That's a better title. Anyway, here's my enthymeme:
Enthymeme:
WATCO BYUSA elections on BYU
Claim: BYUSA elections are not good for BYU
Reason: BYUSA elections waste people's time and money in return for insignificant gains
Assumption: Wasting time and money in return for insignificant gains is not good for BYU.
My target audience is two-fold: first, anyone who disagrees with my claim; and second, people in positions of influence at BYU who could change something about the elections as a result of my persuasion.
Note: I'll actually continue this post later with my counterarguments. I don't have time right now.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Post 3 - A response to a main counterargument to my side of the issue.
What an exciting title! So, what would I say to my opponents in a debate?
First, I'd have to know what they would argue. Why do people support BYUSA elections? Well, I tried asking the general populace of my actively online friends via Facebook, and here are the rather amusing results. As you can see from the comments, (if you didn't click the link, shame on you) nobody who supports BYUSA elections responded. That's not entirely unhelpful, though, and perhaps I'll analyze the possible meanings of my little experiment in a later post.
But for now, I'll just have to think up some reasons by myself... Perhaps the administration views the election process an important part of the whole idea of student government. I mean, what's the point of having a student "government" if it does not make some attempt to incorporate democratic principles? Or maybe they think that elections are helpful because they force candidates to appeal to the masses. Therefore the elected President and Vice President actually represent the voices of many students. If elections were done away with, student applicants for those posts would likely just be chosen by a committee. I can see how that might make some people uncomfortable. Some students might feel like they had no say in who their representative to the university is. The solution is to hold a vote. Everyone who cares about the leadership of BYUSA should therefore vote to express their opinion. Highly democratic. It also teaches the student leaders about important government principles of being able to appeal to many people and represent a constituency.
Hmm, I had not thought of those things before. I suppose that is why it's important to look at both sides of an issue. The other side probably does have good reasons for why it believes what it does, even if their opinion seems totally stupid at first. Since this post is gaining in length, I'll add my counterargument into the next post, since I had just planned on writing my enthymeme next time, and that's not very long.
First, I'd have to know what they would argue. Why do people support BYUSA elections? Well, I tried asking the general populace of my actively online friends via Facebook, and here are the rather amusing results. As you can see from the comments, (if you didn't click the link, shame on you) nobody who supports BYUSA elections responded. That's not entirely unhelpful, though, and perhaps I'll analyze the possible meanings of my little experiment in a later post.
But for now, I'll just have to think up some reasons by myself... Perhaps the administration views the election process an important part of the whole idea of student government. I mean, what's the point of having a student "government" if it does not make some attempt to incorporate democratic principles? Or maybe they think that elections are helpful because they force candidates to appeal to the masses. Therefore the elected President and Vice President actually represent the voices of many students. If elections were done away with, student applicants for those posts would likely just be chosen by a committee. I can see how that might make some people uncomfortable. Some students might feel like they had no say in who their representative to the university is. The solution is to hold a vote. Everyone who cares about the leadership of BYUSA should therefore vote to express their opinion. Highly democratic. It also teaches the student leaders about important government principles of being able to appeal to many people and represent a constituency.
Hmm, I had not thought of those things before. I suppose that is why it's important to look at both sides of an issue. The other side probably does have good reasons for why it believes what it does, even if their opinion seems totally stupid at first. Since this post is gaining in length, I'll add my counterargument into the next post, since I had just planned on writing my enthymeme next time, and that's not very long.
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