(July 2, 2012 at 9:56 pm)padraic Wrote: In high school,from age 16,I often took part in debates. I always took the position contra to my real opinion,and often won. My idea was to improve my thinking skills. Didn't work. I just learned to be more devious than I was already.
What I learned was not to conflate winning an argument/debate with being right [as a principle]. I also learned how hard it is to change most people's strongly held opinions about anything,assuming one is interested enough to try,which I rarely am. I also learned that consistently open minded people ,as with consistently rational people are as common as unicorn shit.
Such debates are skewed toward those who cheat. Personal honesty is irrelevant. I find them to be irrelevant to the real world.
One problem I see, though, is that most judicial systems are set up in the same sort of format...