TIGER PAC DEBATE

14/15

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

Trauma K
Info Sheet .................................................................................................... 2
Framework.................................................................................................... 4
Links............................................................................................................. 4
Impacts......................................................................................................... 6
Alternative.................................................................................................... 7
Affirmative Edition:........................................................................................ 9
Framework....................................................................................................................... 9
Background.................................................................................................................... 10
Impacts.......................................................................................................................... 11
Affirmation & Solvency................................................................................................... 12

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[Insert Resolution for File Here]

Info Sheet
Grief/trauma/mourning Kboth affirmative and negative editions are in this file.
The K is primarily based off of The Powers of Mourning and Violence, as well as the
book An Archive of Feelings. There is a short read called Reclaiming Nostalgia in
Educational Politics and Practice: Counter-Memory, Aporetic Mourning, and Critical
Pedagogy. This K uses a lot of the language from this reading, and it would be
super helpful for anyone running the kritik to read it.
In short:
Difference between reflective nostalgia and restorative nostalgia:
Reflective nostalgia allows us to properly mourn and reflect on national tragedy.
Restorative nostalgia basically whitewashes and puts blinders on our memories,
making us disregard trauma and become incredibly nationalistic.
What is a trauma? A natural response to historical events. Can be felt by
individuals, groups, or entire nations.
Current discourse about trauma looks at it in an ahistorical and
restorative nostalgia view. The ahistorical part means that we look at
certain events as only contemporary and act as though we can fix impacts with a
single stroke of a pen, rather than understanding there is a complex set of
interactions and history. The restorative nostalgia part means that, as part of an
ahistorical view to trauma, we view national traumas with blinders onwe dont
accept that we as a nation maybe did things that contributed to that trauma
happening in the first place, for example.

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Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

Strategy Sheet
Tricks to the aff:

We affirm the res. Its all in the solvencyand the definition of affirm based in the
solvency. There is a definition of affirm in meriam Webster that is to offer
someone emotional support or encouragement. We argue that by affirming the
resolution, we begin that process of emotion and mourning as an act of reflective
nostalgia.

In the background, you read both dominant narratives and marginalized narratives
that are in the field of the resolutionlike a twist on inherency. This allows you to
argue you are breaking dominant hegemonic restorative nostalgia.

The aff version is generally well positioned to answer any kritik due to the solvency
args about what reflective nostalgia is and what it allows us to do. (The permutation
would be great)
Tricks to the neg:
Alt text: Vote negative to go through the aporetic mourning process as a period of
reflective nostalgia of the affirmative.

The trick is in the utility of the alt. Think of the alt as a consult Cp. Prior, genuine,
bindingsolves all of the aff while avoiding the impacts. Excellent to heg against
the perm debate.

Impacts serve as an internal link turn to the aff, as well as a no solvency arg by
arguing their outlook isnt holistic or root cause enough
Arguments we expect to hear:
On the aff: T. (definition of affirm is sneakily hidden in solvency, your counter interp
is to read the res) Oryou must pass a fiated policy option. (Counter interp would
be the affirmative must affirm the resolution)
On the neg: action in the face of criticism/we dont have time to mourn.
Arguments we need to win to win the debate:
On the neg: win the DAs to the perm, win alt solvency. Any risk of an impact is then
a reason to vote neg.
On the aff: win that affirming allows you to engage in reflective nostalgia.

3
[Insert Resolution for File Here]

Framework
1. Interpretation: the judge is an intellectual critic who should evaluate
this debate as a matter of competing ethics.
2. We exist in the intimate public sphere.
A citizen in todays world is defined as a person who has been traumatized by an
aspect of the life in the united states.
Debate can also function as this same sphere with minorities and women being
disenfranchised from the community.
3. The fascination with the wounded must be prioritized.
We live in a world today called wound culture which is basically people being
attracted to violence and chaos all around us.
For example, our fascination with trauma based chaos causes us to hound the
identities of victims of sexual assault, as was the case of the anonymous Jackie
who came forward to share a story of sexual assault in Rolling Stone.
4. Trauma is a natural response to deal with a historical event that took
place.
The way we view our trauma and interrogate it is as personal as it is political.
Trauma is natural and can be felt by many people in relation to one singular event.
There are attempts at creating an ahistorical outlook that never allows for grieving
or mourning to take the course of trauma, which causes a dissociation and
disorientation of the mind. This restorative nostalgia allows us to erase history in
favor of not remembering trauma and changing the past. Trauma therefore is the
intersection between emotion and social processes
5. Challenges to the physical and social forms of trauma should be
evaluated in this round in order to problematize the way trauma is talked
about and executed.
We have to challenge the dominant narratives of trauma in order to be able to break
open the history of what actually happened, and to allow for the grieving process to
occur.
These challenges have to be a prior question to policymakingrepressing the grief
only corrupts the legitimacy of any policy.
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6. Fiat is illusory.

