Tell me why should we stop cursing

[vladtess]

Hi guys,

I have an essay to write for my English class about why we should stop cursing. I'm trying to make an outline and just thought about this forum and hope that you guys can tell me few reason why we should stop curing.

So far on my outline I have these:

Shows your lack of education
Shows that you've been raised in careless family
Creates hostile environment
Shows disrespect
unnecessary adjectives

Please post some other reasons.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[openeyes]

Using "curse words" too often waters down the effect. Since I go years without saying them at times, there's a fun effect when I do use them. As Barbara Holland says in Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences, "If bad words continue to be flung about so freely, the thrill will fade".

[LifeFirst]

Because I hate hearing those dirty words coming out of such a beautiful mouth....you know what I mean?

[Honeywith4bees]

My first reason would be because of what OpenEyes said, they lose effectiveness.
My second thought is that there are so many wonderful words out there to describe with that really make people sit up and pay attention. I remember once my Mother telling me about how her friend was "positively apoplectic" about something. Way better than saying she was F***in' pissed off! Would you agree?

[Lisa McGregor]

swearing has low vibration energy.

[Angela]

How about:

* It's imprecise. You can't really nail down your feelings to yourself or to others when you lump all your expression into a generic epithet.

* It's lazy. You seem sluggish and ineffective when doing that sort of lumping. You'll acquire a reputation for laziness, sluggishness, and ineffectiveness if you rely on swearing rather than taking the time to express yourself more eloquently. You'll be training people to count on you to be a big slug, communications-wise.

* It's oafish. A big, expressive vocabulary is sexy.

* It creates a downward spiral. Swearing tends to be an expulsion of responsibility. It's hard to take 100% responsibility for you life when you habitually say, "F**k you" when you don't like what someone has said. It can also completely eliminate love and affinity from a conversation (e.g., when you tell someone what they've said is bulls**t.) The more you swear, the more you get used to offloading your responsibility linguistically. You end up in prison, getting your favorite curses tattooed with ballpoint pens and matches.

Good luck on your stinkin' essay.

[absvan]

Originally Posted by Lisa McGregor

swearing has low vibration energy.

I concur

When you swear your energy inside is low and negative. No doubt about it.

[Sam988]

Ah damn, when i was in school i wish i had this idea of asking people in internet forums to do homeworks for me

[ConsciousPilot]

Originally Posted by vladtess

Hi guys,

I have an essay to write for my English class about why we should stop cursing. I'm trying to make an outline and just thought about this forum and hope that you guys can tell me few reason why we should stop curing.

So far on my outline I have these:

Shows your lack of education
Shows that you've been raised in careless family
Creates hostile environment
Shows disrespect
unnecessary adjectives

Please post some other reasons.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Why should we stop cursing?
Good question. Why should we?

Sounds like a waste of time lol. Anybody who gets offended by curse words shows their attachments and their bigotry.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by ConsciousPilot

Anybody who gets offended by curse words shows their attachments and their bigotry.

Interestingly, that statement reflects a certain amount of attachment and bigotry.

[Jim11]

I don't use many curse words for the same reason I don't start babbling or say "goo goo gah gah" mid sentence. It's a waste of time and expresses nothing if it's done often

[vladtess]

Thanks a lot guys, I will surely use all if your ideas as an outline for my essay. I see some very nice ideas that you've posted that I can elaborate on.
Thanks again,

Vladimir Tess

[ConsciousPilot]

Originally Posted by Angela

Interestingly, that statement reflects a certain amount of attachment and bigotry.

That statement reflects whatever you want it to reflect.

It has no meaning at all except that which you give it.

[vladtess]

Originally Posted by Sam988

Ah damn, when i was in school i wish i had this idea of asking people in internet forums to do homeworks for me

I'm sorry man.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by ConsciousPilot

That statement reflects whatever you want it to reflect.

It has no meaning at all except that which you give it.

Well, it's nice to know that you're aware that what you had to say was meaningless.

[ConsciousPilot]

Originally Posted by Angela

Well, it's nice to know that you're aware that what you had to say was meaningless.

Hehe

That was one of the hardest realizations I have ever come to in my life!

That everything I say or have ever said is meaningless.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by ConsciousPilot

Hehe

That was one of the hardest realizations I have ever come to in my life!

That everything I say or have ever said is meaningless.

Maybe you mean: everything you say is meaningless except for the meaning I or my listener give to what I say. Yes? Or did you mean something else?

So, in fact, it does have the meaning that you or I gave it, meager as that may be. It may not be Big Meaning, like how people talk about god's word or such, but if we say something to each other and we're not just babbling out syllables, there is meaningful communication there.

That's why I don't take swear words or offensive jokes or "just kidding"-type snideness lightly, and I don't buy it when someone, including me, tries to be cavalier about it. I think what we create in conversation has real effects in the real world, and we have a powerful choice to make in every single conversation we have.

I'm not saying it's "wrong" to swear -- but I also don't think it's meaningless. I think you and I create something that has meaning every time we talk to each other.

[ConsciousPilot]

Originally Posted by Angela

Maybe you mean: everything you say is meaningless except for the meaning I or my listener give to what I say. Yes? Or did you mean something else?

Thanks for the response Angela. Let me clarify what I meant, as best I can put this into words:

Everything that has ever been done, said, or thought is meaningless and empty. The Buddhists refer to it as Sunyata: the inherit emptiness of all things. Śūnyatā signifies that everything one encounters in life is empty of absolute identity, permanence, or an in-dwelling 'self'.

