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A balloon debate is a debate in which a number of speakers attempt to win the approval of an audience. The audience is invited to imagine that the speakers are flying in a hot-air balloon which is sinking and that someone must be thrown out if everyone is not to die.
Each speaker has to make the case why they should not be thrown out of the balloon to save the remainder. Typically each participant speaks on behalf of a famous person, profession, fictional character, etc. Other perilous situations may take the place of the sinking balloon, for example, a shipwrecked raft, or a nuclear bunker.
The balloon debate style appears in the ''
A balloon debate is a debate in which a number of speakers attempt to win the approval of an audience. The audience is invited to imagine that the speakers are flying in a hot-air balloon which is sinking and that someone must be thrown out if everyone is not to die.
Each speaker has to make the case why they should not be thrown out of the balloon to save the remainder. Typically each participant speaks on behalf of a famous person, profession, fictional character, etc. Other perilous situations may take the place of the sinking balloon, for example, a shipwrecked raft, or a nuclear bunker.
The balloon debate style appears in the ''Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
'' reality television series where contestants must make a case for them not being thrown out.
It is often used to build argumentative skills in preparation for Speech and Debate activities such as public forum
In United States constitutional law, a forum is a property that is open to public expression and assembly.
Types
Forums are classified as public or nonpublic.
Public forum
A public forum also called an ''open forum'', is open to all expression ...
, policy debate
Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government. It is also referred to as cross-examinat ...
and Lincoln-Douglas.
See also
*Lifeboat ethics
Lifeboat ethics is a metaphor for resource distribution proposed by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in two articles published in 1974, building on his earlier 1968 article detailing "The tragedy of the commons". Hardin's 1974 metaphor describes a lif ...
* Storytelling game
References
Debating {{speech-and-debate-stub