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

We dont actually pass a plan text, we never actually go to nuclear war.

Even though the plan doesnt happen, the way we conceptualize the world as a
result of the plan does, meaning that both teams must defend an ethical view of the
world.

Links
1. Pmc creates dissociation away from trauma.
The aff attempts an ahistorical approach to the discourse of trauma claiming the
these types of impact can be resolved with a sweeping pen.
This creates a cultural erasure for those who can not deal with their trauma
psychologically and socially.
2. PMC perpetuates the incredible shrinking public sphere.
As resources become scarce so does our ability as people to form democratic
debate and opposition.
The PMC slowing takes biopolitical control over its subjects and this creates state
sponsored emotion that results in violence and nationalism.
3. PMC is a tool to suppress trauma of people and their national cultures
and identities.
For example, the writeoff of alternative casualties to trauma ignores major
epidemics.
This was exemplified in the AIDS crisis, which the government ahistorically viewed
the epidemic as a gay problem that was brought on the community by itself, not
by a broader government public health failure.
4. PMC takes part in restorative nostalgia.
Restorative nostalgia, much like ahistorical opposition, allows us to conveniently
forget tragedies and atrocities and how those atrocities have become insidiously
present in the systems of power that privilege us today.
Restorative nostalgia allows us to examine national events in a vacuum. I.e. we view
9/11 as a singular event of malice that attacked America without examining the
broader foreign policy and the reasons that America actually fostered radicalism in
the middle east as a part of government-sponsored policy.
Examples also include views of the 1980s as the golden age of economics, while
ignoring the massive war on drugs and income inequality rampant in the 80s.
5
[Insert Resolution for File Here]

6
5. The PMCs selective memory therefore denies us true mourning and
subsequent interrogation.
We have not mourned the history of the resolution or examined its historical context
in full, accepted its alternative casualties, etc.
We have not gone through the grief process, accepted some inevitabilities of
trauma, and therefore the PMC acts from a place of misplaced anger or hurt--not
one of rationality. This crisis thinking is exemplified in suicide attempts, where
Harvard studies indicate that a quarter of all near-lethal attempted suicide
individuals contemplated less than five minutes.
This action in and of itself is not malicious, but creates a vicious cycle that heightens
the eventual pain of its victims and perpetually destroys solvency for the aff
impacts.

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14/15

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

Impacts
1. Restorative hegemonic nostalgia leads to war and inevitable extinction.
Hegemonic restorative nostalgia is created when we do not interrogate or mourn.
This creates a distorted public memory of a particular historical period, erasing our
ability to have opposition and protest policies because we literally do not examine
their existence.
This hegemonic restorative nostalgia allows us to justify violence and war with no
planning or consideration for life in extremist nationalistic fantasties. The war in Iraq
and the massive atrocities that were committed there in the name of freedom is
just one example.
These hegemonic narratives inevitably inform all violence and lead to extinction-nuclear war would be one manifestation of a nationalistic fantasy in which we
selectively forget the arms agreements weve signed and start blasting off nukes.
2. The ahistorical outlook on trauma denies the voices of the
marginalized--we are unable to connect the histories of trauma and come
to a starting point on a fix.
When we view rape through the ahistorical lens of just being a correlation between
young girls drinking or discourage women from drinking, we act as though that one
sweeping policy will somehow fix sexual assault, all while ignoring its history.
We therefore tell victims of trauma that it is a mistake theyve made that has
inflicted their trauma on them. We tell young black men that if they dont want to be
harassed or shot or otherwise traumatized by police, they shouldnt walk alone at
nightwe ignore the systematic underpinnings through this lens.
7
[Insert Resolution for File Here]

