i’m going to be frank.
i hate cursing.
i’m going to be honest.
i’m not perfect, and i’ve certainly been tempted more than once to curse. i have cursed before, and i’m not proud of it in the slightest.
a big problem with cursing is the lack of weight placed on it these days.
people throw around the words like they’re nothing, blending them with their day-to-day speech like some kind of spice meant to make what they say more meaningful or pointed.
or maybe they just curse because their friends do.
or maybe they just curse because their parents tell them not to.
or maybe they just curse because they don’t see a reason not to.
i’m thoroughly convinced that cursing is motivated entirely by selfishness, a desire to “fit in,” immaturity, or blinding ignorance.
some people think that by cursing they are asserting their independence and maturity.
cursing is merely ascribing directly to what our culture says is “cool” and “accepted.” it’s the antithesis of independence. rather than asserting yourself as an individual, you are announcing your assimilation into the growing pool of easily-influenced humans.
cursing is crude. it is primitive. it is entirely unnecessary. people think that curses are needed to drive points home. they think that without obscenities their speech is weak, watered down, or uninfluential. this thinking is embarassingly simple-minded. curses are rarely used to drive a point home – what is, actually, more common, is that they are used to cover up gaping holes in logic or to distract from glaring errors. powerful points are made with a skilled command of rhetoric, not an extensive vocabulary of obscenities.
cursing is not only hypocritical and useless in the manner of rhetoric, but it is, in my own opinion, extremely unattractive.
this is mostly about girls.
the moment i hear a curse leave a girl’s mouth, they instantly look different in my mind. it’s a crude, unfeminine, unbearably ugly thing for a girl to do. i won’t deliberate, because my point here is simple. cursing repulses me, normally – but when coming out of a girl’s mouth, it disgusts me.
i’m not going to be self-righteous about this.
i’m not going to say that only stupid people curse.
i understand the allure.
i’ve cursed before, and had a habitual problem with it online some time ago that i had to fight to break .
through that entire time i understood what i’ve written above, and yet i still wrote what i wrote.
why? even now i couldn’t tell you. it’s terrifying, the senseless attraction.
every time i speak there’s a battle in my mind. i could slip ‘fuck’ here or ‘damn’ there. but there’s no reason to.
it’s rude, it’s crude, it’s stupid. it’s just plain juvenile.
i don’t need the help of these imbecilic words to make my points or style my rhetoric.
as an independent thinker i understand the uselessness of cursing, and am committed to resisting its temptations with all the will i can manage.
i challenge you to do the same. if you disagree with me, let me know. click the comments link at the top of this post, and i’ll be happy to hear your philosophy on the matter. you can remain anonymous if you wish – i would just love to hear some opposing arguments.
and if you can’t think of any? then why not join me in my stand of “cursing abstinence?” why not?
my challenge is on the table. should you decide to meet it, best of luck. should you reject it, i’d love to hear why.
Ben, i am completely with you on this one.
Most kids at school know me as “the kid who doesn’t curse” or “that straight-edge kid”.
As far as i’m concerned, i’m fine with those labels.
Admitted, i have gone into a rut before where all i did was curse, back in 8th grade is when i did it, because everyone of my friends did it, and it seemed normal to me.
Then freshman year, i realized that there is no real purpose for cursing, all it does is stain whatever you are trying to say.
I do curse here or there and i’m not particularly proud of that either. It usually happens when i become so upset or angry that there are no words to explain how im feeling.
And at school, kids who hear me slip something always take a step back and gasp, because they know i’m not into that stuff. I can remember when i said the word “fuck” in class one day, and the whole class just stopped talking and stared. Until one child says “Wow….that was the first time i’ve ever heard you curse…ever, and i’ve known you for four years, what’s wrong?”
My comment here is simple. If you don’t curse, people won’t care. They will care even MORE if you DO curse, because once you do label yourself with words, that’s all you are. When you refrain, people respect you, and think better of you.
