Why Narrative Motions Separate Good Debate Teams From Great Ones

0:00 Today I want to make a video about narrative motions and narrative [music] debates. Uh this is a very very important type of debate motion that often comes up in high school debate tournaments or university debate tournaments just in tournaments where the level of debater is a little bit higher cuz narrative motions are really complex, really hard to understand. But I'm going to make it super simple and easy for you [music] so that you can win every narrative motion that you take part of. All right, so uh let's get into it.

0:36 So a narrative motion is a debate topic about an [music] idea that is pushed in society and this idea uh promulgates throughout the entirety of the citizenry. So the people that live in the society. So the narrative could be on the glorification of courage [music] or the narrative could be on narrative of self-sacrifice or the narrative could be on the need to help the elderly. Whatever the idea is is usually like a moral idea that is pushed [music] and promulgated around society. And so narrative motions are usually just talking about whether this narrative is good for the society or whether this narrative is bad for the society. And these narratives are quite broad and so they can encompass a lot of different aspects of [music] society. For example, if the narrative is the glorification of courage, maybe courage is seen as a really high ideal that the people in the society should aspire to. So it could be courage in firefighters or it could be courage in soldiers or be could be courage in doctors in the face of pandemics right but this narrative sort of impacts every part of the society uh and the people that live in it. The first thing that you have to understand for narrative motions is how to spot them. [music] So in order to spot out a narrative motion just look for the key word of narrative or glorification or moral or idea and very often those type of those motions that involve those words are narrative motions.

2:17 Uh oh norms [music] norm is another word that you can look for. So you found out that your the motion that you're discussing is a narrative motion. What do you do? Well it depends on which side you are in the motion. Right? So if your proposition what you have to do is explain what that narrative looks like, what that narrative means. [music] So for example, if it is this house opposes the glorification of innovation, what does the glorification of innovation look like? But beyond that, who pushes this [music] narrative in the society and in what places do they push this narrative? So for example, for the glorification of innovation, you could say that this glorification, this narrative that innovation is great is pushed by tech companies and by politicians uh and they push this idea through uh journalism and through social media saying that innovation is great and that we need more innovation. So you have to be able to tell me where that narrative takes place [music] and how it is pushed and by who it is pushed because very often whether we like a narrative or not has a lot to do with who [snorts] is making that narrative and what their incentives or what their the purpose is for them creating this narrative.

3:32 So the second thing that you have to do as a proposition team is [music] to say what narrative you like. Right? So if you regret a narrative uh what is the narrative that you want to be pushed in society instead? So for example, if you regret the glorification of innovation, maybe [music] instead you would rather push the narrative of slow innovation and safety, right? Uh and you think that that narrative would be better for society, [music] right? So that is called a counternarrative.

4:06 the team that doesn't like a narrative needs to provide the counternarrative that they would [music] like instead. Okay, so those are the basics on how to sort of approach a narrative motion. How do you win [music] a narrative debate? The first thing I want to say is you do not win a narrative [music] debate by unrealistically framing or defining what that narrative looks like. For example, whenever I hear the debate motion, this house regrets the glorification [music] of courage, proposition teams will try to define courage [music] as recklessness.

4:42 That courage, this narrative of courage is pushing people to take [music] risks for things that don't matter, right? Like doing parkour between buildings [music] and things like that. So, they'll try to uncharitably define what courage looks like in this narrative. [music] Um and that might win against you know bad debate teams but that will not win against good debate [music] teams because if we think logically right the word courage very often doesn't mean [music] recklessness. It is adjacent to the word recklessness but they are not the same thing. And so [music] the thing not to do to win in these debates is to uncharitably define the word the narrative [music] in something that it is not. What you should do to win a narrative motion [music] is to identify who makes this narrative and for what perverse [music] or bad reason are they pushing this narrative. For example, on the [music] this house regrets the glorification of courage as side proposition. You don't even have to say that courage is a bad ideal or that is a bad narrative. But you the way to win a side proposition is to say that the glorification of courage is pushed by governments, people in power, by big corporations to bend the people to their will. For example, they push the glorification of courage so that more people are willing to signed [music] up to the armed forces to become soldiers to be courageous and to fight for their country.

