"Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly." - Spencer W. Kimball
Here's what I have to say about this:
The use of profanity is an effort to thrust one's angst, anger or incredulity on another person. It is an attack, in the same sense and motivated by the same intent as physical violence, but it is a mental attack and leaves no visible wounds. Like physical violence, the degree of malevolence with which one uses profanity may be as serious as physical punches or as indiscreet as intimidating gestures or actions. And the damage and hurt are no less real for profanity than they are for violence. The extent of the hurt is impossible to determine because people can become so calloused to vulgar language that what eventually comes to feel like a nudge on the shoulder to some is a slap on the face to those who have not become so desensitized. Is, then, desensitization to foul language a virtue? Is it the solution? No, because it would never last -- desensitization defeats the purpose of the profaner. No one who uses vulgar language wishes for an audience that "doesn't care." Crude speech is an attempt by the author to expose to his recipient's mind whatever ugly, revolting or shocking images he can in his feebleness afford. If society, which gives meaning to words, or a select group of individuals begin to redefine or tolerate profane words so that they no longer have such a strong impact the profaners will only augment their putrid vocabulary. One need not venture further than a local high school to witness this dynamic succession.
Insensitivity to profanity isn't the ability of a higher intellect to separate inkblots from emotions. Insensitivity to profanity occurs only when one stops caring about those things being profaned by the vulgar use of the words that represent them and about the people perpetrating the vulgar language. Why is "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain" such an important mandate in the Judeo-Christian faiths? It is at least in part because in order to be able to profane their Creator's name they cannot hold the respect and love that such a one surely deserves, and in the act of profaning they further distance themselves from him. Why do so many vulgar words stem from the most sacred or the most revolting aspects of life? Because those things evoke the most emotion. It is not the weakness of the offended listener to be upset by the images and feelings such slander produces. It is the weakness of the profaner to be so far detached emotionally from these things that they no longer have any impact upon him. Control over one's emotions produces freedom, suppression of one's emotions makes life meaningless.
And if we do not wish to require the extermination of emotion -- what then should we do about those who recklessly endeavor to attack our sensitivities because they can find no better way to express themselves? No civilized society permits their citizens to recklessly employ physical violence to communicate their emotions. Why then should any society tolerate similarly violent mental abuse? The United States of America does not. As outlined by law and demonstrated in several US Supreme Court cases, "the First and Fourteenth Amendments have never been thought to give absolute protection to every individual to speak whenever or wherever he pleases, or to use any form of address in any circumstances that he chooses." (John Marshall Harlan, US Supreme Court Justice, "Cohen v. California") The US Constitution provides no protection to several uses of speech, including libel (slander), "fighting words" and obscenities. In 1978, for example, the US Supreme Court upheld the Federal Communications Commission (a government agency) in "FCC v. Pacifica Foundation" in its right to censor programs like one radio broadcast entitled "Filthy Words". In response to the suggestion that those offended by foul language should remove themselves from the situation, Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justice Rehnquist and Chief Justice Burger, explained: "To say that one may avoid further offense by turning off the radio when he hears indecent language is like saying that the remedy for an assault is to run away after the first blow." If the Constitution provides for government agencies to censor the inappropriate and aggressive use of language on public radio waves, how much more appropriate is it that we be allowed to do even more in a private institution? Justices Powell and Blackman, concurring with the Court's decision, also said: "the language employed [was], to most people, vulgar and offensive. It was chosen specifically for this quality, and it was repeated over and over as a sort of verbal shock treatment."
I didn't come here for shock treatment (though after seeing the length of this post some of you might think that's what I need...
) and I didn't come here to be assaulted by the careless, malevolent or calloused minds of those employing a putrid and a lazy vocabulary. Fortunately for me, the forum conditions we all agreed to say the same thing.