>Its a matter of civility, if youdont feel inclined
>to think of others sensability before you open
>yourmouth..great..im sure
>everyone will applaud your ability to stand up to
>thestatus quo..I
>however..wouldn't like words said in my
>presence..andrespect that others
>might feel the same way, if only about different
>words. Its not about
>censoring ideas..which i think is a terrible
>thing..itsabout words..
I read that definition in a book called "Wicked
Words." I'll be sure to print up some excerpts for
tomorrow's discussion.
And thanks for yr concern, but I think I'm doing a
fine job of conveying my thoughts, actually. You seem
to be missing a vital piece of what I'm saying. I'm
not talking about censoring ideas either.
Let me ask you this: How does a word become taboo?
If no one is afraid to say a word, how would it remain
taboo any longer? I was reading an editorial a few
months ago in The Source. For those of you that may
not know this, The Source is a magazine about hip-hop
music and culture. I believe this particular issue
had Eminem on the cover, and there was quite a bit of
talk about 'white rappers' and many other race issues
within hip-hop. The particular editorial that I read
involved the use of the word "nigger" and how it has
evolved over the years. The individual who wrote the
editorial detailed the origins of the word,
specifically how plantation owners used the word to
refer to their slaves. It went on to explain that the
slaves began to use the word when talking to each
other, their rationale being that if they took the
sting out of the racial epithet, certainly it would
serve no purpose to continue using the word in a
derogatory manner. If you take all of the piss out of
a word, then what pain can that word cause any longer?
Perhaps the point that you're trying to make is that
you respect people more than I do because you decide
to choose yr words carefully in their presence.
My point is that I don't ever feel it necessary to
bite my tongue in the presence of other people because
I have already chosen my words long before I've spoken
them. What you apparently haven't taken into account
is that I might never have occasion to need to censor
myself because I'm not running around spouting off
slanderous remarks day and night.
The point I was trying to make long before that was
that "cunt" is just as rude as "dick" to me. People
seem to want some kind of buffet of words that they
can pick and choose from as being decent or
appropriate even though many other words are much
worse. The whole issue is moot if you can learn more
creative ways to put someone down (if that's yr kind
of thing).
There's a Patti Smith song called "Rock 'n' Roll
Nigger." Have you ever heard it?
And if I need a thesaurus, might I recommend a style
manual for you.
crossing my i's,
*phiL*
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