Bad Words

What do you think of when you hear the word woodlouse?

It seems that for most people I tell, woodlice are bad things. It might bring up images of some blood sucking insect that you might accidentally pick up while you're out hiking around Lake Fayetteville.

But here's what a woodlouse looks like.

"But wait" you say, "that's a roly poly!"  Yes, it is a roly poly.  But its real name is "woodlouse."

This is the kind of problem we have when we start telling people that words are bad.  They are not.  A word cannot be bad, it is simply a way of recording a sound on paper by using a set of established rules on how sounds are to be recorded in text.  Even the sound has no inherent good or evil to it.  It is simply a sound or set of sounds traditionally used to denote a certain meaning.

There are no bad words.  Swear words are not bad, they're just a class of words people have defined (arbitrarily) as having some value they don't and can't have.

Here in Arkansas, I get the same thing with the word "liberal."  I have a friend who for years has disdainfully called me a liberal over and over again.  We were having dinner with his parents a few weeks ago and he told them that he used to think I was a liberal, but now he knows I'm really not.  Excuse me?  I am most definitely liberal, progressive even, politically, economically, socially, etc.  But it really revealed something to me.  He doesn't use the word liberal to describe something liberal, he uses the word liberal to describe something he disagrees with.  He's caricaturing me, describing me using hot button words well known among his people to attach negative aspects to me whether or not they actually exist.  For them, "liberal" is used like when I use "ignorant."  Except ignorant in the context I use it is used to ascribe ignorance, whereas they use liberal not to describe a set of ideologies or philosophies, but to ascribe all around disdain.

I am reminded of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut where Cartman calls Kyle a stupid f***ing Jew.  Later, he apologizes and says Kyle isn't really a Jew after all.  But Kyle is a Jew!  Not in the sense of the negative racial stereotype that Cartman is using, but in the sense that his family is Jewish.  Naturally, Cartman simply can't fathom how this works.

Be careful with your words.  Be an honorable linguist, don't use words to label people.  Use the proper definitions of words to communicate ideas and identify the truth.

WiredForStereo

One Curse

I was coming home from Encounter this evening, and I heard on the radio a news story about Afghan police accidently killing seven civilians who were just out collecting fire wood.  Now I'm loathe to actually let these words escape my mouth but...

God damn it.

God damn war.

God damn violence.

God damn it, God damn every bit of it.

God damn countries that start wars.

God damn world leaders who wreak of death and destruction.

God damn those who kill or cause to be killed people who are innocent.

I don't use these words as simple obscenity.  I'm not screaming them after smashing my finger with a hammer, I am legitimately calling down a curse from God.  I hurt on the inside about people on the other side of the world who are dying pointlessly.  And there's nothing I can do about it.  So I use my influence with God to call down curses on the people who kill the innocent and the poor.

I call down a curse on my own country for being responsible for murdering countless thousands over the past 250 years because of its greed and bigotry.  America is not blessed, it's cursed.  Our culture is responsible for the destruction of Native American culture and lives.  We were responsible for disgusting wars.  We were responsible for racism, lynchings, carpet bombing, chemical warfare, and the deaths of brown people the world over.  You know, when I heard Jeremiah Wright's tirade when he said "God damn America," I didn't see what the big deal was.  He was making a valid point, and one that I agree with.

Because it's not a curse word, it's a curse.
WiredForStereo

First Entertainment Review: Dexter

I already do movie and book reviews, but I like some other things too, so I decided to review them too. Entertainment reviews will be less specific and may contain anything that entertains, not just movies or books. Today, I am going to review the TV show Dexter starring Michael C. Hall.

Dexter appears on Showtime, and as such contains material not appropriate for many people, however, I don't watch it for the visual content. I watch it for the exploration of morality it represents.

Story: Dexter Morgan is a police blood spatter analyst by day, and a serial killer by night. His father, a police detective, realized what he was when he was young after he adopted him when he began to kill small animals. His father trained him to be extremely discreet and to kill only those who deserved it. Thus, Dexter avoids prison and serves a useful purpose by cleaning up what the justice system misses. Oh, and he also gets to be the most successful prolific serial killer in the world.

The question of morality comes when you understand what Dexter is. If we are really honest, Dexter is a cold blooded murdering psychopath. Well, maybe he's warm blooded. But properly understood, he doesn't kill for the justice in it, that's just a side effect. He kills to sate his "dark passenger" mentioned in the novels and recently more often on the show. One of the novels explains the dark passenger like a malevolent spirit or ancient god, though that specific novel was unpopular due to the spirituality therein.

Much of the show evolves around the "code" Dexter's father Harry taught him. The code keeps him from getting caught and keeps his activities in the realm of a service rather than a menace to society. In the first season, the main villain is Dexter's long lost biological brother who for the same reason is likewise a psychopath, only without the code, tries to kill Dex's sister, so he kills him. In the second season, Dexter's exploits are discovered but he gets lucky when his mistress frames someone else for him, so he has to kill her. In the third season, he reluctantly accepts an apprentice of sorts who won't follow the code and kills in anger, so Dexter kills him. Also in the third season is a Nicaraguan torture expert who though he says he tortures to extract information, really just does it because he likes it. He tries to kill Dexter so Dexter kills him. Now we have the fourth season where the villain is a long time serial killer and has been exposed in the first episode, and I'm not sure how it will play out, but I think Dexter will kill him.

