture! The two do not go together! That is one great way of going against what you believed in. Haha I think that teacher did a great job teaching you guys how to argue though. This lets you into their world so that you understand them better and so you don't judge them right off the bat. This helps you prove your point and if that's not possible to at least understand where the other person is coming from-and with topics like torture! Kudos to Bryce! Good job man, enjoyed your blog.
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