Profanity

Ah cursing, where to begin. I really don't know, but my views probably stem from the fact that I disdain censorship in any form. If we are to support Freedom of Speech, I expect everyone to follow it to the letter. In the English language especially, words can account for such a myriad of different meanings that without context, they're effectively meaningless. This is probably why the rules of grammar in english are so thick, making sure that even a sentence have enough context to be able to comprehend it.

But that's what makes it even more confusing. We're not talking about phrases or paragraphs that set people off and give you the cold stare, it's single words. How can a single utterance be able to define an entire intention. How is saying "Fuck!" all of a sudden makes you take off your gloves and challenge me to a duel? Can someone exclaiming "shit" be really intent in defecating in public? If someone tells you "Careful" are they insinuating your an incompetent douche or are they genuinely interested for your safety. For that matter, how can you be sure it's a precautionary statement? Maybe they're responding to someone else, maybe they're initiating a description? Who the fuck knows? Oh wait, I do, Mr. Fucking Context!

Well no, at least with speech, the inflection put into the words aide in deciphering their meaning. Even then, I can only think of a few words that can probably be justifiably understood with just tone; most of them being just responsive words. Hell, you can't really initiate an insult with just a single word. Sure if someone cuts you off in traffic and you say "Asshole!" it is unlikely the prick will think you're confusing him for a sphincter. But if you're sitting at a park bench and suddenly develop tourette syndrome I find it hard to imagine people being justified in feeling offended. Usually eye contact would be an initiator for that emotion to take place, and if so I hope you can run.

Yet there are persons who literally do take personal offense to the mere utterance of a 'profane' word. Why? What in their most internal dark damp minds fires off the signal to think "Hey, that word just doesn't sound pretty, I'm going to feel horrible about it every time I hear or read it"? Sure I can blame religion but that's too easy a target. And besides, that might not even be perfectly valid even for me. Sure the process as to why it's ingrained to the populace might be the same, but I'm sure it has independent roots. (Though I can't shake off the feeling that a secular world wouldn't have this problem, then again I just think no religion solves everything.)

I mean, hasn't anyone learned anything from 1984? Constricting language is constricting the mind. It's the exact opposite of what we should be aiming for. We shouldn't be trying to simplify ourselves and our thoughts, we should be making the dictionary denser than mercury. Supplying the ability for us to be able to elaborate our thoughts and convey them to others. "But you just lack imagination" you whine, "you can put across message in nicer words" you pine. Bitch why should I? My imagination might be as able as a quadriplegic but be damned if I'm going to stutter just so I can appease the hypersensitive.

Seriously, how is minimizing yourself expanding anything? Am I retarded to think that it's a contradiction? Sure I can waste time and convert my intention, but then I'm risking losing my original meaning. What if I'm allergic to peanuts and when responding to an offer for some I say "no thank you please" instead of "fuck no applehead"? In most cultures, the former will cue said person to shove the swelling inducing nuts all up in your hyperactive immune system. Though in all fairness, the latter would probably get you a black eye in some cultures. Then again, a black eye is better than asphyxiating.

Regardless I find myself feeling why I don't pursue this type of expression often, not much fun when I don't have outside input to munch on, and my own reductio ad absurdum algorithm can only take me so far with the same variables.

Back to topic, there is no such thing as profanity because anything can be considered profanity. I am in the belief if something can be anything, then it can equally be nothing. How can anyone logically determine a single word, or a dozen words, be off-limits? Under what pretenses? To hide and 'pretty-fy" the future? "Oh don't worry past-man, us future people no longer use your laughably immoral words like nigger, we are much better than you." I can't, and probably never will, fully understand political correctness. I just can't decipher if people honestly think the intent is to protect, or if they realize it's more so an underhanded way to come off as 'progressive'. If we were truly progressive we wouldn't put such claustrophobic pretenses, embed them into words and freeze them in time. If I where past-man, my reaction would be "how are you better when you still accept the original insinuation of the word?" It's like those pretentious pricks who remind people that gay means happy or fag is a cigarette in different dialects. They actually have a point, whose truly being a bigot? The guy whose intent is to express an emotion, or the guy whose immediate reaction is to associate it with the negative meaning? What the hell ever happened to actually thinking?

All of this obviously works both ways. I don't expect someone to walk into a library and start asking for "the fucking 1998 atlas" to not get a perfectly shaped boot on their ass. I expect people to realize that etiquette still applies and that all I'm trying to put across is that out right banishment of words stunts personal expression. I mean, for fuck sakes. (It's too late to proofread)