I really like this show. They could really cut down on the swearing and nudity, but the gore seems pretty accurate generally speaking. I swing back and forth between for and against the death penalty, but it really comes down to being for it for all who deserve it regardless of race or economic status. As you may know, nearly all cases of the death penalty are executed upon people of the lower classes, and that's just not right. So pragmatically, I'm against the death penalty as law. But it would be a very interesting situation indeed if there were a guy in the world who kills only murderers and rapists. This show is definitely not for minors, and not for the squeamish.

9/10
WiredForStereo

Questions of the Day

Long day of discussing (arguing) some things with a super hard core conservative.

Question 1:
What do you call the guy who backs out of the argument first?

Answer:
The loser.


Question 2:
What's the point of believing the Bible is inerrant, infallible, etc. if you don't read the f@ck!ng thing?

Answer:
F@ck if I know.

Tell me how it went.
WiredForStereo

@#$%&*(!! Swearing

Swearing is in some places in our culture ubiquitous and persistent and in others taboo and hush hush. Specific places and occupations are known for it, while in others you'd be surprised to heard even a replacement swear word. Be forewarned, you may seem some cuss words below, so if you are averse to them, please skip this post.






Still with me? Good.

Many of us as children heard something akin to the phrase "don't say that, it's a bad word." Though the unspoken question loomed, we never asked it. "Why is it a bad word?" Why is it that "darn" is taking the Lord's name in vain as I was told? A very good question.

First, let's look at what taking the Lord's name in vain really means. It has nothing to do with cuss words. The word profane is rooted in the idea of something being exterior to the temple or church. Originally, if you used the word profane, it meant something more like secular, but one thing you need to understand is that languages evolve. Eventually, the word profane came to mean what we think of it today. Profanity is something that is uttered in blasphemy of God or insult to something else. "Taking the LORD's name in vain" on it's own has to do with what LORD means. If you read in the old testament and encounter the word LORD in all caps, it means YHVH, God's "name." Transliterated it matches roughly to "Yahweh." While it could mean using God's name in blasphemy, in my view, it more likely fits more tightly in the manner of claiming to be God's follower, and not following him. If you marry a man, you take his name. We are the bride of Christ, so taking his name in vain would be claiming him as husband, but cheating, as it were.

Evolution, there's an interesting concept. I don't believe in naturalistic evolution, except for in language. Most people do understand that languages change a bit over time, all you need to do is read a KJV bible and that will be obvious, but how much do they change? If you were to go back in time more than about four hundred years, you would barely be able to communicate with someone speaking what is today known as English. The same goes for most languages. Unless there is a solid linguistic work by which everyone gets their stuff (such as some sort of scripture) languages will evolve quite quickly. The language as we know it today didn't really come to be until about a thousand years ago.

Word's meanings change and their use as profanity change as well. For instance, you might think that the top bad word would be fuck anywhere English is spoken. Not so, in Britain, it is cunt. Also on thier top ten list is bastard and bollocks. Bollocks is kind of interesting because I hear "balls" among the guys and some of the girls quite commonly in our church youth group. And bastard is generally a noun. Interestingly enough, "bitch" isn't on their list.

And then there's the George Carlin classic bit "The seven words you can't say on TV" the words you can't say on American TV. And of course, those are shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Though breasts and boobs are ok to say. I was quite surprised the first time I heard a teenage girl use the word tits.

But the biggest thing swearing communicates to me is the intelligence of the utterer. It is technically grammatically correct to say "Fuck the fucking fucker" because the word fuck can be used as virtually any part of speech. However, how intelligent would I be if I used the same word for every adjective, verb, and adverb? "Sail the sailing sailor." "Shit the shitting shitter." "Beat the beating beater." "Picture the picturing picture." "Bowl the bowling bowler" etc., you get the point.

I have worked in a number of environments where profuse swearing was commonplace. Thus, it is quite difficult for me not to swear, but I do pull it off. I don't understand how poeple can accidentally swear, for me it is completely purposeful. As with other facets of my speech patterns, I use swear words sparingly and only to make my words memorable. People say I don't have a filter, but the thing is, a filter is a distortion of honesty. It is not necessarily dishonesty, but it hides the true feelings of the speaker. The true feelings are those communicated by any means necessary, including swear words.

I've thought of trying out radical honesty, but I just don't think people around me can handle it. Radical honesty is where you say everything you think, completely and unfiltered. I'm not sure whether if I did that if I would have any friends at all and it is that ambiguity that keeps me from trying it. You see, down inside, I'm a very coarse and harsh person. Properly filtered, people see me as honest and open, but unfiltered, I think people would see me as too much to handle. It's not that I'm mean, it's just that I more clearly think about the things that other people won't say. I mean what do you say when someone says "isn't my brand new baby so cute and beautiful," when inside I'm thinking "that kid is ugly as a mangy bear, and you look just like him/her." See what I mean, people don't like it when you say things like that, so I don't.

But back to swearing. Remember, swear words are words, and while words have power, that power changes over time. The meanings of words change over time. But they are just words. Cool used to mean cold. Queer used to mean weird. Gay used to mean happy. Cock used to mean rooster. Ass used to mean donkey. Bitch used to mean dog. It's not that big of a deal, personally, some valley girl who uses the word "like" too much is just as annoying as people who use the word "fuck" too much. On the other hand, if you have a broad vocabulary and both like and fuck are put in their place, you have a better chance of being an interesting person to talk to.

Harry Bollocks.