October 2013

Page 1

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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