The lord says not to swear, and lately, i’ve been taking to heart everything he says for me to do.
So, if your asking me to join your team Ben, you’ve got your first-mate right here.
http://jesuisperdu.tumblr.com/post/160665937/angieantimatter-piquant-via-the-adorable-daily
Andrew: thanks so much for that. I couldn’t ask for a better first mate.
I’m really happy to hear about your reputation at school. I’ll be praying that we both will have strength to uphold that reputation this year.
i agree with you 100% on this.
i don’t curse myself, but sometimes i do slip the occasional ’shit’ & ‘damn.’ sometimes even ‘fuck.’ i’m definitely not proud of what i have said, but i try to tame my tongue as much as possible. i also try to stay away when people talk like such, cause’ i know GIGO,(garbage in, garbage out), what i hear i might repeat. it’s hard sometimes, because people talk like that almost wherever i go.
when i hear someone curse, i just get this eerie feeling. when someone curses, it does not only change my perspective of them, it’s degrading on their behalf. it’s like the instant i hear a curse word come out of their mouth, i loose respect for them. it’s like they’re a lower person. now i think that sounds wrong of me, but i don’t know, cursing just turns me off. to friends that are girls, & guys. the instant i hear a friend curse, i just get upset & frown. like they’re not as good of a person as they were before they cursed. & when a guy curses, i pretty much just loose interest. when guys curse, it pretty much disgusts me.
i think the reason people curse as common as they do, is because they don’t see why it’s wrong. their friends do it, & maybe even their family does it. why shouldn’t they? why not just go with the flow? why not follow what almost everyone else is doing? i think it takes a real person to point out something that isn’t write that EVERYONE else is doing & say, hey, i don’t like this.
& it takes an even BIGGER person to BLOG about it, not caring whom may read it, & express their opinion on it, no matter how different it may be. your the best.
- your fellow dream team member:)
i wholeheartedly agree. (notice a trend here?)
although it’s very impractical to abstain from talking/socializing with ‘them’, when they do realize that you never curse, a good few will try to refrain from it around you. though you should avoid those groups of people who curse excessively and with ill-purpose.
all of you basically covered everything else I would’ve said. Ben, you’re as eloquent as ever. though I really should have pretended to be pro-cursing, just to annoy you. :]
-Av-
a curse is just a regular word that society decided was somehow “bad.”
I just dont understand how you guys could all get so worked up about a few words. It may take courage to admit to your friends that you dont like that they curse, but it takes even more courage not to whine about it and realize that most of the world does and you just need to learn to get over it. I’m afraid of spiders. Do you think I’m going to go judge everyone who likes them? no. just because my friends do one thing and I dont agree with it doesnt mean that it has to change my prespective on them. who says that to have a “skilled comand of rhetoric” you have to exclude “curses” ?
@Anonymous:
It’s not necessarily the word that is bad, but the intention behind it. Like you said, society has associated certain words to be “bad”. However, it’s not that the words are “bad”, but that people have a tendency to use these handful of words for a wrong/bad intention.
So, to say- “In the end, they’re just regular words. So it doesn’t matter.”- Isn’t exactly correct. For, the word has been associated with an bad intention or thought. If you can somehow remove the percieved intention of the word, well that might be different.
Have you read anything I’ve said?
“but it takes even more courage not to whine about it and realize that most of the world does and you just need to learn to get over it.”
at least try to make sense.
keeping your mouth shut over something that bothers you has absolutely nothing to do with courage.
also, try to make your analogies a bit tighter. a fear of spiders is not nearly enough like a tendency to curse, to validate an analogy like that.
but enough about your failure to construct a sensible argument.
oh, wait.
