5 ms·
This is basically right. The words are taboo because it's useful to have taboo words, so the culture deliberately makes them so. Taboo words are useful because
by mechanical_fish 19y ago
This is basically right. The words are taboo because it's useful to have taboo words, so the culture deliberately makes them so.
Taboo words are useful because they transcend politeness. If a normally civil person comes into your dinner party and tells you that the fucking ceiling is about to fall down, you get moving. You don't waste time looking around for the ironic smile. You don't reproach the person for speaking out of turn.
But it goes beyond simple cultural coding. The neurologists say that there's a physiological basis for swearing: the brain is wired to do so under certain conditions. Under extreme or sudden distress, swearing helps us cope, and the reverse is probably also true: swearing helps to work you into a rage or a panic. That's one very good reason why we tell kids not to swear and correct them when they do: It's a way of calming them down, and of teaching them to be calm, and of encouraging them to reserve their moments of adrenaline-surging fury for appropriate times.
- sehansen 19y agoMy parents always told me not to swear, because if I did, I wouldn't have anything to say when I got hurt. So whenever I cut my finger or anything like that, I would make sure to swear as much as could. :)
- snorfys 18y agoGenius.
- comatose_kid 19y agoInteresting. So I wonder if exceptions are the programming language analogue of swearing?
- pg 19y agoThey are certainly highly correlated.
- mechanical_fish 19y agoNow that is insightful. I think you're saying that, when a program gets into an unstable state of stress and confusion, it throws exceptions... and vice versa. I could buy that.
- eru 19y agoPython swears a lot.
- seethefnords 19y agoNullFuckingPointerException.
- bobhyman 19y agoThe spectrum of motivations for the pressure we put on kids to not "swear" includes "being polite" and "being polite" is related to communication skill. There is a quote attributed to Mark Twain which equates politeness with something which prevents people at the dinner table from killing each other.
- mrclark411 19y agoWell said.