I'm just curious about where you would draw the line between the responsibility of the orator and the responsibility of the audience in deciding what's socially acceptable.
Society, itself, has already established what is acceptable thousands of years ago. The problem today is the moral values that they were based on are diminishing.
"Society", in general, is all-inclusive. From infant to elderly, from angelic to heathenistic. The good, the bad, and the ugly (and the beautiful, too).
Seamus,
You used the terms "orator" and "audience." Within the context of those two terms I feel the responsibility falls directly, 100%, on the oratater (hillbilly language - "ora-tater", = "orator"
) . His target audience is his society. The orator establishes what's acceptable according to his target audience.
How many people are likely to stop reading/listening to someone that is not using profane or vulgar words - versus- how many are likely to do so if profane or vulgar words are being used?
With anywhere from 250,000 to nearly 1 million words in the English language, can we not be as colorful, descriptive, without using 10 or so particular words?
As a more generalized discussion though, at what point in the above would you place the free will of the audience to listen to or read or not listen to and not read things they find objectionable as individuals?
I'd prefer to try to keep within the context of this thread. It is a forum owner's choice to select his target audience and try to choose the best standards to reach that audience.
If I get tired of the language and/or antics that are allowed on a forum that I'm not already established on I simply move on to find one more accommodating. If I like the general philosophy behind the site, most of it's members, and feel that the owner is on the right track I will usually stay & try to help make a difference.
For my part, in theory on the subject of free speech I believe that any view should be allowed to be expressed using any words the individual wants and that it's the responsibility of the audience to decide how much of it they want to expose themselves to.
I guess we all need to ask ourselves,
"What is the purpose of expressing our views?" Mine is usually to try to get people to think, or to try to educate. Coarse language is not an effective tool for that. Now, if I wanted to ridicule or demean someone profanity can be effective, however, I can do the same thing with plenty of other words.
Catch ya later!
HH