“just because my friends do one thing and I dont agree with it doesnt mean that it has to change my prespective on them.”
say again? i can’t tell if you’re just saying things that sound good and righteous in the name of the people i’m jabbing at, without stopping to think of what you’re actually saying.
if my friends do one thing and i don’t agree, it very well DOES mean it can change my perspective on them. not in all instances, of course – i wont judge my friends for watching cartoons when i prefer the scifi channel. but i will certainly judge them for, say, cutting class, getting trashed at a party, or, say, having the mouth of a sailor. because i’m not necessarily judging them for what they’re doing – i’m judging them for the character inside of them that their actions reflect.
this isn’t even directly related to my main argument – i just thought i’d point out how wrong you are to claim i shouldn’t let things others say or do change my perception of who they are.
who says that to have a “skilled comand of rhetoric” you have to exclude “curses” ?
to state the obvious, i do. again i ask, have you read anything i’ve written?
taken from my original post: “people think that curses are needed to drive points home. they think that without obscenities their speech is weak, watered down, or uninfluential. this thinking is embarassingly simple-minded. curses are rarely used to drive a point home – what is, actually, more common, is that they are used to cover up gaping holes in logic or to distract from glaring errors. powerful points are made with a skilled command of rhetoric, not an extensive vocabulary of obscenities.”
um.
oh, and the proverbial nail in the coffin: “most of the world does it” does not mean i should “get over it”. give me a break. i shouldnt have to keep quiet about something i know is wrong just because it has “majority vote” in the world. i hope you can see with your own logic, as sparing as it is, how absurd such a demand as yours is.
but REGARDLESS: your “argument” remains unconvincing for another reason. all you’ve done so far is criticize my own “lack of tolerance,” per se, towards those who curse. i’d love to hear some arguments for the case of cursing, further than simply “why not?”
How dare you be so quick to judge people based on their choice of words alone. Calling someone “disgusting” is much more of an insult to society than exclaiming “SHIT” in a moment of frustration. Ignorance has nothing to do with most peoples’ choice to use curse words, nor does the idea of ‘being cool.’ Frankly I’m pissed the fuck off at your own ignorance on the subject.
I found this blog when a friend of mine sent me the link becuase she thought it was increadably similar to a … rant for lack of better term that she had heard me give (several times). I compleatly agree with you on most everything you have said here. I do not curse myself. However there is one point I would like to bring up. Why should people have to totaly cut out part of the language- yes it is a crud part but that dose not mean it they have no valid place- just bucasue of the misgudied poor choices of a good deal of the population? Should we let the misuse of something stop people form useing it at all- even properly. Take guns for a paraell exapmle they are grossly misused but that dose not mean that they can not be used properly by people educated to use them. I would really appreceate a reply. Thank you!
@anon: firstly – i never said anyone was disgusting. the only time i mentioned disgust in my entry was: “[...]but when coming out of a girl’s mouth, it disgusts me.”
obviously i’m referring to the curses themselves, not the person using them.
please don’t jump to conclusions based on your overeager bloodlust.
secondly – you ridicule me for my apparent ignorance, yet fail to point out just where my thinking stands as ignorant. more importantly, you fail to support your own case with a scrap of argument FOR the case of curses.
i’m becoming more and more frustrated with you who support cursing, mostly due to your complete incapability of defending your opinions, and how your only arguments consist solely of misinterpreting my words and mocking my own opinions.
give me a break, join speech and debate, and learn how to write a decent argument. this is the internet, for pete’s sake. you have as much time as you want to actually come up with something that’s actually worth me reading. and still i get this idiotic rubbish.
bah.
@Silver49 – i get what you’re saying. i was speaking with a friend of mine about the same question, just a few days ago. he mentioned how leaders such as Teddy Roosevelt have used curse words to hammer home points. sometimes, certain people don’t use them maliciously or with foolish intention. i agree that they can be used in…not necessarily “good” ways, but in the way of accomplishing an end not as effectively accomplished otherwise.
