Battling for ideas or agendas?
It's a fair question.
If the 'flight-testing of ideas' is the real purpose of debate, then our emotional attachment to those ideas must take a backseat to their flight-worthiness. But if the real purpose of debate is to wage a battle, then winning can become an end in itself. Is defending one's ideas at all costs more important than the ideas themselves?
Which comes first? Ideas or agenda?
I prefer the 'flight-testing of ideas' to the battlefield. Ideas first, then agenda. Beyond that, fellow human beings - for me, at least - come before agendas.