Saturday, July 25, 2009

Why you should swear less. Warning: contains swearing

Fucking awesome! How much more awesome is that than say "totally awesome" or even just "awesome"? Did you add much meaning?

No. In fact you are destroying meaning. Profanity is useful. It conveys disrespect and offensiveness and sometimes anger. If I start dropped f-bombs, you can be sure something is wrong. Or can you? "Fucking awesome" would be a good thing. Or if I swear a lot around you, isn't that disrespectful? Probably not, I'm likely not trying to convey any disrespect and increasingly people are not perceiving any disrespect.

When you make profanity a common thing, it ceases to be profane. It loses meaning. But isn't it good to stop expressing disrespect and anger and offensiveness? It would be good if we were less offensive as a collective. However losing the capacity is not good. Loss of expression only weakens language. What if you need to shock someone or get their attention?

Keep swearing, but swear more carefully. Scold children for swearing. Get offended and indignant when someone swears a lot around you. Keep swearing dirty and offensive. It is your civic duty.

1 comment:

Suicidal Zebra said...

In a similar vein, give this article a read.