HOWEVER, such few examples cannot justify the entirety of the case.
what i mean is: though it is true that the use of curses can be justified in some few cases, i cannot agree in allowing those few cases to justify everyone else’s use of curses. the VAST MAJORITY of people use curses in the way i highlighted in my entry. i can’t say that curses are okay when only a select few people use them in ways that are not entirely deplorable.
do you understand my point?
p.s. there’s really no point in listing yourself as “anon” when you leave your e-mail, bridget. if you have an opinion of my views i’d much rather you let me know it to my face without hiding behind silly internet aliases.
Yes I do understand your point, and I am not seeking to justify the masses of curseing. But I still think that you are tending a bit to far on the black and white view of things, which is compleatly understandable and idealy how most things would work out. Please keep in mind the grey of things- balance is the key to accomplishing most if not all worthwile ends. Thank you.
haha I figured you’d know it was me anyway. your post completely changed my opinion on you, ben. you have a lot of growing up to do.
p.s it wouldn’t let me leave a comment without my email, I’m not sure if that’s because of the site or my computer’s ridiculously long list of problems.
@Silver49 – unfortunately i can’t agree with your idea that “balance is the key to accomplishing most if not all worthwile ends.”
i understand it is foolish in some cases to insist on radical decisions on either side of an argument. but compromising a certain amount of what you believe in order to attain this yin and yang-esque balance you suggest is just as foolish.
i believe that cursing, as generally and most commonly defined by today’s culture, is wrong.
therefore, i will not curse, nor will i condone, appreciate, or respect the cursing of others around me.
you can dig further into the semantics of the matter and point out, as you have, the capacity of curses to be used intelligently. i have nothing wrong with such use of cursing. however, OBVIOUSLY the majority of people who curse do NOT use the words intelligently, therefore your argument does NOT justify cursing for the majority of this generation.
am i making sense?
@anon – haha. i’d love to hear you explain your reasoning. i don’t see my view as close-minded, overzealous, bigoted…or whatever other adjectives that might be running through your head as you shake it disapprovingly at your screen.
if you could validly explain to me WHY this post has “completely changed your opinion on me,” – a tactful term by which i assume you mean “now despise the way i think” – i would love to hear it. otherwise, stop bothering me with your how dare you’s and find something better to do with your time.
Now although I do not agree that cursing is horrible I am not going to yell at you because you think it is wrong, we all have the right to our own opinions. i am going to quote a sentence from one of your passages; “i shouldn’t have to keep quiet about something i know is wrong just because it has “majority vote” in the world.”
But my question is how do you “know” it is wrong? Many people think Christianity is wrong but that is not going to make me stop believing in my Lord. You cannot know that cursing is wrong because that is an opinion and we all have the right to our own. I do not think you should judge people because their opinion is that it is okay. I do not think you should keep quiet. Yell your opinions aloud until everyone can hear them but when you do you have to sit back and let everyone have their own opinion without being judged for it.
i’m not entirely sure if i’m following your logic, here – but, all i can say is, i don’t see how you have an issue with me.
“Yell your opinions aloud until everyone can hear them but when you do you have to sit back and let everyone have their own opinion without being judged for it.”
^that’s exactly what i’m doing. my belief is that cursing is wrong. i am announcing my belief/challenging others to prove me wrong. i’m not doing anything more than that. i’m not excommunicating or ostracizing people because they curse. more of my friends curse than don’t. some of my best friends curse. i don’t shun them because of it.
i’m not sure if i understand what the problem is.
p.s. if you are a Bible-believing Christian, than check out these verses:
Matthew 5:34-36
Matthew 23:21-22
Psalms 10:7
Jeremiah 23:10
Hosea 4:1-3
Psalms 109:17
I’m always up for a friendly debate!
“i hope you can see with your own logic, as sparing as it is, how absurd such a demand as yours is.”
However, some of the words that you are using make this entire post seem antagonistic.
Anyway… First off, you clearly are a fan of being an “individual.” I’d just like to point out that while you accuse those who curse as easily-influenced and of wanting to fit in, at the very end of your post you wrote:
“…i would just love to hear some opposing arguments. and if you can’t think of any? then why not join me in my stand of “cursing abstinence?” why not?”
