Sunday Sermon: Profanity and self censorship

  

  

 

Sometimes I find censorship funnier and more effective than swearing any wall... now go lick my *BLEEP*'s

 
Well last weeks Sermon was a bit of a beast, sorry about that, so this weeks Sermon will be a little bit shorter. This particular Sunday Sermon is brought to you via an article I read on the House of Paincakes, who gave me my spark of inspiration. You see I've covered the subject of profanity before on my Blog, when I wrote my Is Anger a Gift article in response to GMort at the House of Paincakes funnily enough. But in that article I did only very briefly touch on swearing, cursing or profanity, or whichever term you prefer. It focused more on general offensiveness of which profanity is but one aspect. I think though it's an interesting topic for discussion where Blogging is concerned, because as I pointed out in Lauby's 'musing' article, I often have to self censor myself during the proof reading stage of my articles. I do this to primarily ensure that as many wayward spelling mistakes and typos don't make it through, but occasionally I do it to remove swearing, most of the time I wasn't aware I used. I don't swear all that much on my Blog, because I think that swearing very rarely helps you communicate the point intended or indeed to do so effectively.


However, I have resorted to it from time to time. What interests me though is the fact that I resort to it far more often in my initial draft stage of my Blog than I would do with my own speech, or other forms of communication, as I said in the comments section of Lauby's article:

'I have to go back through my own posts and Blogs and I often find myself removing swearing, and cringing as I do. I rarely swear in public, and even in private with friends it's quite uncommon for me to do so. So it begs the question, why does profanity flow from my fingers so readily when it so rarely passes my lips?'

I personally don't think the reasons for this temptation are too mysterious though. In actuality it's as obvious as the nose on my face... which of course you can't see because this is the Internet. You'll just have to take my word for it, I have a big nose! And there you have the reason for me being able to swear like a trooper, or feeling emboldened to do so on the Internet, anonymity. The friend of freedom of speech and hate speech alike.

A very, very funny film.

The Internet and our Blogs give us all a nice veil of protection in our communications. I could be a vile foul mouthed ass hat, full of malice and hatred if I really wanted to be, and the Internet would allow me to distance myself from the effects of my words. To a degree. It wouldn't though diminish the impact of them upon others though. So I at least try to curtail my urges to degenerate into the foul mouthed cretin I know I could be on the Internet, because I think it's the right thing to do. I don't wish to exclude people because of the language I use, although excluding people on the basis of my reasoned opinion I'm happy with. I'm a strong believer of the power of Freedom of Speech, like Voltaire I would defend people's right to offend others and say what they please, while of course retaining the right myself to disagree with it vehemently. I applaud the House of Paincakes decision to allow Blogs into their network that say and do as they please, within the bounds of the law. It's the reason it was the first Blogging network I joined, but as a policy direction I guess for some it's an enticing 'offer' to go out and swear and be offensive.

Come on... who didn't think Battlestar was fracking awesome?

I can't do anything to enforce a level of decency on what other Bloggers write, and nor quite frankly would I wish too. As I said I'm a strong believer and defender of Freedom of Speech, but what I can do and what I can say is this, I'm going to try and keep the foul language off of my site. I'm not going to say I'll never swear, because lets be honest here, sometimes the odd word will slip through the old filter, and sometimes a constant stream of profanity is the only way to suitably communicate ones displeasure at something! Yeah, that's right, sometimes only a good swear word will do, but only in very rare circumstances in my experience. This is because the English language provides us with such a wonderful wealth of words and phrases with which, we can fully and properly articulate and express our opinions, beliefs and emotions. I for one would much rather exhaust their use first, certainly before reaching for the four letter words many of us seem to use as punctuation nowadays. Good God I'm starting to sound really old, or I just am getting old. I would urge all of my readers to do the same though, just try and keep the f@£%*^$ swearing down. Peace out!