October 2013
Volume XXI, Issue 2
The Fenwick Review
The Independent Journal of Opinion at the College of the Holy Cross
The Fishbowl Fallacy A Lack of Lively Debate
Chase Padusniak ‘15 Staff Writer
Every discussion at Holy Cross seems to be a
fishbowl. Want to talk about abortion? Fishbowl. Want to discuss Syria? Fishbowl. Want to decide between Upper Kimball and Lower Kimball? Fishbowl. Now I’m not on campus at the moment and I can’t speak for the 2013-2104 academic year, but my two years of experience have left me wanting more. Why have they left me yearning for a greater experience? Well at the end of the day, fishbowls leave me drowning
X and Professor B says Y, then why should I care?
of the tried and true forms of academic debate.
Ostensibly, I should care because the
But the problem isn’t just boredom. We
topic is interesting. Fine. But what if I were to tell
also go to fishbowls to learn. And I don’t just mean
you that people go to fishbowls not just to learn,
like in a classroom. I’m talking about the wonderful
but to decide, to watch different sides face off
experience derived from a sincere dialogue between
in the academic equivalent of a football game?
two educated and informed individuals. Think the
Unfortunately, the fishbowl is not a format that
Platonic dialogues. Sometimes it’s the ability to read
lends itself to such decisive matches of wit and
between the lines (or in this case the words) that
skill. In fact, watching a fishbowl is a little bit like
makes a debate so enlightening. Questions, answers,
watching the Oakland Raiders play football: boring,
and the audience’s ability to react to those statements
meaningless, and ultimately without a winner.
become the primary method for learning in a debate.
See, we like football games because we like
Unfortunately, fishbowls tend to deny
competition. We enjoy debate for the same reason.
us this opportunity. Of course on the surface, a
And that is the problem. We have fishbowls Linguistic somersaults and academic tomfoolery in order to see topics discussed. We want to see are the basis for any enjoyable university gathering topics discussed because we are either undecided (on a weeknight). Fishbowls lack that competitive
fishbowl is all about questions and answers, but by
in a whole lot of disconnected information.
turning the discussion itself from a lively debate into a series of statements that are all over the place,
or because we want to disarm the opposition. The
edge. At the end of the day, they amount to a we’re denied a sincere dialectic. What can one really
problem is that fishbowls at Holy Cross end up
series of disjointed statements about a topic loosely learn from a series of tepid sentences connected
being quite dry. We talk and talk and that’s all well
united by a student moderator droning on and
by nothing more than a shared keyword or two?
and good, but what good is a series of disconnected occasionally making a joke about Kimball food. statements without real debate? If Professor A says To be frank, they are boring. They lack the flare
An American Satyricon
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson ~ Special Guest Contributor ..... pages 6-7
Continued on page 7
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