Debate and Critical Analysis: The Harmony of Conflict (Routledge Communication Series) by Branham Robert James

Author:Branham, Robert James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-10-15T23:00:00+00:00

1.Because it is so difficult, it humbles all before it – even professional singers – and humility is the proper attitude one should have in singing the anthem;

2.Precisely because it is hard for any one person to sing it, “The Star-Spangled Banner” encourages singing by a crowd, which better fits “our collective spirit, our ambition and national range”;

3.Because it is hard to sing (and, hence, sung less often), it has remained fresh and moving.

Each of these arguments grants the condition claimed by the opponent (“it is hard to sing”) but attempts to re-value this condition as good, not ill.

Re-Valuation Within a Larger Context

The strategy of re-valuating claimed conditions or effects by locating them within a larger or more long-term context has been employed in many policy and moral disputes. The basic move in this strategy is to accept that the effect claimed is indeed bad in its immediate context, but to claim that this evil or suffering promotes some greater good.

During and after World War II, considerable controversy arose over the use of “area bombing,” aimed at civilian targets. Such bombing was a prevalent tactic in the Japanese attack on China, German raids on Great Britain, and later in American and British attacks against Germany and Japan. The bombing of civilians was denounced by many as barbaric.

In the following excerpt from one of his weekly columns for the London Tribune, George Orwell (1944/1968) attempted to re-value the claimed atrocity of bombing civilians.

When you look a bit closer, the first question that strikes you is: Why is it worse to kill civilians than soldiers? Obviously one must not kill children if it is in any way avoidable, but it is only in propaganda pamphlets that every bomb drops on a school or an orphanage. A bomb kills a cross-section of the population; but not quite a representative selection, because the children and expectant mothers are usually the first to be evacuated, and some of the young men will be away in the army. Probably a disproportionately large number of bomb victims will be middle-aged. (Up to date, German bombs have killed between six and seven thousand children in this country. This is, I believe, less than the number killed in road accidents in the same period.) On the other hand, “normal” or “legitimate” warfare picks out and slaughters all the healthiest and bravest of the young male population. Every time a German submarine goes to the bottom about fifty young men of fine physique and good nerve are suffocated. Yet people who would hold up their hands at the very words “civilian bombing” will repeat with satisfaction such phrases as “We are winning the Battle of the Atlantic.” Heaven knows how many people our blitz on Germany and the occupied countries has killed and will kill, but you can be quite certain it will never come anywhere near the slaughter that has happened on the Russian front.

War is not avoidable at this stage of history, and since it has to happen it does not seem to me a bad thing that others should be killed besides young men.

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