It
seems that civil society, religious training, schooling, socialization, manners,
etiquette is what society created to keep some form of order. Some form of
predictability.
When
all of society becomes what Times Square was, then we are looking at Cabaret,
ie., Berlin circa 1930.
arthur
The good society can look very
bad at times and even pretend to be Cabaret, but it is still the good society as
long as its institutional anchors are in place: recognized rights and freedoms,
honest and capable courts, sound educational, social and health services (even
with considerable quarrel over what "sound" might mean), a sufficient body of
aware people who are in a position to make a fuss when standards are
slipping too far.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 10:57
AM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] social trends:
Profanity
It
seems that civil society, religious training, schooling, socialization,
manners, etiquette is what society created to keep some form of
order. Some form of predictability.
When
all of society becomes what Times Square was, then we are looking at Cabaret,
ie., Berlin circa 1930.
arthur
Good points, Ray. There is so much that
is tawdry in the world that profanity in language may be the last thing we
should worry about. We have an amazing capacity to debase and
cheapen. When TV was about to come into daily use, idealists predicted
that it would lead to a better informed and clearer thinking public.
Look at it now! The same goes for the internet. Even though
my ISP cuts out 90% of the spam I might get, I still get an awful lot of
stuff that says I should enlarge my penis!
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003
11:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] social
trends: Profanity
Profanity with language is no different than
cheap thoughts in music and the other arts. No one complains
about the adults and their old tawdry R & R and our favorite country
western vulgarities. Its one thing for the children but
its quite another for old folks whose brains are not capable of enjoying a
complex musical thought. I don't find one
inanity less inane or appalling than the other. To hear
them then complain about street language when they defend such in their
extra-linguistic tastes is confusing to say the least. I grew
up "in the street" and worked my way out but that included more than mere
words. I would suggest that we stop "calling the kettle
black." Television is Entertainment for the sake of
selling soap and cars. What more would you
expect? We reduce great possibilites to mere "free
ridership" for commercial reasons and then complain about the taste being
cheap? Well its supposed to be cheap and appeal to the baser
instincts. That's what selling is all about.
Did anyone see that Tammy Faye has written a new book about how she's
"survived?" I've never seen such "ass-kissing" of an
idiot from all of the serious press in my life. That
wasn't a profanity but a mere statement of fact. I
once saw a Tammy Faye little blond haired rag doll that when pressed
screamed in the ugliest voice you could imagine "Jesus loves
you." Its all down hill from there. That is
profane, black English is just vernacular street language and is as
capable of beauty as Dylan, the Beatles or Frank
Sinatra.
REH
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003
5:34 PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] social
trends: Profanity
Swearing and profanity at home or the schoolyard is one
thing. It is quite another when TV and radio ups the ante with
simulated sex and lavish use of profanity. This is a trend that is
not self-limiting, it will only be changed (I think) by some form of
censorship, probably coming from a religious angle.
arthur
I think this kind of thing comes and
goes. My older daughter, very bright kid and high achiever,
turned the air blue everywhere she went when she was a teenager in the
late 1970s. One of her daughters is about to enter here teens
and her mother is very conscious of her daughter's vocabulary
(the hypocrite). My present teenage daughter (second marriage)
who has just entered university is very different. She will
occasionally use a four letter word but is almost mortified at doing
so. Maybe she's hung out with the wrong crowd?
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24,
2003 1:50 PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework]
social trends: Profanity
There will be a reaction to these trends. What form
will it take? Is the fundamentalist movement now underway part
of that reaction?
Arthur, although I have a
handful of "cuss words" in my vocabulary, I try to use them
selectively, as one does very hot spices, appropriately and
sparingly.
But I have noticed that my
grown daughters use profanity much more than I do (or like). I've also noticed that one
of them uses it more around certain males, as if to say, don't
mess with me, even if she is not discarding that one to romance
purgatory.
Should we blame television and
rap music entirely? I
think there is an epidemic of abusive language that has to include
sports, where tough talk and mean looks are often considered
necessary to the game.
Profanity has shock value. That's why it's so
prevalent on dumbed down television and in music. I believe linguists still
track slang as a juvenile phenomenon, and perhaps there is a link
to slang and profanity in pop culture. Much of TV seems to be
written for juveniles by juveniles, anyway. Mostly, however, we may
have more profanity because we have less great vocabulary being
spoken
I tried to influence my girls
that "potty mouths" have poor vocabularies, obviously not with
great success it seems. However, I also noticed that my daughter
who curses more around men her age does not do this in front of
her young son, her father or her grandparents. She will, however,
purposely annoy me, and then twist the knife by using a good
vocabulary word I haven't heard her use before.
Sigh.
-
KWC
What we already knew.
Wonder why its happening?
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/23/tv.profanity.ap/index.html
Study: Use of profanity
increasing on TV
"During the 2002-2003 season, the broadcast
networks attempted to rewrite
the book on language standards
for television," the Parents Television
Council, a watchdog
group, said in a report released Monday.
The council said it
studied all primetime entertainment series from a
two-week
period in 1998, 2000 and 2002 and found a jump in profanity
on
"virtually every network" and in every time slot.
The
group called on the TV industry to "get serious about reducing the
flood
of vulgarity. ... Barring that, the FCC needs to get
serious about enforcing
broadcast decency laws," the group said
of the Federal Communications
Commission.
The study examined
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN.
During the so-called "family
hour," from 8-9 p.m., foul language increased
by 94.8 percent
between 1998 and 2002, the study found. It rose by 109
percent
during the 9 p.m. hour in the same period.
The smallest
increase, 38.7 percent, occurred during the last hour
of
primetime, 10-11 p.m., when young children are least likely
to be in the
audience, the council said.
The group noted
what it called "minor" improvements.
Foul language in the 8
p.m. hour on Fox fell 25 percent in the study period.
But the
study found profanity rose 75 percent during the 9 p.m. hour on
Fox.
On ABC, offensive language decreased by 17 percent in
the study period,
mostly because of improvements during the
latter two primetime hours. But
profanity was up by 61.7
percent during the family hour, the study found.
An ABC
spokesman Monday said the network had not seen the report
and
declined comment. A Fox spokesman declined comment.
In a
similar, earlier study, the PTC found that sexual content on TV
was
less frequent but more
explicit.
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