DEBATE FOR A CHANGE

Formal discourse enlightens the conversation

I’d just started secondary school and was wandering through the canteen, lycée couscous balanced on my tray, lost amidst the cacophonic clattering of utensils and the dull roar of indecipherable teenage conversation, when I was accosted by a classmate. “Do you have a partner for debate?” she asked. “They’re announcing the competition and if you don’t have one they might assign you an idiot. I thought we could argue against capital punishment. Do you know the Oxford format?” she asked.

I blinked back at her. In primary school, debate meant arguing pop music, boys or haircuts, but as she kept talking, unfamiliar words flowed off her tongue like a drumroll of enthusiasm “schematics, burdens of proof and rejoinder, rounds,” et al. Until then, burden meant the weight of my school books, and she spoke of debate rounds like prize-fighters hurling fists at each other in the ring. Truly, I had no idea where this would go, but the invitation was so impassioned I had to say yes.?

Though this was my first step down the road of formal oratory competition, it would hardly be my last, for I’ve since found the world of formal debate abundantly stimulating. In preparation, I researched whatever I could about the origins of modern debate, from the Sophists of ancient Greece, to the Lincoln-Douglas debates over American slavery, and the argued discourse over Natural Rights in the Age of Enlightenment.

Debate quickly got its hooks into me. Research led to lively discussions with my parents, especially about topics related to social justice. It taught me how to formulate my own opinions, back them with data, and inject pathos, ethos and logos into the arguments. In retrospect, that encounter at the canteen was the first step towards developing my excitement for a career in social impact and entrepreneurship.

The tools and techniques I learned in debate informed my first volunteer experiences teaching in Zimbabwe where I found that formal debate gave students the opportunity to discuss topics that were otherwise taboo. A striking example was an issue concerning young women who developed relationships with significantly older men with money or agency (aka “sugar daddies”). To me the obvious argument was that this type of behavior was disempowering to young women, but others argued that where there is hardship, forming these relationships could enable them to find financial support to pursue higher education and other opportunities.

So fraught with charged controversy, the topic was impossible to tackle informally, but in the context of formal debate, when a student was assigned a position, they became completely freed from the potential backlash of having to expose their own points of view, and important discussions that may otherwise hide in the dark could be brought to the light.?

Formal discourse became the golden ticket to real conversation, and it’s one that translates far beyond a classroom in Zimbabwe, or at least it should.

As a mother, raising two very opinionated children (who without guidance would strictly be glued to apps like TikTok and YouTube), it’s hard to find opportunities for them to engage in socially powerful conversation the way that I did when I was younger. More likely than joining the debate squad, today’s youth are pushed back and forth across political lines by the algorithms on apps whose power to engage, according to Jeff Orlowski’s Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, seems to rely more on stoking anger and political extremism, causing “unintended consequences that are catching up with us [from] our broken information ecosystem.”

Fortunately, as the pendulum often swings wide, so too it must eventually make its way back to center. To that end I’ve been searching to see what efforts are being made, if any, by novel startups who might be trying to take back the reins of social discourse and drive us toward a more responsible and enlightened path.

While I’ve found very few amidst the newcomers-- such as audio-only discussion spaces or text thread platforms designed to do better-- there is one soon-to-launch platform that stands out called DOOT. Its four letters stand for “Duels Of Our Time”, and its motto is “Take a Stand”, with a platform specifically designed to facilitate bespoke video-based live formal discourse. (Full disclosure: I found the platform intriguing enough to become an adviser.)

Recently, DOOT’s co-founder Zalim Marshenkulov took me on a demo. Zalim points out that, unlike more ubiquitous video conferencing sites like Zoom or Google Hangouts, DOOT’s platform uniquely contains the toolbox needed to facilitate formal discourse. The site provides member-created rooms with socially relevant topics, pull down menus to set time and scope, debate format choices, and others. For example, depending on the format, a mediator can control participants’ time and create an opportunity for spectators to participate and even judge the outcome.

DOOT is set to launch this winter, billing itself as a site designed to build a better standard of social debate, shape the future of open-minded online discussion and encourage the creation of “a new age of Enlightenment.”?

Enlightenment would be a most welcome evolution to our current pervasively siloed discourse. The radically different thing about DOOT is that it’s not forcing us further into our echo-chambers, but rather creating a space where not-like-minded individuals can come together and take part in the conversation. Imagine an online space that, rather than entrenching us further into our existing set of opinions the way many social media algorithms do, encourages us to communicate and interact with people who see the world differently from ourselves.

I for one am happier to have a debate that carries me outside of my comfort zone. I’d rather widen my window of tolerance and be forced to find ease in the discomfort of interacting with people who have opinions and points of view distinct from my own. I long to be part of this new narrative, where my discourse is enriched by those from all walks of life who have more to say to me than what I already know.