Meaning… If you can’t think of any real reasons why cursing is benevolent, “join me” in my choice not to use these words?
The above statement is not condoning individualism in the slightest. I mean… you do actually spur people to emulate you. But in reality, anyone who chooses, oh so valiantly, to stop cursing, or to continue not to curse, should decide to do so not because… well, why not? or because any set of people don’t. This resolution should be based on a level-minded weighting of his or her options.
“i’m thoroughly convinced that cursing is motivated entirely by selfishness, a desire to “fit in,” immaturity, or blinding ignorance.
some people think that by cursing they are asserting their independence and maturity.
cursing is merely ascribing directly to what our culture says is “cool” and “accepted.” it’s the antithesis of independence. rather than asserting yourself as an individual, you are announcing your assimilation into the growing pool of easily-influenced humans.”
Entirely? Well… I’ll be frank, too. I curse every now and then. My cursing is not driven by any sort of statement of independence or maturity, nor is it by my “ignorance” or “selfishness.”
Luckily for me, fair and truly reasonable morals have been instilled in me early in life. One fortunate quality that I have attained is that I am not easily influenced by other people or their choices. When I curse, I am absolutely not doing so because that is the norm of my culture. I don’t curse because my friends do, because my mother doesn’t like it, and I don’t curse because there’s just no reason for me not to.
“cursing is merely ascribing directly to what our culture says is “cool” and “accepted.””
No.
I also seriously could not care less if my friends judge me for my cursing. By this I mean that it simply does not matter to me if any of my friends think, for example, that I curse to please my society; furthermore, it would be trivial for me to be offended if one of my good friends, even, called people who curse, like me, easily influenced by the masses.
This is because the case in itself is inconsequential in the big scheme of things, to me. I actually feel so satisfied in knowing that there are some people that have so little else to pick on me about that they must mull over my choice of language. However, it does trouble me that while there are countless other dilemmas in this world, and an innumerable amount of ways to occupy ourselves, so many of us choose to pass our time picking out the faults we see in others.
“people think that curses are needed to drive points home. they think that without obscenities their speech is weak, watered down, or uninfluential. this thinking is embarassingly simple-minded. curses are rarely used to drive a point home – what is, actually, more common, is that they are used to cover up gaping holes in logic or to distract from glaring errors.”
I have never cursed to distract someone I am speaking to from an error I made… I have actually never heard of that at all. I curse when I am overly excited, and that’s about it. I curse for nothing else besides the fact that it sometimes relieves stress, convey a really happy emotion, and a lot of the time I even curse when talking to a friend just as a joke. I, in no sense, have a very limited vocabulary, but I am not always willing to speak prim and proper. Anyway, I am fully aware that there are some who curse in excess, but I must be oblivious to the times when people use this sort of language as a cover-up!
I get why some people don’t like cursing. Your opinions, too, are blaring right out at me from the computer screen. However, I am going to have to tell you that I really am not familiar with anyone who curses just to upset people around them or to fit in, to my knowledge. Some things in this world are a lot more innocent than they may seem.
aw man, i like you.
i would be going to sleep now but i want to respond to this.
you argue very reasonably and i appreciate your non-aggressiveness.
(and your ability to form a coherent sentence. congratulations on being more grammatically able than 90% of the internet!)
so, let’s talk.