Alternative
Alternative: Vote negative to go through the aporetic mourning process as a period
of reflective nostalgia of the affirmative.
Competition:
1. Mutually exclusive. You cannot both go through the mourning process and pass
a planthey exist in different times.
2. Perm would be severance or intrinisic--the mourning process takes time
and comes prior to the affirmative. Reject this for reasons of fairness and education.
Solvency
1. Aporetic mourning process.
The aporetic mourning process is the grief process in which we examine historical
stages of issues and go through the grief process--denial, anger, bargaining,
depression, acceptance.
Through this process we gain a more holistic outlook that accounts for trauma,
accepts our own flaws, and allows the marginalized to mourn at the forefront.
We accept that atrocities have happened and that we cannot fix the past but must
account for it through reflective nostalgia, ripping away the curtain of the idealized
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nationalistic fantasy past.

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

2. Reflective nostalgia is suspicious of hegemonic narratives of memory

and loss.
Thus it is important for critical pedagogues to expose the practices of the body,
social and individual, that harbor these narratives as well as analyze their
consequences. It is a form of deep mourning that performs a labor of grief both
through pondering pain and through play that points to the future.
4. Grieving allows for a new public space to be created.
Grief process allows for critical discussion--prevents atrocities by accepting our
vulnerability to loss, to join us together as a human community.
If we had grieved as a nation and allowed the grief process to take place, we
probably wouldnt have invaded Iraq so hastily.
5. The perm cannot function.
It is an example of restorative nostalgia in the case of the PMC, where we forget
links to the K to weigh impacts, re-entrenching the ahistorical outlook of trauma.

9
[Insert Resolution for File Here]

10

Affirmative Edition:
1.

Framework
[res]

2.

Criteria: this round should be evaluated as a matter of competing ethics.

3. We exist in the intimate public sphere.
A citizen in todays world is defined as a person who has been traumatized by an
aspect of the life in the united states.
Debate can also function as this same sphere with minorities and women being
disenfranchised from the community.
4. The fascination with the wounded must be prioritized.
We live in a world today called wound culture which is basically people being
attracted to violence and chaos all around us.
For example, our fascination with trauma based chaos causes us to hound the
identities of victims of sexual assault, as was the case of the anonymous Jackie
who came forward to share a story of sexual assault in Rolling Stone.
5. Trauma is a natural response to deal with a historical event that took
place.
The way we view our trauma and interrogate it is as personal as it is political.
Trauma is natural and can be felt by many people in relation to one singular event.
There are attempts at creating an ahistorical outlook that never allows for grieving
or mourning to take the course of trauma, which causes a dissociation and
disorientation of the mind. This restorative nostalgia allows us to erase history in
favor of not remembering trauma and changing the past. Trauma therefore is the
intersection between emotion and social processes
6. Challenges to the physical and social forms of trauma should be
evaluated in this round in order to problematize the way trauma is talked
about and executed.
We have to challenge the dominant narratives of trauma in order to be able to break
open the history of what actually happened, and to allow for the grieving process to
occur.
These challenges have to be a prior question to policymakingrepressing the grief
only corrupts the legitimacy of any policy.

10

TIGER PAC DEBATE

14/15

1.
2.

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

Background
The resolution is a call to action and discussion on the topic of [], [insert
discussions of the plan similar to inherency]
The current discussion is taking place in the lens of ahistorical restorative
nostalgia,.

Which allows us to conveniently forget tragedies and atrocities and how

those atrocities have become insidiously present in the systems of power that
privilege us today.

Restorative nostalgia allows us to examine national events in a vacuum. I.e. we view

9/11 as a singular event of malice that attacked America without examining the
broader foreign policy and the reasons that America actually fostered radicalism in
the middle east as a part of government-sponsored policy. Examples also include
views of the 1980s as the golden age of economics, while ignoring the massive
war on drugs and income inequality rampant in the 80s.
3. Dominant narrative vs. marginalized narrativeswhat is the prominent
discourse on this topic? What has been forgotten by current discussion?

