What's With All The *@?1`* WTF Language?

 #364: So What?

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Like most modern Americans I hear everybody's 'few choice words' and consider it par for the course.  But let's take a closer look:

When someone swears, what are they really doing?  They're breaking a taboo.

But what if we switched taboos?  What if, to express outrage, frustration, independence, or just for emphasis, the custom became to briefly remove an item of clothing?

"Not fair", you say, since speech is much more of an abstract expression than is covering up/uncovering our bodies.

Actually, 'mooning' someone, or more often other people, plural, does seem a bit like cursing.  And our little experiment reveals something about swearing: that it's more 'attack' than 'defense'; it's aimed at another person's comportment and standards, or more often, general societal standards, rather than ones' own.  This becomes easy to understand if you imagine someone who's so isolated they know no one can hear; and when they swear, the words have no strength; they're but weak imitations of the real thing, ringing hollow in the speaker's mind.

Which is the reason I don't swear, save for the occasional "big, big 'D'" as the song goes.  But does it bother me when others swear?  Yes and no.  In the end I'm invariably unaffected, so I end up not caring.  I do feel sorry for someone who fails to use choice words sparingly and in just the right situation.  And it does bother me, initially--as it takes a split second to confirm the speaker's intent, just as a sudden lunge in your direction, in a crowd, is disconcerting, briefly, until you realize someone just wants to shake you hand.

Another reason I don't swear is that like removing one's clothes and standing naked in front of strangers, the common prohibition on the mixing of public and private spaces is a handy rule of thumb for discerning appropriate conduct.  The exceptions, like allusions, allegorical art, the manipulation of symbols, and so on, are what fuels creativity; but if not partially hidden from view, that creativity simply fails, due to over-exposure.