Curse words display lack of intelligence in speakers

I have been opening my ears on campus lately to find out what the buzz is going around. It's no secret that nearly all my columns are inspired by things I witness around campus. Over the course of my causal listening, I have noticed that people curse. They curse a great deal, most of the time for no other reason than just for the sake of hearing themselves curse.

Now, I have a large collection of movies. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read my column in the past because, at the root, my columns are nothing more than an assortment of movie quotes. Some obscure, some not so ambiguous. Anyway, one of my nearly 50 DVDs is the movie "Almost Famous."

Early in this flick a daughter screams the phrase, "Feck you!" at her mother. The mother was disgusted by the fact that her daughter had just used the "F-word" in front of her, while her son was quick to point out that the daughter said "Feck." The mother asked, "What's the difference?" William (the son) kindly responded "The letter 'U'."

This little piece of cinematography is a display of something that has confused me my entire life: why cursing is considered so distasteful.

Now, Mom, don’t worry, I’m not going to pull any "colorful metaphors" out for this column, so you can relax. I am, however, going to question the world as to why we let certain words carry so much weight and others so little.

I'd like to continue discussing William's mother's question, "What’s the difference?" Think about it seriously. What more is any word than just a combination of letters that, when put together, deliver a distinct sound?

For those that would stand up and argue that cursing is a form of blasphemy, sit down. Today you would probably confuse 99 percent of the world if you cried out the word "slood" (meaning God's blood), even though, long ago, it was much more blasphemous than traditional curses one might see on the side of a cargo train.

The way we use words is much more important than the words we use. We can pass off darn, freakin’, and shoot like it's just another breath, but when someone drops the "f-word" it knocks the wind out of people. How can one differentiate words if they are used in the same context? They're essentially synonyms. They are utilized the same way and mean the same thing, yet for some reason they have completely different effects. One person can curse, another may not — their words may be different, but the speakers' hearts and minds are in the same place. Yet, one is condemned, the other is not.

I find it strange that we let the past continually run our lives in the present. There used to be a time when eating meat on a Friday was considered a hell-worthy trespass, but I don't see any of our local steak houses closing down on the beginning of weekends. Still, it's offending to use words that, at some point somewhere in history, someone set aside, rendered them as curses and forbid them from being used.

I see no differences in these words when compared with any other word.

Now, before you run off to purdueonline.com and post messages like, "Shawn, u r so wrong. I h8 ur column, it sukz and so do u," hold up. I realize that the proprietors of purdueonline.com invented quality journalism as well as the wheel and right angle, but I am not saying that we should all go out to the world and start cursing like we're characters in a Kevin Smith film.

In fact, I'll say just the opposite. We should not curse. But we should ignore the typical reasons for not swearing. Swearing should not be considered offensive, instead someone who swears should be considered unenlightened.

People who curse do so for a reason. They have nothing else to say. Rarely does a curse word get a point across better than a well thought out remark. Swears end up being nothing more than "fillers," much like the words "uh" and "like." Cursing makes someone sound as intelligent as a stormtrooper.

So, we should let go of the past and not be so offended by someone who swears. We should just brush it off, and justify shallow dialogue with a response.

Opinions and statements that have foundations based on cursing should be ignored. Swearing is the battle cry for imbeciles. People who do nothing but curse are stupid beyond anything else in our world. They're quasar-stupid: stupid that has collapsed in on itself and become so dense that absolutely no intelligence escapes whatsoever. Swears are the words of evil, angry, uneducated or bigoted people. If someone uses a curse, it's because they lack any kind of reasonable thought.

Shawn McGann is a senior in the School of Technology. From here forward Shawn is going to carry around a bar of soap for which he will use to wash out any foul mouth he encounters. He can be emailed at opinions@purdueexponent.org.

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