The resolution, therefore, is telling us a story of pain and suffering.

We have described this pain to you, the pain of the marginalized and the
hegemonic discourse surrounding it. While one may only think that the
resolution is dominant hegemonic nostalgia, we have read to you the stories
of the marginalized that lurk beneath this discourse.

The resolutions dominant narrative, popular affirmatives, are

examples of crisis thinking that play up trauma and refuse to allow
us to grieve what is near and dear. Some policymaking would act from a
place of irrationality, having not grieved. This crisis thinking is exemplified
in suicide attempts, where Harvard studies indicate that a quarter of all nearlethal attempted suicide individuals contemplated less than five minutes.

We can challenge the hegemonic narrative that is popular in the resolution

we can use this space to rip away the curtain, show our wounds, and heal. The
resolution as a body of the community, as a topic we speak of, needs our
affirmation so that we can mourn its tragedies.

[Insert Resolution for File Here]

1
1

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Impacts
1. Restorative hegemonic nostalgia leads to war and inevitable extinction.
Hegemonic restorative nostalgia is created when we do not interrogate or mourn.
This creates a distorted public memory of a particular historical period, erasing our
ability to have opposition and protest policies because we literally do not examine
their existence.
This hegemonic restorative nostalgia allows us to justify violence and war with no
planning or consideration for life in extremist nationalistic fantasties. The war in Iraq
and the massive atrocities that were committed there in the name of freedom is
just one example.
These hegemonic narratives inevitably inform all violence and lead to extinction-nuclear war would be one manifestation of a nationalistic fantasy in which we
selectively forget the arms agreements weve signed and start blasting off nukes.
2. The ahistorical outlook on trauma denies the voices of the
marginalized--we are unable to connect the histories of trauma and come
to a starting point on a fix.
When we view rape through the ahistorical lens of just being a correlation between
young girls drinking or discourage women from drinking, we act as though that one
sweeping policy will somehow fix sexual assault, all while ignoring its history.
We therefore tell victims of trauma that it is a mistake theyve made that has
inflicted their trauma on them. We tell young black men that if they dont want to be
harassed or shot or otherwise traumatized by police, they shouldnt walk alone at
nightwe ignore the systematic underpinnings through this lens.

12

TIGER PAC DEBATE

14/15

Trauma K

Earley/Ramsey
GOV/OPP

Affirmation & Solvency

Therefore, we affirm the resolution [ ]
Solvency:
1. We affirm this resolution in its entirety in order to create reflective
nostalgia, rather than restorative nostalgia.
The definition of the word affirm is to offer someone emotional support or
encouragement. It is an act of aporetic mourning.
The aporetic mourning process is the grief process in which we examine historical
stages of issues and go through the grief process--denial, anger, bargaining,
depression, acceptance.
Through this process we gain a more holistic outlook that accounts for trauma,
accepts our own flaws, and allows the marginalized to mourn at the forefront.
We accept that atrocities have happened and that we cannot fix the past but must
account for it through reflective nostalgia, ripping away the curtain of the idealized
nationalistic fantasy past.
2. Our reflective nostalgia, of affirming the resolution only after describing
marginalized narratives, is suspicious of hegemonic narratives of memory
and loss.
Thus it is important for critical pedagogues to expose the practices of the body,
social and individual, that harbor these narratives as well as analyze their
consequences. It is a form of deep mourning that performs a labor of grief both
through pondering pain and through play that points to the future.

[Insert Resolution for File Here]

1
3

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3. This act of grieving the resolution is a starting pointit allows new
public spaces to be created.
Grief process allows for critical discussion--prevents atrocities by accepting our
vulnerability to loss, to join us together as a human community. If we had grieved as
a nation and allowed the grief process to take place, we probably wouldnt have
invaded Iraq so hastily.
4. Our mourning is a starting placewe affirm the resolution as an
affirmation of the community, its suffering, and its potential.
The resolution is a center of the community, yet its hegemonic narratives are hardly
representative of the community. We must affirm the community, affirm the
resolution itself, in order to mourn it and shatter the curtain.
We do grieve for the communityand going through the grief process will allow us
to heal from the damage we see and emerge at our best.

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