On Cussing

In response to what is going on over at Badchristian I would just like to say a couple of things about "Cuss Words" that just chap my ass.

First of all words should never be referred to as Good or Bad in reference to their moral qualities.  They are words, things that may or may not have metaphysical properties, but either way are not moral quality bearing entities.  Take for example the scenario where someone says the word "SHIT" to you.  (You may want to have someone actually do this for effect)  Now let us take a look at what has happened.  A certain individual has just uttered noise with their vocal chords and manipulated the shape and frequency of the sound waves using those chords, their tongue and lips.  Those noises travel through the air and are received by your ear drums, altered somewhat.  Your brain then interprets the sound to mean something.  (Isn't that odd that some sound waves carry meaning with them and some do not?)  This meaning must then be about the utterer or some other thing but cannot be about the words themselves since it is the creator of the waves and not the waves themselves that have the intention of sharing meaning.  This also leads to problems with having access to what someone actually means, but that is a different issue. 

But someone might say, "What if you wrote it down or posted it on the internet.  Then it would be bad".  For example this word, "FUCK".  Now you might think, "That is a bad word" but like I said before it is actually ink, sound waives, or pixels on your screen, not "words" as things. 

If words did bear moral qualities then you could say of some word, "That was a bad thing that word did".  But that is just silly.  Moral beings can be good and bad morally.  Words are not of that sort.  So let us get over our self-righteous persona and learn to take the content of what is being said and not the method of communication seriously.  Plus it feels really good to say what you mean.  For example, I don't think that Jerry Falwell is a real meany bucket.  I think he is an AssHollioliooooolioliooooo.  See how good that felt!  NO! Well you are missing out my friend. 

Note: Explitives, just like any other word should be used with caution to avoid making them void of any usefulness. 

In closing I would like to say: Shit, Ass, Bitch, Fuck, Cunt, Cock, Prick, Scoobula (that one goes to my boy the apostle Paul).  Now see, if your offended it is because you mispercieved my (the moral entity) intentions (being funny), not because the words are "bad" (morally).  What a fun lesson we have had today!  Let's all go home and share with our friends and family!

Comments

[Dino Zaragoza]

I think I can agree that perhaps words are just words and are not moral or immoral.

But how they are used and the context they are used can be moral or immoral bad or good. For example if I stub my toe and "darn it" or "shoot" or "son of a gun" to me it is the equivelent to saying "damn" or "shit". Or telling soneone "forget you" could be similar to saying "fuck you." The context and meaning is the same...to me there is no moral problem.

But if you were to use those words in front of my 6 year old son ans say something like "fuck you" or call my wife a "bitch" then that is whole different context and is targeted at someone or becomes a offensive to somone then it does become a moral issue in my mind.

Perhaps I missed your point or misread what you actually said.

BTW enjoyed lunch the other day!

[jpe]

Fuck yeah.

And HellAssDamnKings!

[jpe]

For example if I stub my toe and "darn it" or "shoot" or "son of a gun" to me it is the equivelent to saying "damn" or "shit".

Well, yeah, you've got kids. No one wants to have the dirty kid. To this day, I swear like a fuckin' sailor, but in front of my parents I'll keep a lid on it. They don't need to hear it, and we all pretend I'm angelic. That's part of the kid-parent pact.

[Adam]

Dino,
What I was trying to say, and I think you got it, was that there may be an ethical situation going on revolving around communication but it doesn't have to do with the words per se, but the intent of the communicator. I don't think it is necessarily wrong to cuss in front of children but I do think we have to be mindful of the social repricussions (did I spell that right?) of teaching our children these words. Most of our societal structure does not see words this way and, though I think they are wrong about that, I also think we have to play the game on some level.

Context also seems very important, calling your wife a "bitch" would carry extremely strong connotations and it would probably be meant to offend you. In which case I think the person would be wrong in communicating that. But a friend of mine's mother called her daughter a "bitch" in jest and everyone, including the daughter, laughed. (Sounds bad but it was really quite funny)

Sometimes we have to play to people's perceptions if we are going to be good to them.

[Brandon]

I agree. I think I may have posted on this very concept a while ago. I find it particularly funny that if I call a person a 'fucking pussy' the word that people get upset about is the word 'fucking' rather than the word that actually derogates women.

[Adam]

Brandon,
In the case of "fucking pussy" would "fucking" and an adjective or verb?

[Brandon]

hmmm...good question.

I'm going with adjective.