PROFANITY
First among issues that never should have been issuesEverybody knows the Bible forbids profanity – everybody, that is, who lets other people tell them what the Bible says. The New Testament does speak against cursing and swearing. What do those words mean? To curse is to verbally wish or declare some adversity on someone. To swear is to enforce what you are saying by invoking a curse on yourself if you are lying. What does this have to do with the concept of taboo words? Nothing!
So where did people get the idea that profanity was immoral? I can’t claim to know, but I suspect that it went something like this. Profanity is often used to express anger. Anger often leads to violence, and violence is usually unpleasant. Therefore, any verbal expression which threatens violence is socially negative, and would therefore be forbidden in polite society. But polite society has no voice of moral authority. They can’t just say it’s offensive, because it’s not offensive to everybody. In order to call something wrong, you have to connect it to an absolute standard of good & evil. In western civilization, the Bible has dibs on that. Therefore the Bible has to forbid profanity. The closest Biblical prohibitions are against swearing and cursing, so swearing and cursing had to be equated with profanity.
From the communicator’s viewpoint, the only bad language is language that fails to communicate. Profanity is often beneficial. Used selectively, it adds nuances of emotional specificity to statements which would have otherwise been flat – or at least less emotionally precise. But the rights of the communicator to free speech must be balanced by the rights of the communicatee to not be forced to hear or see what he doesn’t want to hear or see. This balance is often hard to judge. Sometimes there is nothing more objective than popular opinion to determine who has the right to do what. Some prissy prudes are offended by anything outside the bounds of pulpit-speak. Such assholes damn well deserve to be offended. But children and others with legitimate sensitivities don’t deserve to be offended. They should have the right to public places and public air and radio waves that are free of messages that may cause them undeserved grief.
This means some censorship is appropriate. Where to draw lines is something I don’t feel qualified to tackle. I think such cases should be examined by legislators, grouped in categories, and determined by majority vote.