Hmm...
This soap box is getting a little creaky...
And...
Sudsy...
Anyway, I've got more stuff on my chest I'd like to slough off. Maybe a shower would do it better, but hey! What else is a blog for? Today, let's talk about swearing.
I know what you're thinking. "Man, eff that ess! This is bee ess, and I'm not effing gonna put up with that noise, eff-wad."
Or, you know, not that.
I'll sum up my grievance with swearing about as briefly as I can. It makes you stupid.
Now, there's an article on cracked out there citing studies that suggest maybe venting your frustration with vehement words can increase your pain tolerance and have other health benefits, but you know what? That's a $%^#y way to deal with your problems.
Here's how swearing makes you stupid, and makes everyone around you more stupid.
At least in today's society, swear-words are words that are being pared away from their meanings, like skin off a potato. This is because the words are used outside contexts they were originally intended for.
Like telling people to get their "S together," or saying that you "know your S." These sorts of uses for a word that's supposed to mean "feces" equate the contents of a person's life with something as strongly negative as our solid waste. And seriously? You want to compare your life and that of others to useless waste products? Constantly?
Dumb.
Or, you know, using "F" in its several forms as nothing more than extra syllables to nominally improve the rhythm of your speech. Because that's really worth it.
Or asking God to condemn people and things into the fires of hell, when you don't believe that God or hell exist and thus what you've said amounts to a great big pile of vague maliciousness.
So maybe what I mean to say when I say "swearing makes you stupid" is "swearing effectively communicates useless, non-constructive concepts" like senseless anger and ill-will that if you're honest with yourself you probably don't really mean.
And you know what the prevalence of this is doing? It's setting powerful precedent for stripping things we say of meaning, turning the sprawling and magnificent edifice of language into so much drivel.
Actually, I don't know if I have anything else to say about this. Say what you mean.
I'll try to do the same.
There. No more soap box.
So I got a job yesterday. I am glad of this. I'll start after I get the background check sorted out. That means my wife and I both have jobs and we can start earning a good bit of money.
And maybe not stay in my parents' house anymore. And, you know, start living something that resembles a normal life.
Because to be honest, where I was at this summer was a sort of limbo. It'll be good to move on.
Peace out.
3 comments:
I call Bullshit. This is basic linguistic evolution- once upon a time, many of the words we use today would've been considered offensive or even blasphemous, and before you start trying to make a religious case against it, note that Paul used swearwords in his letters to the various churches. Intent is everything.
Intent is everything, indeed. What sort of linguistic evolution is words with empty meanings? Terrible, that's what. I used basic linguistic evolution as part of my argument AGAINST swearing. It's bad for language to strip words of their meaning and make them useless syllabic functors whose only marginal purpose is a sort of negative rhythm additive.
Are we going to see a constructive result of the use of these words? Is "F" or "S" going to turn into something that doesn't have malicious connotations? If you think so, well then boy howdy may that day come soon.
Because for lots of us, there's still this whole thing where there's a connection between the crap and the toilet and sex and the bedroom.
I don't need to make a religious case. Swearing is stupid on grounds of it being stupid.
Please allow me to disagree with your assessment of the meaninglessness of curse words:
The prevalence of curse words throughout a large array of human languages (many of the languages having distinctly different origins as well) seems to suggest otherwise. Even moreso when such words are used in the same way to fulfill the same function. To develop in such a way, these words are very likely to be fulfilling some sort of need, which could by itself be an argument that the words have meaning.
However, I will take it a step further. I understand your frustration that the words are rarely used to fulfill their original, literal function. I suppose that could be seen as a deterioration of sorts, but to assume that they have no meaning because they have no literal meaning is an oversight. Instead, I would argue that they contain abstract meaning.
Curse words in usage are unanimously (to my understanding) an expression of abstract emotions and concepts. Not always extreme ones, not always negative ones, and not always complex ones. They are assertive ways to express things. I cannot adequately or succinctly describe their meaning, but that does not mean they have none.
Are there other words that could be used to achieve the same effect in a more eloquent, descriptive manner? Yes, of course. But to disallow the use of swear words on principle of there being other words that do the same job in a more direct way would mean that I should also stop using the word "cool" to describe ANYTHING that isn't lacking in thermal radiation, and instead search for other words that describe my approval of said thing. However, I will not stop saying "cool," because it is a convenient shorthand word that expresses something.
Which is exactly why curse words are used. Like it or not, in day-to-day use of a language, people have no desire (or need, for that matter) to be eloquent and precise. Swearing offers a method to quickly express abstract concepts and emotions without having to work to translate them into words with literal meaning. Other people will still understand what's being said. Sort of like how people will understand you if you form other sentences of ambiguous meaning. "Get your shit together," and "Get your act together," are both sentences that mean the same thing, and when taken literally will have strange and unclear implications. Yet people will know what you're telling them if you say either one.
Is it bad if people do not know how to express themselves without them? Yes, of course. But only in the same way that it's bad if you use the word "awesome" in an essay when not referring to something being truly awe-inspiring. There are times when you need your words to be accurate, but it is unnecessary to worry about it all the time.
Are they rude and unsavoury to use in polite company? Yes, of course. But so is slouching or using the wrong fork, depending on who you're with. This is why I try not to swear in the company of people who dislike it.
If it is your endeavour to be entirely literal in everything you say (or just refrain from ever using impolite words), I salute you in your incredibly difficult (and likely impossible) mission, but by no means does that conviction of yours make others' use of curse words stupid or meaningless.
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