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The Society of Civil Discourse: a wrap-up

Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.

What it's like to participate in a night of debating about absolutely nothing.

The Society of Civil Discourse: a wrap-up

Courtesy of Team Sunshine

I'd like to preface everything I write here by stating that my experience with The Society of Civil Discourse was complete bullshit -- which is to say, it was a rousing success. Bear with me for a second. The purpose of the evening was to celebrate truth-stretchers, fabricators and pseudo-intellectuals in all their misinformed glory.

Judged purely by those standards, everyone present, audience and performers alike, succeeded, as half-baked opinions collided vociferously in a battle of the blowhards. The point wasn't so much to engage in civil discourse, as the name implies, but rather to pummel your opponent with rambling half-truths, invented statistics and the occasional non-sequitur.

In actuality, The Society of Civil Discourse, hosted by Team Sunshine Performance Corporation and The Philly Pigeon, was an evening dedicated to celebrating the creativity of the English language. Breaking Underground Arts up into three stations, one for Appreciation, another for Hater-ation, and final for Debate, the presenters pushed attendees out of their comfort zones by forcing them to interact with strangers on absurd topics. The first argument at the Debate Station: There, two individuals argued passionately about whether it was more appropriate to sustain yourself on belly button lint or crumbs from the couch. I'll leave it up to you to ponder those arguments.

The evening was capped off with "The Great Debate," a team event mimicking a high school debate. This time two teams of five, Raptor Puppies and Jello Sandwich, faced off in oratorical combat. The topic? Which had more of an impact on his history, scabs or the Blue Man Group?

Through false statistics, personal stories and even pantomime, the two groups went back and forth until a winner was decided -- everyone. That was the hook of the event; no one could leave a loser because the point wasn't in the competition, it was in the interactions between different people, no matter how absurd they may have been -- and trust me, they were all absurd.

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