FIRSTLY: obviously, reading what you’ve written, you yourself are a posterboy for individuality – at least, judging from your pointing out how little you care for how people look upon you for your cursing. i can respect that.
however, you must understand as well as i that individualism can only go so far before it becomes absurd. if you stretch it to the point where, in joining any form of group or movement, you become a “follower” as opposed to being an “individual.” this isn’t true at all (though it certainly can be in some cases.)
take my own “call-to-arms,” for example. asking people to “join me” in a stand against cursing isn’t asking them to forsake their individuality. i’m asking them to make a commitment against something that is senseless yet blindly accepted by society.
the point of individualism is not to “be what no one else is.” it’s merely a promise to oneself not be sucked into things because it’s what “everyone else does.” it’s a commitment to weigh one’s choices against common sense and moral values, rather than let what is “acceptable/normal/expected” govern their choices. do you understand my point here?
also, i’m obviously not asking them to join simply because of “why not?” i clearly outlined my own reasons for not cursing in the blog post itself, in case you forgot
SECONDLY: frankly, (gee, this guy Frank sure is getting a lot of attention lately) you can’t use yourself as a legitimate justification. i’m pretty sure that’s the fallacy of composition. you can’t insist that your own reasons for cursing (which, i must agree, aren’t nearly as morally reprehensible as the reasons i outlined) justify the rest of those who curse.
truly, i can imagine you’re in the slim minority of people who curse for reasons that DONT fall under those i mentioned.
you can say that YOU don’t curse out of ignorance,
you can say that YOU don’t curse out of defiance,
you can say that YOU don’t curse out of desire to “follow the crowd,”
but can you say the same for the rest of those who curse?
as for your own reasons for cursing:
“I curse when I am overly excited, and that’s about it. I curse for nothing else besides the fact that it sometimes relieves stress, convey a really happy emotion, and a lot of the time I even curse when talking to a friend just as a joke.”
regardless of how you yourself justify your curses, you are inevitably grouped in with other people who curse and are, more likely than not, less respectable, less intelligent, less reasonable, and less justified than you.
if i were to, hypothetically, lose sight of all reasons not to curse, and consider taking it up, i would obviously use it sparingly and only in situations where i felt it necessary. however, the one thing that would stand in the way of my reason would be simple fact that regardless of how i curse, as soon as i do i am associated with everyone else who curses. that’s no association i wish to be a part of.
THIRDLY:
“However, it does trouble me that while there are countless other dilemmas in this world, and an innumerable amount of ways to occupy ourselves, so many of us choose to pass our time picking out the faults we see in others.”
very true – and also a (intentional or not) clever shot at me, for doing just that: writing this post criticizing “faults i’ve seen in others.”
however, consider this: you make a good point in that we should spend more time focusing on the greater problems of our time. to name a few, correct me if i’m wrong: war, poverty, and governmental dishonesty/irresponsibility.
however, what can be done by calling attention to these things? they’re quite obviously problems with our world…but how is one expected to fight these monstrosities? i know we can all “do our part.” but i’m a teenager who likes to see more direct results of his actions.
following this logic, i find that rather than changing someone’s mind on something as broad and gargantuan as war is much less effective compared to, say, changing someone’s mind on something that they themselves can immediately change, such as – of course – cursing.
do you follow? i’d rather focus on things that my words can have a legitimate and “real” influence over.
LASTLY: thanks for putting together a very well thought out argument, without a single curse or even ill-meant comment.
i don’t know who you are, but i assume you got here via facebook, which means we’re friends. you’re obviously a great person to know, so i’m glad we ARE friends. keep it real. if you’d like to counter-respond or if you have anything else to say, it’d be great to hear from you.
p.s. kudos for writing the most intelligent and reasonable pro-cursing argument i have heard thus far.
p.p.s. it’s late and i’m tired, so if i missed any key points of yours, please let me know and i’ll be sure to get to them. thanks!
To your firstly: I can’t exactly tell what you are trying to say here… Would you mind maybe rewording this? Are you saying that by me not caring so much about what people say about me, I’m being extremist and turning into a follower? I’m not trying to criticize your words, I just can’t quite process what it is you’re trying to say!
To your secondly: Here is where I start to really see one sort of recurring theme…You seem to believe that I am generalizing my argument a bit too much (by giving my own personal examples, which you say are not true for all other people), and I happen to think that you have been doing the same thing.
