Friday, May 15, 2015

Soap and water

It wasn't all that long ago that swearing was considered highly offensive. Now it seems this is changing. Some words that a few years back were considered to be expletives have now come into common usage.

It's fitting that Amanda Dunn observes that some newspapers have a more liberal attitude to swearing than others. Without naming names, The Age, in which this article was printed, clearly has a liberal policy towards printing profanity.

If this reflects changing societal attitudes, then I would suggest that it is also reflected in the lack of courtesy and respect that some people show to others these days.

Think of people who don't even apologise when they accidentally bump someone in public, or don't wait for passengers to alight from a train carriage before they get on it, don't bother to reply to invitations to events or turn up to them late, and using text messages to communicate with someone rather than talking with them directly if the subject matter is difficult.

Either these problems are becoming worse, or I'm becoming more aware of them as I get older. Whatever the case, it's something to ponder.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/why-theres-more-fing-profanity-these-days-20150515-gh1mgu

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