It is instructional to consider those people who refuse to swear in court on a Bible because, they say, swearing on the Bible is forbidden in the Gospel of Matthew. Presumably anyone who firmly follows everything in Matthew is not about to commit perjury anyway. Refusing to swear for sound scriptural and legal reasons is a right, I would imagine. But this is not the same kind of swearing that is rousing the attention of lawyers, activists and others in recent days. Fuck no.
Victorians are facing the prospect of receiving on-the-spot fines for swearing in public. It's hard to believe that this is happening in the same city that has the world's biggest comedy festival.
Why do people swear? 'Buggered if I know' is a normal response. For some it is an outlet, a safety valve for frustration or annoyance. A swear word can emphasise a point in discussion, but is a poor instrument in rhetoric. In the hands of a skilled orator though it can clinch the argument. Observe Billy Connolly on a good day. The rest of us are not Billy Connolly, but still he demonstrates that timing is crucial.
Australian comedy has always thrived on the swear word, be it for cheap laughs or satirical demolition. As any joker will tell you, if laughter is your market you will try every sales strategy.
I sometimes catch the train known affectionately by its customers in Melbourne as 'the effing Epping' and there is nothing more tiresome than overhearing late-night conversation on that train where every third word is one of the Big Three: B, F, or S. This is not conversation, but a certain state of mind. It shows not so much a paucity of vocabulary — the talkers are every day exposed to the riches of English — as a combination of low expectations and sheer verbal laziness. The gift of language has been traded for a mess of pottage.
Not that we want to judge their talk. Such speakers seem to have forgotten they are even using swear words. They are, in fact, the first and easiest targets of language police with the power to inflict on-the-spot fines.
The problems escalate once we meet a main cause for swearing: anger. Swearing warns that we are nearing the short fuse, the ballistic broadcast, the imminent four-act play in five minutes. Saint Paul, among others, entreats us to be slow to anger, but