Your claims are very correct! While my reasoning has no factual or actual statistical background… neither does yours, as far as I know. Your post included your personal experiences with other people as your main points, while my response mostly had to do with my own personal view of things.
Maybe, after reading the last paragraph, you thought to yourself, “Well, yeah… and so, since my argument was more cosmopolitan than yours, it might be more agreeable.” However, note the word “personal.”
As you know… personal experiences, by their very nature, are incredibly personal. While and encounter of this kind of meaningful to the person who lives through it, it is not exactly always something that can be used to convince anyone else. Since there is no way for me to experience the observations you yourself have made or you to truly understand mine, our arguments are both unsupported stories.
What I am getting at here is… I guess it’s just a given that we both have to generalize at some point here, since neither of us have legitimate and proven facts that we are relaying to the other.
To your thirdly: You are definitely right! Those certainly are some of the terribly prominent problems of our time. But I actually wasn’t thinking of any of those particular examples when I replied to you. Of course we, as children, cannot take on those predicaments in the slightest!
About the innumerable ways we can occupy ourselves (in place of picking out the faults in others) – By ‘occupy ourselves,’ I just meant ’spend our time.’ Making friends, working hard in school, spending time with family are a few ways to spend our time in positive ways. I really enjoy just looking for beauty in the world, too. It can be entertaining and enlightening! There are so many ways to channel our thoughts and aspirations to beneficial things.
About our rife dilemmas – I know how you feel, wanting to take action right now! Oftentimes, we cannot, due to our obvious restrictions. Some dilemmas we can work against, though! Standing up against bullying and even even tutoring a peer are two such examples (considering our school is experiencing an extreme decline in its academic performances, causing the state to cut our befits and budget… I do consider peer tutoring to be a kind of action against a problem). Also, I (using the personal story card again) am organizing, to increase awareness and student understanding of the importance of organ donation and AIDs, two assemblies for the school. I mean… I’m a kid. I have little say about what goes on in this world, but by utilizing my ability to influence the outrageously impressionable minds of my peers, I’m working towards my personal goal, also, of positively affecting the minds of the people around me.
Ultimately, in order to achieve our goals, we both have to keep doing what we’re doing! We are both reaching out in our own way. It is a good thing! I’m happy you’re voicing your opinion.
As for your finally: Well hey, thanks for the kind words throughout your post! Haha I dropped a hint that I figured you’d pick up on sooo this will at least be meaningful to you – you’re a great person to know, too and I’m lucky to have a friend with such honorable and virtuous beliefs. It is definitely a change of pace! Oh and of course it’s wonderful to have a logical conversation with someone every now and then (and you are more coherent than most people on the internet, to boot!)… It’s been fun and if you have more to say, I will too, and we can continue the fun! I apologize, myself, for any blunder I may have committed while typing this because I’m rather tired, too… Goodnight!
Ben, cursing has nothing to do with intelligence. I know for a fact every one of the top 10 people in my class curse. I know that almost every person with a GIEP (or gifted, IQ above 130) within my school curses. I scored 95% better than most college bound seniors on the SATS. I curse all the time. Why do I curse? Because I think there is no need to value some words over others. I am belittling the significance of these words by repetition and employment in humor. It is quite arbitrary to say some words are taboo and others aren’t. I think that society has progressed enough past petty ideals of bad language. Yes, it can be extremely distasteful when someone uses these words maliciously. I think saying that “you are a retarded sack of potatoes” is a worse deed than saying “aw I fucked up on that test” or “I feel like shit.” However, if the intent is benign, I see no harm. There should be some discretion amongst people not to curse every other sentence, as the range of vocabulary is significantly narrowed. But the omission of these words are limiting the range of free speech and the right to express oneself.
In conclusion, I think curses are just another set of words in the English language. They can be benign or malicious just as any others. It is human nature to use these words, and to reject them is to seclude oneself to how some people speak. There’s a reason every language has “curses,” because they are just another tool in language.