Journal: Profanity and the Public Airwaves

Reading through the postings on the recent FCC story about regulating profanity one might have thought by the vitriolity of the messages that something really awful was happening. In fact, what everyone is calling censorship is not even close to that. It's also quite amusing that while people were ranting about censorship anyone who took an opposing view was modded into oblivion and suffered some very crass remarks.

The airwaves, I will remind you, are public. And just like in any public space we need to modulate ourselves, maintain a modicum of decency and mutual respect. I know there are those out there (apparently they all post on Slashdot) who will accept no limits, but anyone who has made it past adolescence can see the value of limiting friction in social situations. Choosing to make others uncomfortable is a sign of either immaturity or of pathological behavior. The airwaves are a public commons and enforcing a little decency is not the end of the world.

Indeed, for all those who claim that these words are "part of everyday language" I will refute that. Quite a while ago I had the realization that swearing was something that was inifnitely more fun to do than to listen to. I decided to stop. Like giving up any addiction it was difficult at first and then after a while I became amazed when I realized that there are so many people out there who are unable to express themselves without swearing. It may indeed be part of the vernacular but it is without a doubt an artless way to speak or communicate. In fact some people are simply unable to speak without interjecting the F word in at every opportunity. The funny thing is, it's used so much that it has lost any real communicative effect it might have had and it simply remains as a sharp, ugly blow to the ear.

In the end I don't really like seeing the FCC pulling a Hayes commission type of move on Howard Stern, yet I feel it so very difficult to get worked up in his defense. I listened to Stern once or twice and realized that his kind of damage was not for me so I simply tuned out, which is what I gather I am supposed to do. I voted with my absence. The bummer about that is that if it continues to get worse it leaves the airwaves devoid of anything that I and other people like me can listen to or view, and the public space has effectively been taken over by bullies. The very same types of people that would harrass you as you try to enjoy a public park.

True censorship is a heinous thing and if the FCC is really doing this because it disagrees with some things Howard Stern said then I am totally against that, but for crying out loud why does everything have to go to its lowest form in the name of freedom? Why don't people get as worked up when we aren't living up to our best as individuals, reaching for loftier goals, than when they feel their right to be crude and crass is threatened?