The American Spectator

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Intellectual Juicing

By Shawn Macomber on 1.18.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

WHEN FIRST ARRIVING at an IQ Squared debate you are asked to vote for or against the motion, or declare yourself as undecided using a little electronic pad attached to each seat. After the debate the process repeats. Initially 18 percent of the sold-out crowd voted for the motion, 63 percent against and 19 percent were undecided. An hour-and-a-half later 37 percent voted for the motion, 59 percent opposed it and a mere four percent remained undecided.

However clever or grounded the arguments, it is difficult to imagine performance-enhancing drugs receiving the Mainstream America Seal of Approval in the foreseeable future. And maybe they shouldn't. What the IQ Square debates prove, however, is that thoughtful, intelligent debate on even the most sensitive, controversial issues is possible and, what's more, people are actually still capable of changing their minds.

Now if we could just expand that ethic and process beyond the exquisite tree-lined interior of the Asia Society, perhaps we could have a discussion worthy of our hopefully still-evolving frontal lobes.

American Spectator Contributing Editor Shawn Macomber is writing a book on the Global Class War.

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