We're in a strange time right now where the lack of respect for others has grown into an ugly malignancy that threatens our society.
It started a long time ago. The struggle has always been there. Little lyrics looped into songs to push the agenda talk about the gentle curve of something without ever saying it. As the edge got pushed further out they got worse. A very popular rock song that I remember that really pushed hard on the edge was If You See Kay. I forget who sang it but it was a hot song on the radio is because it pushed that image and got the F word out there on the radio. Openly.
Wrappers push that edge hard, then bend and break it over and over and over. The repeated use of the N-word with the defense that "I'm black so I can say this" is saddening as much as it's maddening. Songs that say the word shutting within an "I" instead of the "u" and then the smiling smirk when they get interviewed about it shock people and make it more more acceptable.
Social media doesn't help. "Oh my God" got shortened to OMG. To put more emphasis on it it became OMFG. I've only seen JFC a couple times but it is out there. And the things that people put in comments are just incredibly disrespectful. I remember one that I saw where somebody commenting on somebody else's opinion and it was obvious that they did not know each other but this person had stumbled across them online talk about the author's mother's vagina. Where is any shred of respect in that?
Books have come out in the past few years like "Shit my father said" that got turned into a TV show if I remember right. F the world. Shut the F up. The Art of not giving an F.
The F bomb is one of the most prevalent edge pushers out there. It's used in conversations and kids say it to try and feel more adult like. I have used the word way too often and have worked hard to reduce and minimize that use. One of the most beautiful acts between a man and a woman reduced to a comment meant to wound and shock becomes more and more minimized the more easy it is used.
Now headlines on prominent news websites use F*** openly.
All of this seems to bow down to the general low level of respect and self-control being exercised by people. The use of all these things in the pushing of the edge and obliterating of the line in the name of freedom of expression fit right in with the neo-barbarian view of the world and what I call the new American slogan: don't get in my way.
We've come a long way since that artist put a Christian cross in a jar of urine and called it "Piss Christ". I'm almost afraid of what the neo-Puritans will do when the pendulum swings the other way.
We'll see...
