What Makes Cussing Bad

The categories:

    All curse words fall into three subjects.

1. Religion
2. Sex
3. Bodily excretion

What is fundamentally wrong with cussing if the words are just a combination of sounds?

    Cussing is not the mere combination of sounds. No one swears who says the words "habitual," "sofa cushion," or "country," even though those words spoken aloud contain cuss words within them, phonemically. So, it really is the intent and denotation of the word that makes it a curse.

How do curse words come about?

    Parents don't want their children speaking of sensitive subjects, the peak of which are the three aforementioned. When parents forbid specific words, the crossing of that line becomes all the more taboo in comparison with other words of the same category deemed less offensive. When this specific prohibition becomes more general and common across a culture rather than just within a family, it reaches a societal homeostasis, and the word reaches an official "bad word" status. I would argue that that is where it enters the lexicon's moral landscape.

Is cussing immoral?

    Yes. The reason this is confusing is because swear words are a moral issue that is actually societally determined. Most moral matters are not. Society could attempt to normalize murder or adultery and codify it into law as acceptable, but because morality is not subjective, we will always intrinsically know they are wrong, unless we abuse our consciences to numbness. It should be noted, however, that that does not make curse words fall into the category of subjective morality merely because they are societally determined. Though anyone might say, "I don't accept that this is wrong," there is a universal recognition within that society that there was a line transgressed, and the individual in question cannot avoid the knowledge that they have transgressed it. Even if placed in a foreign society where no one understood your language, when you cuss, you know you're doing it. And that takes the slightest iota of a toll on the conscience directing one's inward decency.

    Because swearing is societally determined, there are some words that used to be cuss words which are no longer (like crap), there are some that did not use to be cuss words which now are (like calling someone an a**, which used to refer to the animal, but now that it refers to the posterior, it has entered the third category of the three above), and there are some words which are cuss words depending on your region (bloody is a curse in Britain but not America).

    Society is that which has acknowledged certain words as profanities, and that is what makes those words depraved. The truth is in the term: "bad" words. I have asked my students before, "Are bad words bad?" To my shock, they said, "No." I think we've reached a place where the majority of society has imbibed this same delusion to give themselves license to engage in it.

Claim: Cussing doesn't matter.

    Most people today try to act as though cussing doesn't matter. Even the moralist advocates of today often cuss in their talks, from philosophers to conservative pundits to religious leaders. Every example we have before us cusses with regularity, from parents to principals to the president of the United States. But it seems clear that they know it does matter because there is still an effort made to limit children's usage of cussing. Why would there be any objectionability if this were not an issue of morality? Is there a time appointed for this kind of language - namely, adulthood? There is no defensible way to purport that cussing becomes moral at a certain level of maturity. Indeed, I have found to the contrary that stunted maturity correlates with increased bad language.

Claim: Using bad language doesn't hurt anyone.

    My contention is that foul language is not bad for the society, merely. It is bad for the individual. It has a deleterious effect on the psyche. Just as someone can bring their lungs imperceptibly closer to cancer with one cigarette, so can someone bring their probity imperceptibly closer to its end with one curse word. When someone cusses, they send a signal to their subconscious that does the slightest damage to one's scruples. This is a moral act. It is not measurable in the scientific world. That is why people don't believe there is any harm in it. Yet, over a period of time, the effects are clear. How many decent people are known for interspersing profanities between every other word? There is almost an inverse relationship between cussing and decency. Propriety has been flouted in favor of masquerading the expletives as expressions of raw sincerity or "being real." We've seen this in the case of several consecutive presidents now.

What are you so afraid will happen if we cuss?

    The effects of cussing are not immediate. Most think they can continue to use such language and aren't being transformed by it. But that is because it is a slow, imperceptible transformation. That is how all rot works, but this one species of rot is the one being given a pass in our society. The end state of a serial cusser is a lower iteration of their potential self, in integrity. And I believe this extends even to the realm of intelligence. Cussing uses a different circuit board in the brain than language. It is a guttural utterance that zoologists have mapped out in animals as communicating stress or fear. So, for us to use it, we tap into our animal side. Surely the pursuit of decency is to grow in sophistication and civility to the point where we do not tap into our base and animal instincts. That is why we don't condone the practices of pillaging and rape as animals sometimes do.

What do you propose society should do about swear words - make them illegal?

    There should never be a law to prohibit cussing. The right to free speech is much more important. There should be a groundswell movement from the populace that says they don't want profanity to be baked into the culture. Horizontal societal influence is how an ethos is changed, not vertical heteronomic legislation.

Quotes:

    George Washington felt that his army had no right to expect help from heaven if the troops continued to use foul language. He said of cussing, "It is a vice so mean and low without any temptation that every man of sense and character detests and despises it."

    My grandfather was from a more verbally decent era. He always told me, "Profanity is a weak mind expressing itself forcibly."