Right Speech

I have been brought up to not to swear and use foul languages, in any language/dialect. Period. And I have largely stayed true to that aspect of oral/verbal “hygience”, until I came to the US that is. Lest you think I’ve since become profanity prone, I would hasten to add that I’ve only picked up the tendency to speak the “s” word, but in self cursing only, and not within the earshot of my family.

While the Internet has been touted as the level playing field, it has also proved to be a fertile ground for verbal excesses: expletive-laden blogs and commentaries. The cloak of anonymity has emboldened many an unprintable utterances that would not have seen the light of the day under normal circumstances. Even those whose identities are public knowledge fail to sanitize their rantings, justifying them on the misguided notion that they are being true to themselves.

From an individual perspective, this may seem perfectly legit, to borrow a cliché. But we surely do not live alone. And monologues are no fun, except during the first few minutes of nightly talk shows. But even those are made in front of a live audience and beamed worldwide.

Especially for those who regularly make the Internet as their platform for all things personal, a moment of indignation, indiscretion, youthful exuberance, of self expression is forever public knowledge once the “published” key is pressed.

Episodes of past transgressions, which may seem perfectly innocuous, or in vogue, at the time, coming back to haunt the later careers of the “perpetrators”, be it in the political arena, in the show business, in the beauty pageant, or even in the haloed ground of the academia, abound.

While that may seem as a notable deterrent to bad-mouthing in all its form, it’s nothing more than self-preservation. Nor is clinging to the notion of freedom of expression and its corollary that “if you don’t like what you see/hear, exercise your freedom to turn it off,” as aptly opined below, proves extenuating:

“Because I’m a journalist, who is dedicated to freedom of speech. And because I am a former college professor, who is dedicated to academic freedom, I have no serious problem with Imus’ epithet. … If you detested the I-man’s cranky quips, you could grab the remote. Those of us who love freedom of speech grab the remote for one reason or another all the time. … Let’s keep it real: Black people have a double standard regarding who can and who cannot insult us. Blacks can. Whites and others cannot. … Until we, black people, stop insulting and abusing ourselves, we are fair game for others to insult and abuse us. We have only ourselves to blame for the mainstreaming of “nappy-headed hos.”
-- “Black critics of Imus are hypocrites”, Bill Maxwell, Opinion, St. Petersburg Times, April 15, 2007.

I would like to go one step further, to totally refrain from such oral/verbal indulgences, which are really what they are, because they are intrinsically bad, they are hurtful, both to the beloved and to the begrudged. And that should include all our sphere of activity in blogosphere and more so in our daily lives.

It has no downside: one sends the message of displeasure, backed by rational arguments with manifest decorum; the reader receives the message with clarity, not detracted by verbosity including vulgarities that add nothing to the message other than perhaps a false sense of being in control, and one is remembered for upholding social etiquette. Respect, which is becoming a rare trait these days, begets mutual respect. But it starts from everyone of us, and radiates out. So watch your decorum, both in public and in the private moments.

For my part, the "s" word is now permanently banished from my vocabulary. What about you?