6:10 >> [music] >> But countries use this. They manipulate this in order to be able to go to war with other countries. They'll glorify the soldier that has fallen or they'll glorify the act of serving your country and falling for your country so that they have the power and the ability to [music] expand their armed forces and to go to war with other countries. Or governments will glorify courage so [music] that nurses and doctors on the front lines or firefighters on the front lines, [music] they will put their lives at risk to help their fellow people. But [music] they do that despite the systemic issues, the lack of safety [music] protocols, the lack of pay for nurses and for firefighters, and the lack of safety equipment. they'll they'll [music] they'll cover these things up with the glorification of courage, right? To make people focus on the courage that these people put in instead of the systemic problems that exist [music] in the society that the government is supposed to fix. So as side proposition, you're not even saying that courage is a bad thing, right? Or that people who are courageous are bad people. What you're saying is that this glorification, this narrative is being used by by [music] governments and by people in power to negative ends [music] in with perverse incentives. And so that is how you approach a narrative motion, right? You have to tell me what the other what the purpose of that narrative is. And very often you can tell me that you [music] do not like a narrative from where it due to the fact that it is coming from bad intentions. But how could you say that you like a narrative that you support a narrative? Uh you can frame that narrative as being [music] something that is organic being something an ideal that is built by the people or that is built by social movements for positive change. For example, you might not regret the glorification [music] of courage because the glorification of courage, the idea of courage being important maybe comes from the people, comes from these social movements that fight against [music] the power and try to make radical social change for the benefit of the people.

8:22 [music] Like for example, social movements to get rid of corruption uh or social movements to [music] give more rights to different types of people within society, right? And so this might be where the glorification of courage comes from through organically through social media through courageous people [music] posting their videos about the different movements that they are part of fighting against authoritarianism and fascism. Very often you can either regret a narrative or support a narrative by framing where that narrative comes [music] from and what the purpose of that narrative is.

8:59 Another really good way to win in a narrative motion is [music] to prove and explain how your narrative is a counternarrative against another narrative that might be go out of bounds [music] that might go too extreme if your narrative did not exist. For example, let's take a look at this motion. This house regrets narratives that glorify the elderly. For example, [music] the old know better or the old deserve more. So this motion is on the narrative that's saying that elderly people know better that elderly people need to be uh given more funding or [music] given more pensions and help uh financially. So on this narrative, why would we not regret this narrative as side opposition? Well, we could say that this narrative [music] is one that benefits old people, right?

9:50 And we care about these old people because they help the country and stuff like that. But proposition is going to say we should regret this narrative because it's too dominant. [music] It's pushed too much. It goes out of control and we only think about the elderly. We only think about their decisions and [music] we we spend so much money on the elderly and we don't spend any money on the young. Right? And so they're going to say that this narrative goes out of bounds that this narrative is too powerful [music] in society. The way that you can push against that idea is to say no, there are other narratives in society [music] that tell us that we shouldn't glorify the elderly. There are narratives like we should care more about capitalism or we [music] should care more about economic sustainability and economic progress. And those narratives actually do the opposite of glorifying the elderly. [music] They say that as a society we should move forward and we should focus on innovation and progress and [music] on economic uh benefits. And these narratives very often leave the old people behind. And to say that this these narratives exist shows that your narrative about glorifying the elderly is [music] necessary. You need this narrative because there are other capitalist forces. There are other capitalist narratives [music] that tell us that we should not glorify the elderly and they're they would go out of hand if we did not glorify the elderly.

11:10 So in explaining that counternarratives exist, you can explain the necessity of your narrative. And so in if you frame your narrative in that way, it's very [music] easy for you to explain why your narrative is necessary and important to the society. Coming across a narrative motion, there are a lot of really important ideas, important things that you have to do to win. One, you have to frame where that narrative comes from. If you like the narrative, you can explain that the narrative you like is something organic, something [music] that the people want, that the people are in favor of. If you don't like a narrative, you can say that the narrative comes from corporations and politicians [music] who would try to use these narratives to perverse ends, to [music] negative means. Um, and so those are two strategies based on whether you like the narrative or you don't like the narrative. [music] And if you don't like a narrative, you have to explain how you have a counternarrative that is better.

12:14 Um, the last thing is in order to win [music] properly win in a narrative debate motion, you need to say that your narrative is a counteraction towards another narrative that is bad [music] in society. um and that it is necessary because without this narrative existing then that other counternarrative would take over and would go out of bounds would be too much. I think in general there's so many things that could be said about about uh this type of debate motion. A lot of it is quite specific to each [music] motion and I I would love to take another video to walk through this. As you can tell, this is one of the most [music] complex parts of debate because in general, a lot of debate motions [music] deal with the tangible things in life, right? Like for example, we would tangibly ban [music] zoos so we'd get rid of them and you would never see them again in society, right? But a narrative and an idea is is something in the air.

13:15 >> [music] >> is things that people believe because they see media that tells them something is good or something [music] is bad, right? And so it's a lot less tangible of a debate motion, [music] right? And that's why it's harder to understand. But once you understand that narratives and ideas [music] in society shape the way that people act and that these narratives are sometimes organically created or they are created by people in power in [music] order to create uh the outcomes that they want then you can understand this type of debate motion.

13:49 Um so yeah that's all from me today on on narratives. I'm sure I will probably [music] make like two or three more videos on this just because I myself am [music] just really organizing a lot of thoughts on what I think about this debate motion. Um, it's so important though because [music] it really is the type of motion that separates the good teams from the bad teams. [music] Uh, and the strategy of this type of motion is so different than other debate motions. So, um, I look forward to making more videos on this topic and I will see you guys next time.