Yest, there are three new books out saying it has never been so peaceful in this world. Statistics show there are major amounts of lower crime rates on things such as family violence, murder, rape and crimes in general.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker says in his book that, “The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.” Pinker wrote a book called “The better angels of our nature! Why violence has declined.” He says we are more educated these days and most of us knw there are consequences to crime.

Battles over land and other trivial things have dropped a thousand fold over the centuries.

Before countries became countries 500 out of every 100,000 people were killed over land.

Since 1973, rapes in the U.S. is reduced by 80% today.

Over the years biotry in the form of racial and homophobia have been being reduced.

When I attended high school for the past 4 years, I couldn’t walk 10 feet down the hallway without hearing someone say, “F*** you.” What was I supposed to do? Place earplugs in my ears on a daily basis to block out these obscene phrases? It gets quite sickening having to listen to other people use swear words on a consistent basis. Now, unfortunately, this doesn’t just happen in high schools. It also happens in the workplace, and it happens often.

The other day, Dr. Phil showcased a couple that had been arguing non-stop in their living room for over an hour. In that time, the “F” word had been yelled over 115 times by both the wife and her husband.

Now, you may find this odd, but to date, I’ve never said out loud any real swear word. In the past, I used to use the words “h***” and “d***”, but nowadays, I find myself more often saying “darn” or “dang.” In addition, I may mentally think about the other swear words, but before I actually say them out loud, my inner voice seems to convey to my brain to impede my speech patterns prior to my mouth opening.

In any case, I’m just sick and tired of hearing profanity. Wherever I go, whatever I do, there always seems to be at least one person who enjoys using the “F” word in every sentence he/she speaks. Whether it’s a construction site, office building or high school, don’t you agree that it’s getting pretty tiresome hearing this obscene vocabulary in our lives? Originally, I thought that profanity didn’t exist prior to the 20th century, but take a look at what I found.

Interesting Facts

• In his famous writings of Hamlet, Henry V and Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare often implied the word “cu**,” making reference to “country matters” and writing lines such as “These be her very c’s, her u’s, and her t’s…”
• Many words now declared as “profanity” were originally designed to insult a particular group of society.
• In books such as “Into Thin Air” (a Grade 12 English non-fiction novel regarding the story of a group of people climbing Mt. Everest), the “F” word is written uncensored over 100 times.
• In a recent British survey regarding offensive words, 32% of respondents stated that the word “cu**” was not profanity, only 16% said that the “S” word was offensive, and a measly 10% thought that “cr**” was very severe.

Now that’s when you know there’s a problem – when only 16% of the surveyed people regarded the “S” word (a word that I personally consider highly offensive) as completely vulgar.

Categorized Profanity

In Steven Pinker’s book about profanity entitled “The Stuff of Thought,” he separates profanity into five different categories, explaining that saying a swear word out loud may not actually be offensive, depending on the context of how it’s said. Here are the five categories and Steven’s interpretation of them.

• Abusive Swearing
• Cathartic Swearing
• Dysphemistic Swearing
• Emphatic Swearing
• Idiomatic Swearing

Abusive Swearing involves being offensive to intimidate or insult others. Example: “F*** you.”

Cathartic Swearing involves stating a swear word in reference to a negative emotion. Example: “F*** this coffee.”

Dysphemistic Swearing involves forcing the listener to think about provocative subject material, often sexually-based content. Example: “He f**** her.”

Emphatic Swearing involves emphasizing an adjective with a swear word, though I’m not sure why you couldn’t just use another word for emphasis. Example: “The building is so f****** big.”

Idiomatic Swearing involves swearing for really no purpose at all. Some people do this in an attempt to arouse interest in an informal setting. Example: “F*** that.”

Closing Remarks

In my opinion, I don’t really care what type of category the swearing falls into. The words themselves are the problem – not the context in which they are used. Instead of using the “F” word in reference to sex, just use the word “sex” itself. An alternative to saying, “I’m going to f*** my girlfriend tonight,” would be simply, “I’m going to have sex with my girlfriend tonight.” Both phrases have the same meaning, but one uses an offensive word, whilst the other does not.

I tend to think of profanity as a drug, except not a physical drug but a mental one instead. Of all the people I’ve known since elementary school, as soon as they began swearing, they couldn’t stop. The “F” word would come out of their mouths every sentence or two – it just became a habit; an addiction. And the worst part is that they’ve swore so many times that it just comes naturally to them, and as such, they don’t view profanity as offensive. I had many good friends in my elementary school days, but as soon as they hit Grade 9, out came the “F” and “S” words left, right and center. Bad choice of friends? Swearing parents? Whatever the case, I didn’t like their change in lifestyle.

Do you ever swear? Do you find it offensive? Do you think society in general is slowly degrading because of profanity? And why do you think people become involved in using profanity on a daily basis?

Read More:

• Safe-Haven Law: Method of Psychological Abuse to Children of Complete Awareness of Their Surroundings
• Does Age Play a Factor in the Value of a Person’s Life?
• Word Abbreviations: Learning the Online Language
• A Complete Failure of the “No Fail” High School Policy
• Respecting a Teacher: It DOES Have an Impact on Your Life

This higher value or human dignity is what we strive to define. Steven Pinker is right when he says dignity has no specific definition – just like autonomy or respect. But when those principles or concepts are applied to the human person, it takes on a whole new meaning that cannot be simply ignored. I think Pope Pius defines Human Dignity (McDonough Page 18-20) as something that is inherently a person’s God-given inalienable rights that deserves to be protected by Government and promoted by the community. Human dignity is in itself enshrined as the corner stone of society from the very beginning as ordained by God through creation and later through his covenants with the people. Thus all social institutions, governments, states, laws, human rights and respect for persons originate in the dignity of man or his personhood. Thus his dignity serves to be the “foundation, cause and end of all social institutions”(McDonough pg 21).

So to say that dignity is too ambiguous and does not factor into science or medical ethic is foolish and has no social or religious basis for such a claim. The use of the word Human Dignity in bioethical, medical and scientific community is not some secret sectarian agenda and it is not certainly a vague topic such as “human rights.” But if human dignity is not a principle that we can use – then what is? Do we treat an animal on a same level as a human being? If you have any common sense, you can see human beings are not treated as “animals” but with a certain stateliness that is different from other living creations which is essentially the concept of Human Dignity at work or “a property that supposed to belong to all people, in every condition, just by virtue of their humanity.” Thus the reason why a homeless person is not kicked out of society and driven out like an animal or the reason why a helpless patient or a person in vegetative state is not left to die in painful or inhumane way. We human beings, without having to define it, inherently from our birth have a sense of greater affinity, respect and stateliness towards other human beings, perhaps a God-given sense of dignity as human beings towards others. There are some thing we just would not do as humans to other human beings and those who do those things are considered “animals” or inhumane and treated likewise. So no, human dignity is not a matter of definitions or a highly fanciful non-scientific argument. It is an inalienable God given right that plays a role in ethical and social principles on the merit of a person’s humanity and defines all social institutions based on that dignity.