What's up with the swearing?

Maybe it is me growing old and grumpy a tard prematurely, but has anyone else noticed how of late, children as young as five are spewing obsceneties and profanities as if there is no tomorrow? Maybe there is no tomorrow. I just cannot visualise a bright future for mankind when out of every other mouth, flies four letter words guaranteed to make even Captain Haddock blush! With a bit of help from the media, young and old have become proficient in dirty talk and we are not talking of "damn," "drat" or "flip" here; but highly explicit mouth bombs which would not recieve the thumbs up of any half respectable censorship board.


Do not get me wrong, I have been through my fair share of swearing streaks in my life and even now, when severely agitated, I sometimes let slip, a stinker or two. What I know however is that with all my past and present cussing, I do not qualify for even the amateur ranks of the current league. A league where players unashamedly and graphically sing praises to the nether regions of the anatomy as well as substances excreted from the said regions.


What say you kind reader, about the school of thought that vouches for swearing being a healthy and necessary way of venting out otherwise dangerous emotions? Those who subscribe to this line of reasoning feel that if swearing did not exist, there would more cases of people venting out through very physical and violent means. They also argue that non-swearers or once-in-a-blue-moon swearers are merely repressing what is in their heart. In the heart is where the swearing really lies; the mouth is only a handy exhaust outlet to rid your inner being of these poisonous sentiments. One such supporter actually told me that one can always adopt less offensive alternatives such as "shoot" if one really wants to swear while sustaining their "moral" obligations to society. The more extreme say "bugger off" to society and morals, as long as their have their say.


Others paradoxically advocate for foul mouthing as a means of countering swearing. This group argues that words that have been used to hurt and abuse people in the past, can be diluted by frequent use. One such advocate pointed out the example of how some of the black population in America call themselves by the "N" word, hence pulling the racial sting out of the word. Another word that he cited was the "B" word that some women now call each other by. This means any man who resorts to calling a woman by such a name, has another thing coming if he believes that the woman will feel degraded. He was quick to cite as an example, his heroine, Wisconsin politician, Ieshuh Griffin. She went to court to fight for the right to be allowed to write that she is "no white man's B...." on the ballot paper as part of her campaign. This, my "friend" says, is the ultimate victory against profanity.

Please pour in your comments. I for one am not convinced with the first argument. If I need to vent out, I will go and hit a punching bag. The second philosophy of joining them to beat them, is equally unconvincing for me. I say let us rinse our mouths of dirty talk, especially among the young. Hearing a ten year old call someone a douchebag is surely enough to make any stomach churn?