Pointless effing photo...

And for those of you who weren't expecting a photo of literal effing... come on. Haven't you been paying attention? How many times have I already posted photos of mating insects on this blog?

More times than is healthy, no doubt.

Anyway, the photo isn't really the reason for the euphemistic expletive in the post title. This is. And on the off chance that for some reason you can't read the article I've linked to just now, the gist is that a recent study indicates that swearing may actually help increase tolerance to pain.

Who knew? I mean, I knew that swearing was good for an awful lot of things already, but pain tolerance as well? Cool.

And yes, swearing is good for an awful lot of things. Seeing who around you can handle a bit of swearing, for example.

I'll admit, I'm not shy about using the four-letter words. Erm, given the right context, of course. I'm not likely to go that route when I'm leading a group at work, and I don't often use them here on the blog just because... wait. It's not just because. I was going to say something along the lines of just because I know that not everyone's as tolerant of that kind of language as I am, but that's really telling only half of the truth. I don't bother with raw language here (in general, anyway) because I'm perfectly capable of expressing myself without it, and because I know that there are people out there who consider the use of curse words to be an indicator of lack of intelligence or education.

That's bullsh garbage, frankly, but I know that some of you out there think it. The fact is that there are many highly intelligent, highly educated, highly literate people who enjoy throwing in the odd blue note here and there (think Stephen Fry, for example. I doubt that anyone who knows even a little bit about his career could believe that he's incapable of expressing himself without cursing. It's there, though. In a uniquely adverbial sense, often, but it's there). As for me, I'm reasonably intelligent, reasonably educated, and... ok, pretty damned literate. And I like to swear.

Why?

Oh, partly for effect, no doubt. Sometimes the shock value amongst the prudes is entertaining. Partly in camaraderie when I'm around friends who feel the same way about it that I do. And partly, I suppose, as a bit of a linguistic stand. Those of us with one whole university-level course in linguistics can form some pretty dangerous opinions about language, you know.

To be fair to myself, one whole university-level course in linguistics plus a lifetime of interest in language and the way it works. I've done my share of reading over the years, boys and girls, so my opinions about things like swearing haven't just been pulled out of my left ear.

You see (and boy, am I trying to make this a very short summary of a certain school of thought in both linguistics and philosophy) in the world of words the words only have whatever value we put on them. If you choose to be offended by some word or some form of expression, you're the one who chose to be offended. Words only have meanings when we attach meanings to them.

So... does this mean that we should never take exception to the use of curse words or racial slurs or whatever else just because they're only words and names will never hurt me? No, of course not. The words we use do have certain meanings attached to them and certain thoughts understood to underlie their use, and we, as a culture, agree on those thoughts and meanings. For the most part. What I'm trying to say is that I find it massively ridiculous for someone to get all up in arms and be offended if I happen to blurt out shit! in exasperation after I've hit my thumb with a hammer or something.

And besides, I'm much more likely to blurt out bugger. It's a much more well-rounded expletive than shit. In my experience, anyway.




I really should get back to work. Ah well. At least now I know what to do if I find myself in sudden pain from running into something.






And yes, that's been known to happen. Shut up.