A Better Today and Tomorrow

Recently I asked someone if I was being a 'bitch'. The person I asked the question of drew my attention to the word I used. I was quite embarrassed; it made me stop and think and I know that I won't be using that word again. In my defense, such that it is and it's no good excuse I know, the word slipped out of my mouth without thinking and I didn't even consider that I was using a harsh or vulgar one. But it is a bad word and words like these, and worse ones, have become so common in today's everyday language that it doesn't carry the weight that it did 20 or 30 years ago. We've become desensitized. I'm as guilty as the next person dammit ... see what I mean.

Heck, I remember my Dad slapping my mouth when I was about 12 years old and didn't want to go to school one day so I fibbed and said that I had a stomach ache and felt 'crappy'. That was a very vulgar word back in the day and unacceptable, especially from a child. Today we hear it all the time from youngsters through to adults, 'it's raining and it's crappy out'. But it's acceptable by modern day language standard.

On YouTube there's a 9 minute clip by George Carlin called The 7 Dirty Words. I've personally never liked George Carlin because of his raunchy way of talking and regular use of harsh / vulgar words, but this clip is perhaps worth watching, if for no other reason than to watch the audience reaction to his presentation. He identified 7 words that are used so much in everyday language today that they are 'almost acceptable'. The audience he presented to thought his presentation was hilarious. Speaking for myself, I didn't laugh. Call me old fashioned, but it made me stop and think.

My thought is that religion and sexuality aren't taken seriously anymore by many people so it doesn't matter if blasphemy and profanity are used on an everyday basis. Words that were sacred words aren't reserved for the church only anymore. Coarse words that describe bodily discharge (and you know the ones) have lost their sting. As have words that describe various body parts.

A lot of today's standard focuses on a new set of taboo words. Racist, sexist and fatist words and terms that insult gender, sexual orientation, the way a person looks or their ethnic identity are far more taboo than they used to be. People in general used the word 'retarded' regularly a number of years ago; children in the playground called their friends that all the time and it was acceptable because it was said in jest. Not so today.

Yet, f**k is ok today and it's heard everywhere you go by men, women and young adults alike. The old taboo words and thinking that went along with it have been replaced with new ones. I hope that I don't live long enough to ever hear a sweet 5 year old ask his mother for a 'G*dd*m' sandwich and society thinks it's perfectly fine for him to talk that way.

In the digital world that includes the use of texting and acronyms, swear words are used without being face to face and because they're not being said out loud, it seems that they're alright to express. I've seen some of them, like 'lmfao' used regularly and without apparent second thought to what is actually being said. It is not a good term, said verbally or otherwise. I don't send or receive text much, am not familiar with the new acronym language and don't care to learn it. The younger generations thinks that I'm old fashioned. Oh well.

It's a new age that we're in, one that is scientifically and technically advanced from 50 years ago. We've been to the moon and back. But, can we really claim to be advanced when our social standards that includes speech pattern and vocabulary have evolved to where everyday self respect has eroded to a crude level? I'm not so sure.

And we, as the so called 'old generation', through example we should try to keep our young generation, our future, from becoming people we don't like much and who won't even like themselves.

Something to think about.