There are many clever phrases we use to describe how we act
in or to various situations. One might
claim ‘you cannot see the forest for the trees’ or you ‘Should not stick your
pen in the company inkwell.’
We are all familiar with at least some of these and perhaps
drop one or two in our daily lives.
Words can and are used to provoke a desired response.
For example a preacher rouses a crowd or a politician his
base with words about sin or how the other guy sucks (five-letter word!) These egoists look to gain power or wealth
with their oratory and hold it with words of fear.
But one thing has not changed much in America and that is our use of and
reaction to curse words!
Many people are terribly offended by so-called four letter
words and lump all they dislike into a group known as profanity or obscenity.
But why should four letters strung together offend so
terribly? After all they are just words
and didn’t we all grow up knowing that ‘Stick and stones may break my bones but
words can never harm me?’
Recently I descended into an angry state after listening to
certain politicians from a certain party rail against our current President and
anything he puts forward or suggests for America .
The absurd uncalled for hate spewing from the mouths of
these lesser beings, these undeserving elected officials caused me to snap. I sent out a tweet that described the speaker
as a nasty stinking four-letter word.
I was almost immediately greeted by a prim and proper prissy
individual who replied his or her intent to ‘block me’ if I continued to use
such obscene language.
Aside from the fact that it would mean one less person at my
funeral I was not too upset over losing a ‘follower’ who frankly I did not even
know I had.
But it did bring me to an interesting thought.
In our current ‘gang that couldn’t shoot straight’ world we
seem to constantly focus on the wrong side or part of an issue. That is assuming it’s an issue to begin with!
So I decided to find out what exactly the definition of obscenity
is?
According to the old standard, at least for me in my youth,
the Merriam Webster Dictionary defines obscenity as:
bawdiness, blueness, coarseness, crudeness, crudity, dirt, dirtiness, filth, filthiness, foulness, grossness, impureness, impurity, indecency, lasciviousness, lewdness, nastiness, profanity, raunch, raunchiness, ribaldry, smut, smuttiness, vulgarity, wantonness
Anyone notice a pattern?
All of the synonyms describing obscenity are mainly words describing
a sex act generally considered as taboo by those with mentalities stuck in the Dark
or Middle Ages.
Some of the words are silly by today’s standard and probably
DO come from that time.
I mean how many of you use the word ‘bawdiness’ anymore?
But examine these words under the microscope of the ‘sticks and stones’ adage and think of another even more apropos saying, ‘Actions speak
louder than words’ and you realize how absurd the whole thing is!
So to those of you who feel that a four-letter word is the
most terrible obscene thing the world can endure I offer the following list for
your edification of what obscenity truly is?
- Children going hungry in the richest country in the world
- People forced to work two or three jobs at minimum wage with little or no benefits just to survive
- War
- Blatant racism
- Denying healthcare to anyone not wealthy enough to have their own personal trainer
- Greedy billionaires caring only about getting more money any way they can and at the expense of anyone standing in their way!
- Congressmen or women allowing lobbies to dictate or buy their votes
- Gunmen massacring children (I was going to say innocent children but really that is redundant!)
- Large corporations spoiling our environment with pollution or oil spills then taking out ads telling us how wonderful they are.
- Bankers and Wall Street CEOs causing economic disaster; being bailed out with no strings attached then starting the cycle of bad behavior over again
- Government officials taking bribes to do the bidding of special interest groups
- Large corporations altering our food for personal gain despite the consequences
- Any religious fatwa
- Not helping victims of natural disasters unless you can gain political capital
- Calling yourselves “the party of family values” then not valuing any family except your own.
- Partisan behavior that carelessly blocks all human progress
- Sending our children off to war then ignoring them when they return damaged
- Saying we have separation of Church and State then governing per the Bible
- Disenfranchising voters because they might not vote the way you want them to
- Prejudice against anyone not you!
- Demanding every pregnancy is brought to full term regardless of its origin or the health of the mother then not caring about the baby or child after birth.
- Terrorism
- Discrimination of any kind
- Hypocrisy everywhere but especially in government
- Wealth gaps that increase seemingly forever with ongoing tax breaks
- Ending any social program aimed at helping the most needy of our nation
- Bold faced lies that purposely hurt others for personal gain
There are many more examples of true obscenity and each one
of them is far more destructive to society than any four-letter word could
possibly be.
And that’s the effing
truth!