This holds true for language. A cuss word, as well as any other word, in and of itself, is empty. It is just an apparent sound, a certain vibration of energy that creates the sound. When people get angry at cuss words, or at a sentence somebody says, in the end they are only being angry with themselves - for it is through the personal perception which is tainted from the attachment to a certain moral standpoint or ethical belief which is giving rise to the anger. This perception has bias, preconceived notions, emotions, and thoughts which color the lens through which reality is looked at with. It creates duality: "right" and "wrong", which is not what IS.

When people get angry to the cuss word, it is no longer what "is". When somebody is angry at a cuss word, no longer is it just the cuss word, but it is what they THINK about the cuss word which is what is observed, which is a complete illusion. If somebody is angry at a cuss word, he or she is just observing his or her own anger. Doing this creates a state of inner division, a war in your brain...

So, in fact, it does have the meaning that you or I gave it, meager as that may be. It may not be Big Meaning, like how people talk about god's word or such, but if we say something to each other and we're not just babbling out syllables, there is meaningful communication there.

I understand where you're coming from. And you are right, there is meaningful communication. It's all about relativity and where the meaning is being observed from. I am speaking in the absolute sense when I speak about this.

There is definitely an experience of meaningful communication. This meaning is only in appearance, however, as it is Sunyata because it is an illusion (our minds construct the reality we interact with & nothing we interact with is fixed, rigid, and solid). The best way I can explain where I am coming from is an analogy.

It is like when you're asleep and having a dream, and two characters in your dream are talking to each other, having a conversation. There is no difference between a conversation in "real life" and a conversation in the dream; they both have the same amount of meaning and validity. Both characters from the dream are just manifestations of the same dreamer, just as every day reality is a projection of consciousness (the one dreamer, some call it god, some call it consciousness, others call it awareness - call it what you will. It's who you were before you were born, who you are now, and who you will be after the body dies.)

That's why I don't take swear words or offensive jokes or "just kidding"-type snideness lightly, and I don't buy it when someone, including me, tries to be cavalier about it. I think what we create in conversation has real effects in the real world, and we have a powerful choice to make in every single conversation we have.

I'm not saying it's "wrong" to swear -- but I also don't think it's meaningless. I think you and I create something that has meaning every time we talk to each other.

[Angela]

ConsciousPilot, I think I get what you're saying, and can align myself with it spiritually. In the mundane world of our physical incarnation, however, I believe we must take responsibility for what we create with our words.

If I was to walk down the street and say to everyone I encounter, "F**k You!" it would create an entirely different vibration in the real world than if I were to tell everyone, "Good morning!" I think you're right that there is no inherent meaning in the words I've experimented with, and nevertheless, because there is a speaker and a listener, both of whom are meaning-making machines, there is some very real meaning being created right in the here and now. To me, the meanings that are generated occur as very real vibrations in the mundane world.

My feeling is that it's important to take 100% responsibility for what gets created in language, whichever end we're on.

[Ilya]

The question why we shouldn't use swearwords is pretty simple and was well answered here. The question why (and when) we should use them is much more interesting. It is not true that the swearwords must never be used. They have their place and purpose. And it strongly depends on the culture I think. In English, the swearing language is rather limited. A bunch of words, most of which became "bad" because of some Victorian hypocrites. Even if used as adjectives, they just do not form enough combinations.

In Russian, the core swearing vocabulary may be as small, but due to a more complex grammar, the swearing constructs are much more complex. In fact, Russian swearing forms a special language. With a certain skill two people can have a meaningful conversation using just the swearwords. If a prison, or another jargon is thrown into the mix, we have a fully functional dialect. Of course it's use is limited, you can't use it in "polite" conversations. But in some situations, this language is the only way to communicate your intention.
There are difBferent theories of how swearing appeared, but there is no doubt that the tradition of having some "magic" words, as powerful as a weapon, is very ancient.

In fact, in Russian traditional magic, the swear words were used for personal development. It was used to treat fools. A fool was considered a person, who in normal, but who has some parts of the mind "frozen" and detached from the rest of the mind. It has nothing to do with intelligence, or mental disability. And the power of the swearwords were used to break into this frozen part of the mind and to reconnect it with the rest of the mind.

To an extent, this works now. For example, a highly educated friend of mine was redecorating his home and hired a bunch or workers. Common guys who never went to high school, and who earn their living with building work. For a few months they didn't do the work right, milking him for money, delaying work and so on. All attempts to communicate with them in a civilized manner were futile.

At the advice of his friends he finally used the power of the swearwords. He had to memorize a lengthy and passionate swearing monologue by heart. It looked like learning some magic incantation. And it worked like magic.
Only then they finally understood what he wanted from them and what more importantly, in their eyes he has earned the right to be treated respectfully, to tell them what to do and not to be tricked.

Of course in the US, you would simply fire the workers, but that's just cultural conditioning

Another aspect of swearing is that it is poetic. Not in a sense of beautiful rhymes. But in a sense that is carries some non-verbal meaning. When a person says "F you", the meaning is obviously not literal. In fact, treating such words as literal leads to comic effect and robs them of their power (and further angers the person using them). Instead, swearing reveals the emotional content, the one that is usually hidden behind the meaning of the words. The tone of voice, the loudness, the intonation, the speed, all becomes very important. There are thousands of ways to say these words. They can express a huge range of emotions from utter hatred to tenderness. And in a very compact way. And it is accessible to most people, unlike the command of language needed to express the same emotion verbally.

And the ability to determine when it is appropriate to use swearwords and when they should be avoided is a very interesting skill. Unfortunately, the usual way to approach it is "you must not say these dirty words."

[vladtess]

Thanks Ilya, very informative.

[Angela]

That was a fabulous essay, Ilya!